Altra Federal Credit Union: 2023 Artspire Artist Award Winners
Cash Awards: $1000 First Place, $500 Second Place, 2-$100 Merit Art Awards
The 2023 Artspire Artist Awards were sponsored by
Altra Federal Credit Union.
Altra Federal Credit Union Artist Award winners were selected by a panel of jurors. Judging was based on representative artwork displayed in the booths. Jurors considered originality, quality, and presentation.
Kate Bauman, Ceramics
Altra Artist Award First Place Winner $1000 Cash Award
Ann Solyst, Paintings & Illustrations
Altra Artist Award Second Place Winner $500 Cash Award
Edward Burgess
Altra Artist Award Merit Winner $100 Cash Award
Ed Bauman
Altra Artist Award Merit Winner $100 Cash Award
2023 Fine Art Fair & Sale Vendors
The Fine Art Fair will be located on King Street in front of the Pump House
Amanda Langer
Amanda’s work explores the dynamic relationships between like and dislike materials. Her work speaks to tension and grace within and around the relationships in our lives, between people, and within the individual.
Andy & Jolene Rasmussen
Rasmussen Glass
The Rasmussens create fused glass art to reflect the vibrancy found all around us. By combining color, texture and visual depth we develop designs that are decorative and functional for the home. Many of their pieces involve custom murrini glass created in small batches in their studio.
Ann Prey
Ann Prey Jewelry
Ann’s work involves a variety of technical expressions. Hand formed and fabricated w/ a myriad of metals, semi-precious stones & pearls. Each piece is finished w/ an enameled embellishment at the closure that defines Ann’s work
Ann Solyst
The imaginary animals Ann draws look quite natural. Her sensitive use of pastel and subdued palette suggest wildlife illustration, not fantasy drawing, and it often takes a second look to notice the fantastic hidden among the ordinary.
Ashley Neary
Red Lantern Leatherworks
Ashley finds meaning & value in creating pieces of strength, timelessness, & durability- an island in an ocean of fast & cheap fashion. Ashley works from whole cow hides & uses every square inch in creating lifetime wardrobe piece.
Ashlin Bowyer
The Wild Mint Co.
The Wild Mint Co. has a wide variety of handmade macramé items ranging from wall hangings to an assortment of hanging baskets. Utilizing natural cotton string, carefully crafted items will bring a bit of handmade joy into everyday life with artisan quality, modern colors, and unique patterning.
Beki Biesterfelt
Beki’s Custom Sewing
Beki’s creative process incorporates pre and post consumer fabric and fiber waste into wearable art and items for the home. Techniques used: natural dyeing, botanical printing with windfall leaves, boro stitching, braiding, beading, and felting.
Birdie McBride
Lake Superior Drift Co.
This collection was created to immortalize Lake Superior’s most enchanting masterpieces: driftwood. With hand-picked driftwood, stones, birch bark and other found objects, the McBrides create wall art, hanging art, and mosaics. Most of the collection is created with outdoor living in mind, while some pieces are more fragile and meant for inside.
Casey Bennett
Animal portraiture done in charcoal and oils in a classical realism style. Artwork featuring pets, horses, sporting animals, and farm animals.
Constance W-Thompson
Constance Jewelry Design
Constance creates one-of-a-kind art jewelry using sterling, fine silver, brass, semi-precious stones, and miscellaneous and found materials. The artist has also incorporated leather, paper, resin, bone, stones, wood, and glass with sterling silver, fine silver, and other metals into works.
Cynthia Stuhr
CindyreeArts
Cynthia is a fluid artist using both acrylic and alcohol inks to create one of a kind fluid abstracts. Besides wood panels and canvas, pieces are made by painting on tiles, small wooden boxes, resin charcuterie boards and trinket trays.
DeeDee Draz-Barreras
DeeDee Draz Art
DeeDee works in both acrylic & watercolor/mixed media and likes to show both styles. DeeDee has a deep connection with Spirituality and is inspired by Fae & Fauna which seem to always weave their way into DeeDee’s art.
David Taylor
House Hike Photography
David is an aerial landscape photographer! His artwork has been showcased all over the world including Greece, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. His work focuses on the beauty of the world all around us. David loves to show off unique perspectives that normally only the birds get to see.
Desiree Edge
DesArtDesigns
Desiree draws inspiration from Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, with their bright colors to attract the onlooker being a major influence of what the the artist was drawn to. The artist tries to find retro objects from the 80’s and create a look that emulates the pop art style.
Ed Bauman
Wooden Things and More
Ed Bauman makes functional and aesthetic items from native woods that are sustainably harvested, primarily on the artist’s farm, using various species of woods in an appealing manner. The artist’s goal is to produce items that are both functional and become keepsakes for buyers.
