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Good morning and welcome to In Our Range.
My guests this week are Kerry Olson and Steve Anderson with the Range Art Association.
They joined me this morning to discuss the upcoming Chalkfest happening in downtown Ironwood on June 27th beginning at 9 a.m.
Chalkfest is intended to bring color, creativity and inspiration to downtown Ironwood.
Experience and aspiring artists are invited to ply their craft to 4 foot by 4 foot squares throughout downtown.
Registration for artists is $30 for adults and $20 for youth artists age 12 to 17.
This event promises to be full of fun and creativity for artists and onlookers alike.
There will be an area for children under 12 to also create their own works of art or to collaborate with others.
Since 1954, the Range Art Association has been fostering Gogebic Range Artists, offering a dynamic platform for local creativity.
Through annual events and creative workshops, Range Art celebrates our community's artistic richness.
The mission of the Range Art Association is to uplift and celebrate all forms of visual art, painting, pottery, sculpture, photography, fiber arts, and more.
Through dynamic exhibitions,
missions, gallery showcases, and interactive community events.
Carrie Olsen is a tattoo artist with 18 years experience.
She's a muralist, watercolor painter, and illustrator.
She's been painting and illustrating since childhood.
She's a resident of Ironwood and works as a tattoo artist at Iron Ink Tattoo.
She's been active in community organizations that focus on beautification and activating public spaces through art for over eight years.
She joined the Range Art Association in 2024 and this year took on the role of vice president.
Also with us is Steve Anderson, a tattoo artist best known for his bold, folk art inspired tattoos.
Practicing his craft at Iron Ink Tattoos right here in Ironwood, his work references everything from western cartoons and advertising to classic Japanese woodblock prints.
Having drawn since childhood, Steve is a formally trained tattoo artist, self-taught illustrator, graphic designer, and painter, having worked in a variety of media, from digital to skin and paper.
Steve also serves as the secretary for the Range Art Association.
Good morning, Carrie and Steve, and welcome to In Our Range.
Thank you, Mike.
Thanks for having us.
Hey, good morning.
Yeah, appreciate you being here.
So the range art association has been supporting local artists in the area for about seven decades now with exhibitions, gallery showcases and community events.
How does the association keep up with their work and how can people get involved with range art?
The association has several members that are very active, some that aren't as active, but we have monthly meetings to discuss what work we want to do and then from there kind of figure out who's going to do it and how we're going to get it done.
If people do want to get involved,
though.
Becoming a member is really easy on our website rangeart.org.
There's a sign up.
There's also free kids membership so so youth can become members and we have ways that people can also donate money to help with our mission through the website.
If people want to come just check out more of what range is about.
Every third Tuesday the range holds a couple different meanings at the downtown DAP classroom.
One is art connects which runs from
noon to four where anyone can come and meet some of the artists of range, socialize with them.
They can also work on art together.
It's an open art space to work on that.
And sometimes there's also some workshops where they can learn more about different mediums or different ways of marketing or displaying art, just beneficial things to artists.
And then at 430 is our board slash member meeting where we talk more business of range and the events we're doing and more of the going on and that's open for anyone to come check out as well.
So that sounds like a really supportive environment for artists because often as artists we love to focus on our art and when it comes to the presentation or the marketing or the selling or all that other stuff we just have no sense of it.
Having a community that helps you gain those skills is really important.
So thank you for doing that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And some of the workshops are new too, where we've just started getting into more kind of the business end rather than just the art because we started doing workshops on mediums and we found people asking, well, how do I get more people to view it?
You know, how do I take a better photo?
How do I frame the work?
So we started
kind of mixing the how to do the art workshops with some of kind of the business or presentation part recently.
Excellent.
Super helpful.
So Steve and Kerry, you guys have been artists since you were children, according to your bios.
So I want to ask you at what point in your life did you realize that art was going to be this big part of your life and something that you were going to do for a living?
You want to go first Carrie?
Or do you want me to?
I'll go first.
Okay.
For me, art was a big part of my life from childhood.
Always drawing, sketching.
So just as kind of something to do, I did it often.
