Chip Borkenhagen
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Oil Painter
Charlotte and Ken Johnson - Northwoods Sleigh Company
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Charlotte and Ken Johnson are Northwoods Sleigh Company. They are of Scandinavian descent (Swedish and Norwegian) and have been handcrafting Scandinavian gift items for over 35 years. They make delicate wooden trays in several sizes. The trays are constructed with compound mitered finger-joints at all corners. Additional, they make a line of decorative wooden sleighs patterned after those used by emigrants for logging and farming. They also make small Tomtens (dolls) to complement the sleighs. All of their products are designed, hand-crafted and merchandised only by them. They have participated in and sold their artifacts at numerous Scandinavian Festivals.
kjohnson@crosbyironton.net
Barbara Saefke
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Barbara E. Saefke is the author of the Justice Series, Justice in Omaha, Justice in Charleston, Justice in Hershey, Justice in San Francisco. Jake and Peggy Farms bring justice to victims who are treated unfairly. She is also the author of two romance novels, Remember the Words, and Belonging After All.
Barbara participated in the Anoka County Library Author Fair in 2019 and given a presentation about writing at the Columbia Heights Library.
She has a dog named Harley and lives in Fridley, Minnesota.
Jake and Peggy Farms, the Justice Team, join John Mason, their contact person to help John's parents in San Francisco. Michelle and John Sr. disappeared, and John was only told they had died. He never believed it, but what choice did he have.
John fell in love and wanted the mystery of his parents to be solved before he committed to a marriage he knew would be filled with confusion, anger, and sadness over the unsolved mystery of his parent's disappearance. That's when he called the Justice Team.
A few days had passed and the Justice Team felt it was more complicated than planned, and called their friends, Joyce Armstrong and Brad Hensley. When things turned deadly, John had a decision to make: continue, or live in uncertainty the rest of his life.
To contact Barbara or to view the rest of her books in the Justice Series and other books visit the link below.
http://www.barbarasaefke.com/Index.html
April Keilen
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April’s eclectic mix of handcrafted jewelry and functional clay pieces are exquisite and her beautiful jewelry is made with copper, silver, and semi-precious stones.
billaprilkeilen@gmail.com
Peter Ross
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Peter has a Bachelor's Degree from the University of MN-Duluth with a major in Biology and a minor in Art History. A strange combination, perhaps, but my art is chiefly inspired by what I see in the natural world around me. I consider myself to be largely self-taught. I constantly feel an incredible pull to think creatively, and this is coupled with a strong desire to get my ideas out onto paper, to share them. I feel that like so many other talents, the more an artist works, the better he will become. It's a current that catches you up, and carries you on a very fun, fulfilling ride.
You can view other pieces of Peter’s work on MNArtists.org
Candace Simar
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Candace Simar writes historical fiction set in her home state of Minnesota. Her Abercrombie Trail Series received awards from The Western Writers of America. Shelterbelts was a Willa Finalist with Women Writing the West and also The Midwest Book Awards. Escape to Fort Abercrombie received the Will Rogers Medallion and the Peacemaker Award. A short story, Night Riding, won the Laura Award. Her poetry and nonfiction have received awards from the Writer's Digest, League of Minnesota Poets, National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Lake Region Writers and the Brainerd Writer's Alliance. "I've always loved history," Simar said in a recent interview. "Historical fiction is a great way to put it to use." Candace lives in Pequot Lakes.
Jerry Raedeke -Watercolorist
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Jerry Raedeke comes to Northwoods Art & Book Festival with a distinguished past. The renowned wildlife and landscape artists’ paintings have been shown at major wildlife exhibitions in the nation and have received many prestigious awards. Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year in 6 states including Minnesota. Wildlife mugs with a Raedeke design appeared regularly on television’s, “Northern Exposure”, and in several movies. Anheuser-Busch commissioned Raedeke to paint the World-Famous Budweiser Clydesdales in a wildlife setting. He has been in documentaries on public television... Jerry’s list of accomplishments is long and honorable.