Edward Burgess
Waldona
Pieces featured are from a fantasy series detailing the art, culture and landscape of a fictional country called Waldona. It is a land that is designed as much as possible to seem like it could fit into our ordinary world. Waldonan Style is designed to be distinct from the real cultures of our world, yet have the feel of a real set of traditions.
Ella Rippley-Twidt
Rippley Pottery
Ella’s creative process starts with weighing out the clay and wedging it. Small differences can be seen in each piece. The bottom of each piece is cleaned with the artist’s fingers or a foot is trimmed. After the glaze fire is done it’s like Christmas morning in the artist’s studio!
Jarred Pfeiffer
Jarred Pfeiffer Ceramics
Jarred makes both porcelain and stoneware functional ceramic work and enjoys making complicated forms like teapots, mugs, bowls and cups. Most of the artist’s work is wood fired for 40, requiring constant attention. All of the work is food safe, dishwasher safe, and microwave safe. Even after 10+ years and they are still in perfect condition.
Jason Kiley
One Eyed Cat Crafts
One Eyed Cat Crafts puts the “Fun” in “Functional Ceramics”. Each item is hand crafted with care and an eye for quality. The designs found on the work are what set aside the artist from others. Jason puts together imagery that is a throwback to the collector cups of the 80’s.
Jason Stuempges
Jason Ray Photography
The artist’s work reflects a love of the outdoors and the often subtle beauty that exists. For Jason, landscape photography is about taking time to appreciate the world around us. Life can be hectic, but photography always finds a way to center the artist. Jason’s hope is for others to take time to appreciate it as well.
Jenna Hestekin
The Cozy Red
Animals are Jenna’s inspiration, they’ve always been an important part of the artist’s life. Jenna create’s drawings that convey the individual nuances and personalities of each animal in extreme detail, right down to individual hairs on their faces.
Jessica Curning-Kuenzi
Curning Jewelry
Jessica creates one of a kind chain maille jewelry using 100% stainless steel rings woven together one by one. The artist adds different sized rings, tiny chains, natural stones (some wire wrapped) and/or Swarovski crystals to create a original statement piece.
Joan Myers
Created 2 Give
Created locally in the heart of the Driftless, Joan create’s stoneware pottery that is both functional and beautiful. Thoughtful design allows charcuterie boards to become hanging wall art when not in use and wine chillers can also be a vase or utensil holder.
Johanna Moldenhauer
Johanna Moldenhauer Art
Botanical and other natural inspired elements have deep roots in the artist’s work. Typically, Johanna forages many real flowers and leaves for impressions in the clay, and then use glazes to bring out muted colors within the pieces.
Kate Bauman
Kate Bauman Arts
Kate works with clay as a medium for sculptural forms and functional pottery. As a sculptor, Kate is interested in interior structures, matrices, and repeated elements. As a potter, the artist enjoys a variety of forms and exploring how pieces hold volume, have balance, and attract visual interest through structure and surface.
Kelly Leibold
KellyLsInspirations
The artist has been recreating furbies since 2020. Most of Kelly’s works are furby-themed, using faux fur and patterned cottons.
Lake Garren
Lustrous Beaded Creations by Lake
Beadwoven jewelry that is eye-catching for both casual use & sophisticated outfits. For the artist, beadweaving is a slow, solitary, and meditative creative process. The emerging geometric patterns and sculptures explore the potential of beads as a vibrant medium.
Lori Hungerholt
Root River Baskets
Root River Baskets can be described as functional art. Working with all the amazing colors and discovering new shapes is all the inspiration needed in continuing this artist’s work. Each coiled rope basket has an attached stone with a NATURAL hole that was found along the rock bars of the Root River in MN.
Lynda Wallis
Bracelet Luv
The artist hand weaves leather wrap bracelets using a wide variety of unique beads. The bracelets and their components become memory joggers for so many people. Lynda loves the stories shared by folks who visit the Bracelet Luv booth and the storytelling part of participating in art shows.
Lynn Dolezel
Fieldstone Terrace Handmade Jewelry
Fieldstone Terrace is handmade jewelry created with artful blends of glass, metal & gemstone. The artist finds inspiration in the colors, textures, shapes & patterns of gemstones. Lynn is passionate about collecting beautiful semiprecious stone beads and focal stones, plus other components to complement their natural beauty.
Madeline Allen
Meadow & Mae
Meadow & Mae offers lightweight, hypoallergenic polymer clay earrings, with an emphasis on statement pieces. Every pair is extremely wearable and easy on your ears, so you can rock a big, funky silhouette without any tugging or pulling. You’ll see a lot of variety within the artist’s designs, but Madeline especially loves working with bright colors and abstract shapes and patterns!
Marcia Newquist
Creative Jewelry by Marcia
Marcia designs jewelry to create unique pieces that are made with quality materials and workmanship. When creating her pendants and focal pieces, she works with metals, clay, stones, and vintage pieces.