All the way through high school, there was probably kind of a break after that.
When people ask why, it's, well, I didn't have a free art room full of supplies anymore.
So being an adult and trying to get out on my own in the Ford Art Supplies didn't always work out.
I got back into it again, actually, because I started getting tattooed.
And then I got a part-time counter job at a tattoo shop in the Dells.
For being around all those artists, really encouraged me to start doing art again.
And as far as when I knew I would do it for a living, it really wasn't until years after I even started at the shop when one of the artists approached me about thinking maybe I should learn to tattoo.
And I think that was actually the first time I ever thought I could do it to make a living.
Yeah, so later than in life.
So
it always been a
part of your life, an important part of your life, and then you found the inspiration to go for it later.
Yeah, yeah, just getting around other people who are doing it for a living, I think.
Excellent.
How about you, Steve?
At what point were you aware this was going to be your life?
You know, it's funny because I also...
had been drawing and creating for my entire life.
My mom was an artist, not a professional, but it was something that she did all the time, you know?
So we just drew at home, but got into college, kind of meandered through that experience, studied English literature, started getting tattooed, and also got a job as a doorman.
And it wasn't until I got my apprenticeship and kind of saw that there was a living to be made there that that was something I thought I could pursue.
because it was either going to be the written word or illustrations, so I chose illustrations.
Either way, you're going to leave a mark.
One way or another, man.
Yeah, so growing up and as you decided to make art a living for yourself, what kind of support or non-support have you experienced along the way?
That's a great question.
Neither of my parents had any tattoos, so they were not particularly supportive
of
me doing them or getting more of them.
It wasn't until later that I started drawing and painting things as gifts for my old man that he thought that maybe there was something there.
Oddly.
Yeah.
So I didn't get a lot of support, you know, as far as in the beginning.
But I think now, you know, they understand that there is there is actually a living to be made.
For me, I found my friends were very supportive because, of course, they were all into tattoos and just thought, you know, awesome, you can make money doing your art.
My family was.
Not surprised, because I know when I told my grandmother, she was just like, oh, we thought you would never get a regular job, or, you know, like, for your career.
So just like, of course, that makes sense.
They also had a hard time with me wearing the art for a while.
But as I became more successful, it did flip where instead of being like, oh, that's our weird, you know, granddaughter who does those tattoos is like, this is our granddaughter.
She does tattoos.
She owns a shop.
So it really, as the success came, the family support came by a really good friend, friend support from the beginning.
That's wild how that works, isn't it?
I remember reading something from John Lennon back in the day where he talked about how all these adults and teachers as a child stress the importance of these poets and these writers and these artists.
But then whenever one expressed an interest in doing those things for a living, they were just immediately squashed down and told, you can't do that.
you know
you're gonna starve
yeah or or whatever you'll be the weird one right a million million things to tell a kid so finding any kind of support and having that support is just so important for artists because we're not all gonna be a Picasso we're not all gonna be a John Lennon we're not all gonna be these famous comic graphic novel artists or anything like that but we all
have the capacity to be artists and have our own voice regardless of our skill level or anything like that, which brings me to Chalk Fest, where you're inviting everyone to come out and leave a temporary mark.
temporary tattoos, if you will.
I
like
that.
Or the sidewalk.
Yeah, or
the sidewalk.
Sidewalk tats.
That's right.
And so this is a way for people to really express themselves and for other people to walk around and be inspired by other people's creativity.
What details can you share with us about Chalkfest happening?
It's obviously on Saturday, June 27th.
It takes place in downtown City Square here in Ironwood from 9 to 4.
We do have a rain date that we won't need because it's not going to rain that day.
It's
going to be beautiful weather.
Exactly.
But the rain date is July 11th, just so everyone knows.
Just in case.
Just in case, but it's not going to
rain.
It won't.
Yeah, it's a competition plus community event to watch.
So there are some artists that range in age from 12 and up.
We do have two categories, youth 12 to 17 and adult.
And they have preregistered to participate in the competition part of the day, which they will get a four by four square and some really nice pastels to create pretty much whatever they want.
