Ripple River Exhibits This Weekend!

Pastel and basket exhibit offers ‘Reflections on Life’s Seasons’

If you’re fishing for something to do next weekend that doesn’t involve boats or bait, stop by Ripple River Gallery for an infusion of color. “Reflections on Life’s Seasons,” an exhibit of paintings in pastel by Denise Bunkert, opens Wednesday. Accompanying Bunkert’s paintings will be sculptural baskets by Tina Fung Holder.

Both artists will be on hand Sunday, May 9 from 3 to 5 p.m. for a reception. Bunkert will also sign copies of “Mirrors of the Soul: Reflections on Life’s Seasons,” a newly-completed collaborative project with British poet Richard Whitfield. The public is invited to meet the artists, talk about their work and enjoy refreshments.

Bunkert says that with each painting she strives to “dance with nature’s light and shadow, playing the instruments of color, rhythm and movement, until chords of harmony are brushed.” A Wisconsin native who now lives in the Minneapolis area, she draws from nature, music and poetry to inspire her luminous pastel landscape paintings. “The inherent beauty of the natural world has long been part of my consciousness and spirituality,” she says.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Bunkert worked as a graphic designer and college instructor for 12 years before turning to painting full time. Her award-winning work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has been included in several publications.

Bunkert will be teaching two classes at Ripple River Gallery this summer: “Introduction to Painting in Pastels” on Aug. 8; and “Exploring Color in Painting Pastels,” Aug. 15.

Tina Fung Holder’s baskets incorporate the variety of native vegetation abundant near her home in the Chequamegon Bay area of Wisconsin—red dogwood, cattails, grasses, vines, leaves and birch bark. She learned basket making as a child before earning degrees in design and fiber at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she concentrated on the methods and materials of native cultures.

‘Reflections’ will continue through June 14 at the gallery near Bay Lake.

Ripple River Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The gallery is located five miles south of Deerwood on Highway 6, then 3 miles east of Ruttger’s Bay Lake Lodge on County Road 14 to Partridge Avenue; or south of Aitkin on Highway 169 to Bennettville, then 3.2 miles west on County Road 11 to Partridge Avenue.

For more information call 218-678-2575, e-mail ripriv@mlecmn.net or visit www.ripplerivergallery.com.