Raedeke’s love of the outdoors has also drawn him to conservation. Over his career, he has donated roughly 85,000 prints and over 150 original paintings, with proceeds going towards conservation efforts. He has raised over $5 million for Ducks Unlimited, which is just one of the organizations he works with.
You can reach Jerry at his email address below.
Jason Lee Willis
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Jason Lee Willis is an author who teaches high school English, indigenous studies, creative writing, and mythology, but every morning during the school year, he wakes up at five a.m. to write a thousand words. Jason grew up in South Dakota and currently lives in Minnesota, where he lives the life of a hobbit by gardening, writing, walking around barefoot, wearing vests, fishing, and going on adventures with his wife Julie
The Fire Handler
1897: In the pine forests of central Minnesota lives the surviving family of the Wijigan Clan, a branch of the Chippewa Indian nation that has survived a cross-continent exodus to arrive at their destination--Lake Manitou. Yet at the turn of the 19th Century, the United States government is trying to remove the Chippewa from prime logging lands through extortion and mandated boarding schools. Lily Asibikaashi, who lives a simple life with her mother and younger brother, has already rejected her culture and wants to become a public school teacher. But when her brother is forcibly taken to a distant boarding school, Lily becomes the last link between the mysterious past and unfulfilled prophecy. Despite her misgivings, Lily is trained as a Wabeno, a Fire Handler, and is given secrets others are willing to murder to discover. If her family is to survive, Lily will have to choose between past and future, duty and dream, faith and family. 1988: Stories of a horned serpent that lives below the lake are still told around campfires, but for Levi MacPherson, his nightmares warn him some of the old legends might be true. To learn about his past, he seeks out his great-grandmother Lily, who seems to be clinging to life just to share her stories. Lily teaches him about the Seven Fires Prophecies, the magic of the Dream Catcher, and his darkest family secrets. She also reveals that her power as a Fire Handler accidentally woke the evil Manitou, and to fully defeat it, Levi must also be trained as she once was by her grandfather. Will Levi destroy the centuries-old prophecy, or will he fulfill it?
You can contact Jason Lee Willis by the link below.
Emily Koehler - Printmaker
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Silence Waits
"When asked how long I’ve been making prints, I stumble. The easiest answer is since I was thirteen, when a family friend invited me to her print studio. It was certainly from that experience that I fell in love with printmaking, but that doesn’t completely answer the question. Even as a baby, I was fascinated by the impression my hands made in wet beach sand, the intricate lines that appeared when I pressed a paint covered thumb onto paper. In my earliest art classes, I scratched images into foam plates and printed them like stamps. How long have I been making prints? Well, forever… that is to say, from my earliest memories. In every print ever made, there is a history of process, a story told through impression. The grain of the wood or the bevel of the copper translate into paper something of their essence where wood becomes image, metal becomes paper, stone becomes print. It is in this transmutation of properties that my love of printmaking lies. Just as the mechanisms of printmaking guide my hand, my heart is inspired by the wonder of cycles and processes in nature. The marrying of these two passions, has informed my art as I seek to explore the intersection of humanity and nature in a world where nothing is untouched by man."
Emily Gray Koehler was born and raised in Traverse City, MI. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI in 2006. After relocating to Minnesota in 2008, she opened her own print studio in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metropolitan area and is now currently located in the Thorp Building in NE Minneapolis. Koehler’s work is represented in galleries throughout the Upper Midwest and may be found in public and private collections in the United States and Northern Europe.
Visit Emily’s website or like her on Facebook. Emily been having some amazing tutorials about her work.
Black Hills
Chris Norbury
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Chris Norbury is the award-winning author of the mystery-suspense-thrillers Straight River and Castle Danger, the first two novels of a planned series. The stories feature Matt Lanier, a southern Minnesota farm kid turned professional musician whose middle-class world is turned upside down when he uncovers a conspiracy run by a powerful, ambitious, violent real estate magnate.