Mariella TerBeest-Schladweiler
Helen’s Daughters Handbags
The artist designs and constructs upholstery fabric handbags. Mariella’s “design aim” is to adorn them with unexpected details. The artist works with color, pattern and blends a combination of fabrics, which develops into a unique look for the handbag.
Mark Hanson
Mark Handson Woodcarving
Each piece of wood is unique and Mark tries to bring out it’s natural beauty that is lying within. The artist often sits with a chunk of wood for several weeks studying it, trying to figure out what would be the best way to showcase it.
Maryann & Rick Frietsche
Silver Studio Jewelry Artists
The artists are inspired by beautiful semi-precious stones. Their contemporary designs feature one-of-a-kind stones and sterling silver occasionally including 14k gold. They design pendants, earrings, rings, and bracelets, each one of them handcrafted by the artists in their studio.
Michael Klen
Mike Klen Caricatures
Michael studies the subjects face picking, choosing and editing what makes them look like them. The artist draws with Charpak Marker and colors with Prismacolor Color Stix. During the drawing process the artist will talk with the person to understand their personality and incorporate it into the sketch.
Peter Mutschler
PJM Image
Pete Mutschler creates original photographs of familiar subjects in unique ways. His work includes a great variety of images. Pete has a passion for everything related to photography and strives to create images that touch the viewer’s emotions.
Phyllis Martino
Phyllis Martino Fine Art
Inspired by the images around the Mississippi Valley Region, Phyllis is most interested in capturing the quality of light and how it effects the subject. The artist is a representational painter and has recently been enjoying combining the transparency of watercolors with the rich opacity of oil pastels.
Rachel Hoscheit
Fox & Fern Designs
Rachel uses copper electroforming, which uses a chemical bath and electricity to “grow” pure copper on the surface of real botanical specimens, genuine crystals and gemstones, and hand-sculpted clay elements. This process allows the artist to preserve ephemeral pieces of nature and make them last a lifetime.
Raina Thelen
Driftless Enchantments LLC
Driftless Enchantments is the creative melting pot of endlessly-curious artist & maker Raina Thelen. Raina works in many mediums to create a wide array of sparkling, shining items: fine & abstract nature-inspired artwork, functional artwork, and flashy statement jewelry to take a bit of art with you wherever you go.
Shanna McCann
Simple Soaps For Simple Folks, LLC
Handcrafted, cold-process goat milk soaps created in artisan batches to preserve quality & craftsmanship by using certified organic base oils, the artist’s goats’ milk, & unique, molded shapes.
Shannon Meinking
S. Meinking Studio LLC
Abstract floral landscape oil paintings with soft colorways and textures are the artist’s specialty. Each one is different but they all focus on the artist’s love for the sky.
Sharon Cherney
Natterjacks
All of the bags are the artist’s original design. Each bag is hand cut and machine stitched. Many of the pieces are decorated with trapunto, cut work applique or embroidery.
Sheryl Rupprecht
Sheryl Dreams in Colour
Sheryl paints Acrylic Landscapes from photographs taken on the artist’s many adventures. The artist instills the energy and feeling of that place and time in the works. As a secondary means of expression, the artist also does Fluid Art compositions in acrylics.
Steven Beseler
Steven Beseler Art Studio
Steven has always had a passion for history and reading, finding beauty in the creativity and musicality of myths and legends. The artist tries to capture and paint worlds that seem natural, but with a hint of history and fantasy to provoke a thought of the peculiar familiarity of unknown locations.
Susan Koehler
Leaf Street Pottery
Susan makes a wide variety of functional pottery mainly table/kitchen ware but also decorative pieces. Each piece is hand thrown using the artist’s stoneware clay body. The artist formulates her own glazes as well, and fires electric to cone 9.
Theresa Frost
Bent LLC
BENT jewelry is elegantly simple and inspired by nature. Each piece is handcrafted through forging, hammering, bending and burnishing in sterling silver, copper and stainless-steel fine quality metals. It is perfect for wearing every day, or for that special occasion. It will make you feel… simply elegant.
Eastbank Artists, Inc.
The Eastbank Artists, Inc. will choose select pieces to represent the current group member’s artwork and style. Their goal is to showcase the talents of local artists, inform the community of our group, and seek new members to join. Artwork will include oil painting, watercolor, jewelry, sculpture to ceramics.
Tom Balko
Knotty Willow
Knotty Willow is a husband and wife team that specialize in carved wood bowls, trays, boards, utensils and décor. Their carving techniques allow them to experiment with unique shapes and textures, highlighting the natural features of the wood.
Will Brzezinski
Positive Spin Ceramics
The clean flat planes in the artist’s work act like a canvas for color and texture. Hand carved designs are inspired by the bluffs of the surrounding area in which they are created. Made to be used and enjoyed every day.
