This year FinnFest was again a gathering place for artists, scholars, politicians, and community members from the U.S. and Finland to experience Nordic, Sámi, and Native American culture in the region and beyond. Held at the end of July, about 2,000 people came together in Duluth for a weekend of Finnish American festivities. And, of course, folk art and music!
Our Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest project played a small role in this year’s FinnFest and had the pleasure of partnering with FinnFest to bring six artists to Duluth. Through demonstrations and on-stage interviews, the artists shared their work and process with attendees. This year, we were lucky to work with some old friends—specifically artists who we had partnered with during our 2018 field school and our 2019 summer documentation—and new friends like Kara Oikarinen and Derek Brabender.
Derek Brabender from Stoughton, Wisconsin, is an artisan green woodworker working especially with bowls and spoons. Derek brought with him to Duluth a pole lathe and spent the weekend chatting with attendees, demonstrating bowl turning, and even axing out a couple of spoon blanks and then carving on stage. It is one thing to see the finished product, it is quite another to see a piece of greenwood transform into a spoon or a bowl over the course of conversation (or weekend).
Lorri Oikarinen from Calumet, Michigan, is a rag rug weaver, rug braider, and teacher of traditional textile arts. She discussed her work and previous apprenticeships under one of the foremost Finnish rag rug weavers in the Midwest, Anna Lassila. She and her daughter Kara Oikarinen, brought their looms and demonstrated their weaving and braiding in the tori. Lorri draws inspiration from using recycled fabrics to make beautiful and useful textiles. She discussed how she enjoys the challenge of working with rags as a rag weaver’s palette is always changing, and recycling is an important aspect of responsible stewardship of our natural environment. By continuing these traditions, she honors the work of generations of women, who with little means, created works of art as part of their everyday lives. Kara recalled memories of learning to prepare materials with her mother and later enjoying the quiet focus of weaving and braiding in her company. Kara told audiences how for her, the importance of weaving is in the doing, the time spent with her mother, and the effort that the completed rugs represent.
Taylor Johnson grew up on a Wisconsin farm where woodworking was woven into the cultural fabric of his life. Together with his father, Monroe Johnson, he traveled to Norway where the two were inspired by the intricate woodcarvings adorning historic buildings and churches throughout the country. Today, after decades of learning and working and practicing his craft, Taylor spends his retirement in Cashton, Wisconsin, devoted to acanthus carving. In Duluth, he demonstrated the beauty and intricacy of the craft with kubbestols, trunks, benches, and ale bowls while also discussing the strong familial and community ties that bind him to his art.
While with us in Duluth, Taylor did have an entry at the 2024 National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibition at Vesterheim in Decorah, Iowa. Taylor received an Honorable Mention for his Acanthus-carved Kubbestol!
Carole Spelić is an artist trained in New York state who lived in Manhattan for 17 years, working as assistant coordinator for the state university system’s Studio Semester in New York program. Having retired from the University of Wisconsin–Plateville, where she was a Senior Lecturer in Art (and also having retired from Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, where she served as the Program Director), she is now enjoying life as a full-time artist, musician, workshop leader, and gallerist. Carole is an accomplished fiber artist, who displayed a wide array of ragrugs. In addition, and as you can see pictured, she is also incredibly skilled in the art of rya weaving. Rya weaving is a traditional Scandinavian technique that results in beautiful handknotted pile rugs or wall hangings. In fact, while discussing her work with follorist Mirva Johnson, Carole noted the importance of recognizing the artistry of rya weaving and that they can (and should!) be displayed as works of art. We were lucky to have Carole in Duluth, especially considering she made the drive from southern Wisconsin after a gig with her band the night before.
Alan Anderson, an accomplished woodworker, joined us from Baraboo. Alan comes from a family of artists and craftspeople and since his retirement has developed his skills and artistic practice in woodworking and furniture making. His woodworking draws specifically from his Swedish heritage and he turns bowls from green wood, carves ale bowls, makes steam-bent svep boxes and trays, plays with shrink box design and continues to develop his own approach to the dynamic tradition of Scandinavian woodworking. In Duluth, Alan showed a variety of recently carved pieces, as well as some older pieces from his collection. In addition, he presented on his process and discussed his philosophy of creativity and the necessity of fun in creating and carving.
It wasn’t all just woodworking and fiber arts though! This year, with a little help from the First Lutheran Church in Duluth, we hosted a pulla baking workshop and showcase. On the first day of the festival, Thomas DuBois and Beatrice Ojakangas gathered pulla bakers and community members in the basement of First Lutheran. Featuring discussion of Ojakangas’ famous Finnish-American cookbook and her personal history with baking, attendees even had the opportunity to sample her pulla. In addition, community members brought in their own pulla for sampling by attendees, which was a real treat. Tom and Beatrice were later joined by Hanna Snellman for a panel discussion on pulla baking as part of FinnFest’s program.
Check out some of the local news coverage of FinnFest from CBS Minnesota and the Duluth News Tribune!
And, of course, check in with FinnFest USA’s Facebook page to keep up-to-date on next year’s festivities.
As always, we want to thank everyone who helped out with this, including Marcus Cederström, Tom DuBois, Mirva Johnson, Jim Leary, and Jason Schroeder. Anna Rue and Erin Teksten were not with us in Duluth, but played an important role in making sure everything went smoothly.