The Arts in Elk River

     This week the summer concert series resumes in downtown Elk River.  It’s great to be in a community that values music and the arts.    Art and music have such an amazing ability to improve our lives.  Sometimes by bringing people together in a beautiful location along the river for a shared experience, other times the benefit is less tangible. 
Recently, we visited Michigan and stayed in an Airbnb in Ironwood.  It was an old mining company house that was built in the 1920s.  It was simple, small, and clean.  Yet, it felt immediately welcoming.  It was sparse, but had an elegant feel.  I couldn’t quite figure out what gave this cozy home such great appeal at first.  After dinner that first night we were relaxing in the living room and while we chatted, I noticed that the room, and in fact the entire house, was adorned with original artwork that was set in custom framing.  Normally you would expect to find the ubiquitous garage sale pieces shoved in cheap, mass produced frames.  It turns out that the owner of the rental has a framing company in town.  The locally created artwork was all hand-picked by her for the house.  That personal touch created the inviting, warm atmosphere that was initially so hard to explain.
We are blessed to have many great artists in the Elk River area and I am thrilled to offer several original pieces at Studio 107 from award winning mixed media-artist, Sharon Mendenhall of Sharon’s Fine Arts.  With the start of the concert series, I will be keeping Studio 107 open until 7pm on Thursday evenings.   If you are coming downtown for the music, stop by the store and see if one of Sharon’s original artworks would be the right piece for your home.   You can find more of her work on her facebook page.

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