He grew up in the Twin Cities and earned a B.S. in Music Education at the University of Minnesota. After jobs as a band director, financial planner, wine consultant, and private investor, Chris began writing seriously in his early fifties. His essays on wilderness canoeing have been published in the Boundary Waters Journal.
Chris is a member of the Twin Cities and national chapters of Sisters in Crime and the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). He’s a big fan of independent bookstores and promotes the website indiebound.org whenever he can.
A volunteer Big Brother since 2000, Chris donates a portion of his book sales to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Minnesota. During golf season, he works on perfecting his golf game and makes time to canoe the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. He and his wife live in Owatonna MN. Connect with him at chrisnorbury.com
Author of Straight River, a 2019 KBR Awards Mystery/Thriller Semifinalist,
and Castle Danger, winner of a 2017 B.R.A.G. Medallion.
Honorable Mention for Genre Fiction in the 2017 Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
Finalist--Adult Fiction, 2018 MN Writes, MN Reads Self-Published Author Contest
You can reach Chris at his website below.
Kit Larson
/Be sure to head over to Kit’s website to view all of his glorious work.
Kit Larson has been taking pictures throughout Northern Minnesota since he was in his teens. Then, taking pictures was his reason to do more hiking up north, especially, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. He began to be serious about his photography twenty years ago.
One of the biggest joys for Kit, outside of taking the pictures, is the interaction he has with the people that visit his booth. Often people tell him that they have been at the place a photo was taken or that it reminds them of a similar site they have been to and enjoyed. Sometimes a picture was of a place they were seeing for the first time and they marvel at the beauty of it. His next best experience comes when a beginning photographer stops by to “pick his brain” about photography. While talking to them about cameras and tips on taking photos, he also passes on the enthusiasm he has for nature and photography.
Jamie Lee
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I have spent most of my life as a writer and workshop facilitator. It has only been in the last three years that I started doing Pebble Art and, more recently, stained glass play. The one thing I know for sure is that when my hands are creatively engaged, my mind and spirit are happier.
Let me know a little about your journey. Pop me a note on the contact page if you want. Part of my goal of once again building a website (I am not a fan of this) is to find my tribe, the people who seek the creative in all things, and yearn for a peaceful world.
Susan Wardell
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My name is Susan Wardell and I am the author of “My Grandma’s Hands “. It is a children’s picture book that shows the role of hands in the relationship between grandmothers and grandchildren. It is told in small vignettes and shows how many grandmas use their hands. It is both humorous and then sobering as the book goes full circle. Illustrated by Katrina Smith, the pictures show various ethnicities, but most of all they show the love given by grandmothers. I was born and raised in St.Paul, MN, and spent many summers in the Brainerd Lakes area while growing up. I married my husband in 1983, and after raising our four children we were fortunate to be able to retire to our lake home. I was inspired to write “My Grandma’s Hands “ while chasing after our oldest granddaughter in our yard. She nearly fell while running down a hill so I grabbed her hand and said, “Take my hand, it is safer when we’re together.” From those simple words, the idea was born and the book was written!
Lori Hungerholt
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Lori Hungerholt – Root River Baskets My interest in basket making came to be when we moved to Rushford 9 years ago. The beauty of this driftless area with its colors in the water, the woods, and the fields inspire color choices that change with the seasons. Each basket has an attached stone with a natural hole from the Root River found while kayaking and stopping along the rock bars that beg to be searched. Each year brings new shapes or styles of baskets, but now after 9 years, most shapes I make are on purpose and not by accident. Although the accidents tend to be the most unique! Being a practical person, I like to create practical art. The baskets keep things organized while adding a dash of beauty to your home. You can reach Lori at her email address below.
Dan Onkka - Spin N-Serve
/Dan’s twist on a Lazy Susan is pure genius
Spin-N-Serve takes the Lazy Susan to a whole new level.
Flip it - and see a totally different design!
Expand it - to 24 inches to hold even the largest meal!
Use it as a side table to add a burst of color to your den or family room!