The community gets to come out.
and walk around, enjoy watching them create the art and also vote for their favorite.
They decide the winners and the artists are up for some cash prizes depending on who the community votes for.
As well as the competition part, there will be some other goings on for entertainment and just to create a fun atmosphere.
We understand that kids under 12 are probably going to want to draw that day when they see all the other artists.
So we do have a decent size chalk drawing area for kids, but anyone else who wants, if their parents want to get down and draw, you know, we have some chalk and a large area for them to do that.
We have someone doing face painting, someone doing balloon animals, all free to the attendees.
They don't have to pay for any of it, they just get to come and enjoy.
Kids area will also have a few extra things like some bubbles, maybe some hula hoops laying around, just some little things to play with.
There will be food there from 10 to 2 provided by the Ironwood Polar Bear Hockey Association.
They will have a little tent where they're doing some burgers and hot dogs and a few other things.
which it's awesome that they partnered with us.
We get to have food at our event and they get to also use this to raise some funds for their goal, which is to help local area kids get into hockey.
So it's really nice to partner with another group doing something for the community.
Excellent.
So where will the central location be?
So it'll be downtown city square.
Okay.
So if you're familiar with this site, there's kind of the big
grassy area in the middle.
So all the chalk artists will kind of be around that.
Okay.
So there'll be a little loop to walk and look at the chalk.
A lot of the kid activities will kind of be in the middle of that.
And food will be off to the side meal kind of be in that central area right in front of the little amphitheater.
Awesome.
And so people coming to look at everything they not only get to just observe but they also get to participate by voting for their favorite works.
And then there's there's plenty to keep kids busy,
you
know, whether they're
making art themselves, maybe collaborating with other kids and making bigger pieces, or just doing something on their own.
It sounds like an incredible, beautiful, sunny, perfectly 68 degree day.
I
agree.
It sounds exactly like that.
Perfect day for sidewalk art.
So what are each of you most looking forward to?
I think just getting to see all the different pieces, you know, when we got this idea, it really comes down to Carrie's experience putting on this event where we're from, because she had been involved putting on the Oshkosh Chalk Walk for many years.
For 12 years, I helped organize, did news interviews, a couple of years I drew on it.
So I kind of took part in kind of every part of it there.
So when we came
here in joint range, we thought it'd just be a really great summertime event that we could add to the community, and range seemed like a good group to put it on, so.
And I was surprised at just, like, even if everybody wasn't a pro, right?
You know, when you see the kids stuff out there, it's just impressive to see what they're able to create in afternoon.
even with the adults, you know, some of the stuff that you see when they're like, oh, no, I'm not really an artist.
And you're like, yes, you are.
You look at what they created.
I've known a couple of those in my life.
Of course.
And I think that's exciting, too.
The other Chalk Fest I've been involved with, we got to watch as people said I'm not an artist and then realized they were and then started like doing things as an artist and getting art shows and really going after that part that they thought they could have.
Yeah, I think, you know, seeing some of the younger participants
over the years, grow and skill, and then later go on to do even more.
You know, it was so exciting.
Watching that development happen.
Absolutely.
Wonderful.
Well, I think we'll leave it there.
Steve and Kerry, thank you so much for joining us this morning on In Our Range.
We appreciate you sharing your thoughts and promoting this incredible event.
The weather will be beautiful, and I hope everyone that shows up has an excellent time.
Hey, we hope to see you there, Mike.
Yeah, y'all have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much.
Thanks.
My guests this morning were Kerry Olson and Steve Anderson with the Range Art Association.
We had a great time talking about the role that the Range Art Association plays in promoting the visual arts as well as discussing the upcoming Chalk Fest event happening on June 27th at the City Square Park from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
Adults can register to participate for $30.
Kids 12 to 17 can register for $20.
Children 12 and under will also have a space to create art for free.
Attendees will be able to vote for their favorite 4x4 square.
Everyone is welcome to attend and enjoy the inspiration and creativity in downtown Ironwood on the 27th.
For more information and to register, you can go to their website at rangeart.org.
Thanks for listening to In Our Range.
and we'll see you next week.
