PUPOSKY — John Bauer recently retired from being the development director at KAXE/KBXE and the women’s basketball coach at Itasca Community College — and then turned his sights toward creating more art.
The Grand Rapids man said he is a longtime appreciator of art, personal expression and people's stories. His photography work has been shown in galleries around the country, but he said he’s always been interested in sharing more than photos of his subjects.
With a 2016-17 traveling exhibit “What’s Left,” Bauer sought to create a safe space for conversations around mental health and suicide. A previous photography and audio story collection showcased Bauer’s portrait photography and the compelling tales of his subjects. Bauer’s art, like his work as a radio host and interviewer, has focused largely on the personal tales that connect people.
"To me, it's art. And the most important thing to me is each one of these pieces that I do has a story or many stories, because they take many little pieces to make the piece of art."John Bauer
His latest art venture as a sculptor is different: it includes no photography or audio stories. Yet the show “Found Objects” includes 34 pieces, each with their own story of being tossed aside before becoming something new through connections with other discarded things.
Guitar tuning pegs, a gas tank cover, a carburetor, wooden bowls, parts of tables, portions of dolls and toys, a fireplace mantle and even a tossed aside barrel are part of a new story apart from their past lives. And in a way, Bauer also found a new story for himself as he began this venture. He spoke about it during a recent Area Voices interview on the KAXE/KBXE Morning Show.
What started as an off-the-cuff, on-air birthday wish for welding classes became the preface for Bauer’s new chapter as a sculptor. Cate Belleveau of Puposky called the station, volunteering her husband, artist and welder Al Belleveau, as Bauer’s mentor. He and Bauer began working together and inspiring each other and the result is Bauer’s new passion of creating art from found objects.
“To me, it's art,” Bauer said. “And the most important thing to me is each one of these pieces that I do has a story or many stories, because they take many little pieces to make the piece of art.”
The way the objects are arranged encourages viewers to contemplate their meanings with curiosity.
“Treasure Chest” positions a wooden box as the torso of an antique baby doll. Within the wooden box, a variety of childhood trinkets and toys are displayed. “Mickey’s Mantle” is an 8-foot-long textured fireplace mantle mounted vertically on heavy duty iron legs and topped with a copper orb, about 8 inches in diameter.
Bauer said some pieces are particularly meaningful to him, like his work called “Stop” calling attention to breast cancer. For “Stop,” Bauer culled wooden bowls from the late Bob Carls of Aitkin, a woodturning artist. A cloverleaf-shaped table base became a canvas on which he placed two of Carls’ bowls upside down and side by side, with a stoplight from a school bus centered below them. The bowls represent two breasts: one is pristine while the other is detailed with nails and wires and red paint indicative of blood.
“I sought out a lot of help from ladies who have had breast cancer so that I didn’t offend anybody,” Bauer said.
After years of clocking in at a workplace, Bauer’s workshop is a place where he said he is steeped in inspiration and time disappears into artistic flow.
“I’ll go in there for example, I’ll think, ‘Oh, maybe I should have lunch, and it’s 3:30!” Bauer said. “That’s passion.”
“Found Objects” will be on exhibit through the end of May at the Mask and Rose Theater’s Belle Thalia creative space on Highway 89 in Puposky, about 16 miles north of Bemidji. Viewings are by appointment only and interested parties are invited to reach out to Cate Belleveau at the Mask and Rose Theater.
Listen to the full Area Voices conversation with Bauer above.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