Watch my videos on how to flip and expand, and how to use your Spin-N-Serve as an end table both here and on Facebook or Dan's website
Barbara Robertson
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I began making beaded jewelry but then explored metal clay then silver and copper. My metal clay charms are handmade by me plus I make personalized lake charms with a cz showing where your place is located. I also love making rings and pendants. I have a large variety of charms and jewelry to choose from. I also enjoy making special charms for people and for special occasions.
Visit Barbara’s beautiful website and buy yourself a treat.
Mark Munger
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Mark Munger is a Duluth storyteller who has participated in the Northwoods Art and Book Festival for over a decade. He keeps coming back because, well, folks who attend the festival like to read and like to buy his work!
His latest, Kotimaa: Homeland is part historical novel and part thriller set in Minnesota, Norway, and Finland. Kirkus Reviews had this to say about the final installment in Munger's Finnish American trilogy:
His attempts to grapple with current immigration issues, including Syrian refugees in Europe and the election of Donald Trump, make for a complex yet appropriate end to
a series that is essentially a long meditation on leaving home and building another life somewhere else. Fans of thoughtful, probing historical fiction should enjoy this final volume, which stands well enough on its own.
A detailed, wide-lens historical novel of Finnish-Americans then and now.
(Kirkus Review, November 2019.)
You can reach Mark at the link below.
Relativity Press
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At relativity press, we created Relativity Now for Relatively Small People, ages 5-7 because we believe an early introduction to "Big Ideas" primes the mind for future encounters with these ideas (just like an early introduction to foreign languages makes future language-learning endeavors more successful). In this edition of Relativity Now, children will receive their first introduction to the idea of time dilation (at the heart of Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity). Along the way, some relatively remarkable pups will keep everyone captivated and entertained!
Kim Gordon
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I grew up making images - drawing, painting, printmaking. And I have always loved stories. I have created these images to tell simple stories about elemental aspects of life: finding joy in transitory beauty, peace in nature, the pleasures of relationships. Companion animals as well as wild ones are the characters that explore these themes. I love the design aesthetics of both the Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movements and of Japanese block prints. I am also influenced by the local landscape and by natural events and find ways of incorporating these natural occurrences to tell small stories of life's chances and wonders and mysteries.
This will be my first time participating in the Northwoods Art & Book Festival before but look forward to brings my greeting cards, luminaries and prints to the Northwoods.
(We look forward to having Kim with us next year). You can reach Kim at her email address below.
Lisa Cassman
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Lisa Cassman is a licensed counselor, author, licensed minister, and speaker. A Minnesota native, she has more than 20 years of experience counseling children and families in the church, as well as working with sexual abuse and domestic violence victims at a crisis center. She has a cosmetology license and currently is an owner of a spa.
Cassman has written three books, released by Halo Publishing International, about marital relationships. “The Road Less Traveled: A Guide to a Positive Marriage,” was inspired while on a road trip with her husband, Steve, in his semi-truck traveling along the West Coast. From her professional experience, she pours her inspirational insight and her own personal understanding of relationships into her work and guiding others through marriage.
Her book, “The Light in Your Eyes,” was written across the last 30 years. It documents Cassman’s journey into what love means, as her husband showed her, starting when they were hopeful teens.
Her book, “Finding the Beautiful You", was written to help women and teens find their self -esteem and value according to what scripture says.
Her newest book, "Talk Before Text ", was written so the reader can write in and pen their thoughts. The journaling guide format is easy to use.
In addition to her books, Cassman is a speaker at conferences, churches, workshops, and seminars. Her self-worth seminars teach men and women how to like themselves and receive healing through God. She also does pre-marital counseling for couples and trains them how to like themselves, so they can have a successful marriage. As a licensed, traveling minister, Cassman officiates over 30 marriages a year.
She has a master’s degree in Christian Counseling from the Pastoral Counseling Center, which is accredited through the National Christian Counseling Association (NCCA), and is also certified to administer the Arno Profile System (A.P.S.) report, which is a personal identification/inventory.
She and her husband have four children together and eight grandchildren. You can book Cassman as a speaker or wedding officiant by visiting www.LisaCassman.net.
