Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By P.J. GLISSON
Ironwood — When Kate Greenough of Bessemer began studying art at Oakland Community College, she focused on ceramics.
That was years ago, and she’s had a considerable journey since then, she said in a Saturday interview at Theatre North.
Specifically, she explained, “Being a wife and mother, that put me in a different direction.”
Greenough, who was invited to display her works while the theatre presents the play “Marvin’s Room,” said she did not work on her art at all during most of the time she raised her four children.
It wasn’t until 2014 that she renewed the urge by taking a Blue Rock Workshop in lino printing with Mark Nutt in Washburn.
Another galvanizing force in her life was the late Paul Castagna, who had been a local artist and arts lover, and had encouraged Greenough to hone her craft.
So, Greenough, who also had studied at San Diego City College and at College of Lake County in Grayslake, Wis., decided to build on some of the knowledge of painting she had explored in some of her schooling.
“Primarily, now I paint,” she said, adding that she never got an arts degree, despite also studying art history at NMU.
Nor does she like the term “self-taught” because, she explained, “it comes with a certain degree of — I’m not sure what the word is — maybe prejudice.”
Mainly, she credits her “fabulous mentors” for playing an integral part in her resurgence, and that includes her artist mother and her father, who worked in home theatre.
Greenough appreciates having been invited to share her work at Theatre North. “It was really a nice invitation — kind of unexpected,” she said. “It was an opportunity to reach out to a portion of the population that I normally can’t reach. Theatre-goers aren’t always gallery viewers.”
At any rate, she claimed, any opportunity that local artists have to interact with the community is “wonderful.”
She added, “When I can, I try to do some on-site demo painting,” explaining that she’s been able to do that through Festival Ironwood.
In addition, she said, “I try to participate in the ‘First Fridays’ if my work will allow it.”
Moreover, she said, “I love to be part of the Art in the Park at the Miners Memorial Park.
I participated in all three summers (2014, 2016, 2017). What I try to do in that venue is create an interactive piece of art.”
In 2017, she won the Art in the Park Jurors Award for her creation called “Poetry in Motion.”
She described that as “pretty exciting,” adding that the same year was great overall in that she also was able to have a show at the Black Cat in Ashland and was published in Aqueous magazine out of Wisconsin.
Greenough also is a member of the Range Art Association, which has an annual show.
One of her latest commitments has been working with Facebook’s 100-Day Project.
That project asks participants to commit a pocket of time each day to spend on their art. Last year, Greenough stepped up to the challenge and made 100 coasters in various artistic themes.
This year, she is working each day with a six-by-six piece of recycled brown bag, onto which she affixes “images that reflect the Northwoods.”
So far, she has used photos that she’s taken, along with fabric, leaves, dried flowers, and beach rocks and glass.
When all of the pieces are merged, she said they will compose “a mixed media piece” that shows a mural pictorial of life in the Northwoods.
In addition, she added of the 100-Day Project, “This year I’m an online guide.”
Greenough, who believes that “talent can be nurtured and grown,” has her own Studio 21 in Ironwood through Downtown Art Place, although she said she is less likely to use it in colder months.
“Living here in the U.P. is such a blessing, and most of what I paint is inspired by nature in one way or another,” she said, describing the environment here as “a visual buffet.”
She said she aims, sometimes literally and sometimes abstractly, “to be able to show everybody else how lucky we are to be here” through her creations.
For the past six or so years, Greenough said she also has been a single mom and is gratified, albeit “tired,” after seeing her children reaching adulthood in good form.
Her oldest daughter, Paige Gwyn, is an art teacher in Ewen-Trout Creek. “She’s incredible,” said Greenough, adding, “far more talented than me.”
But she added firmly, “All my kids have made me proud in one way or another.”
One of her sons, John Gwyn, works for the Iron County Sheriff’s Department. Her younger son, Eli Kalinovik, is an NMU art major.
Her second daughter, Summer Kalinovik, will graduate this year from A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer.
Regarding her art pieces on display at the theatre, Greenough said, “This stuff is for sale throughout the run of Marvin’s Room.” Only cash or checks can be accepted at the theatre, but if anyone wishes at a later point to purchase or commission Greenough’s work, they may contact her here: [email protected].
