BEMIDJI — People find art for different reasons. Sometimes it’s just a way to express themselves. Sometimes it’s to recreate something they’ve seen. Shannon Lucas-Westrum needed to keep her hands busy.
“I kind of was one of those fidgety kids. The ones that always had to be doing something with their hands,” Lucas-Westrum said. “I think me keeping my hands busy kept my mouth shut and teachers just ignored it and let me do things.”
She has always been drawn to the textures and fabrics of fiber arts, but sewing class in school wasn’t her interest. It wasn’t until she got married and a friend gave her a handmade basket as a wedding gift that she found her next art form.
“[I] didn't really realize people could around here made their own baskets and things like that,” she said.
Her friend’s mom taught basket-making classes in Bemidji, and Lucas-Westrum started attending. She even joined the Headwaters Basketmakers Guild for a short while. But kids came along, and Lucas-Westrum found a way to carve out time to continue working on baskets at the family table.
“It was kind of a good way to develop my own style and do my own thing," she said. " ... I've kind of been plucking away at it for, well, ever since.”
She’s worked with willow, rattan, grasses and bark to make her baskets. It begins with a pile of random things and that magically become functional baskets.
“I love the textures, the depth, the variations you can get in different colors or different shades," Lucas-Westrum said. " ... Just working in different weave patterns and things like that.”
She also discovered something else while working on baskets. She found herself reaching a meditative state while using her hands to work. The three or four hours of pure creation time allowed her to not engage with anything around her.
“I hate to say retreat," she said. "But that's not wrong.”
Beyond baskets
Lucas-Westrum also makes jewelry. When she was in high school in Bemidji, she took Ojibwe Art and learned beadwork. From there she took jewelry-making classes in college, and since then she’s experimented in different areas of jewelry making. Today, she mostly creates wirework jewelry pieces.
Lucas-Westrum’s focus now is teaching basket-making classes. When she first started teaching it would be maybe four classes a year and only because she was asked or a friend showed up.
Now, the Minnesota State Arts Board, grants help fund her classes, which have become full-time.
“The last three years have been really heavily packed with classes, and that's been kind of awesome because we're just going everywhere," Lucas-Westrum said. " ... Some of them don't have art programs at all, or some have art organizations that we’ve been able to connect with.”
Teaching is different than creating, though, and it doesn’t necessarily lead to the meditative state that drew her to the art form in the first place. But Lucas-Westrum finds a new outcome of her work that is also satisfying.
“I'm seeing us really starting to build a community of people who are being brave and trying new things," she said. " ... Communities are coming in of all kinds of playing together for the day. So, I'm getting a lot out of that, too.”
Lucas-Westrum’s family operates a studio at their home. They converted an old brick building that came with their house into a place for art and classes. Hours of operation vary, but the family spends a lot of time there.
The studio has become an inspiring space, especially if she gets into the mindset to dedicate time to creating.
“The best day is to go out into the studio, grab a box of assorted random materials from whatever previous project or cleaning I want to do and see what comes out of it,” she said.
To schedule classes at her studio, visit the Wildflower Cottage website. To find more of her work, visit her website or Facebook page. She also has a YouTube channel with tutorials.
Tell us about upcoming arts events where you live in Northern Minnesota by emailing psa@kaxe.org.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
