Charles L. Matthies

Transcription

Common Ground is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Hi I'm Rachel Johnson and thanks for joining us on Common Ground. On tonight's episode Ray Boessel Jr of Bigfork follows in his grandfather -in-laws footsteps creating hand made birchbark canoes. Boessel's late greatPPgrandfather in law BillppHafeman who made gained worldwide recognition when he was featured on CBS On the Road with Charles Kuralt in 1982. And Brainerd artisan/educator Evelyn Matthies as spent her career teaching others about all facets of art. She shows us that spontaneity and pushing the boundaries are the keys to creating a masterpiece. ? ? My name is Evelyn Matthies. Art came by me naturally. I've always been very visual. To actually get started in art it happened when I was in college I would take an art course to offset the the psychology course I had to have or I'd take an art course to offset the higher math and low and behold I ended up with an art minor. without even knowing it. Then I went on to get my masters in art I had a very nice childhood. My motherppwas a school teacher which is kind of unheard of. She got her college degree in 1931 I think it was. My dad was not educated, he ended up being a contractor after he sold the farm. But he only went throughPP8th grade. So how they gotpptogether I will never know but it was a very happy marriage. I married my high school sweetheart. He went in the service and I went to college. We could get married when he got out. ppAnd then that was at Mankato. I got my teaching provisional degree in Mankato. Basically in two years because I took extra PPcredits,. So I started teachingppwhen I was 19. Married Bill when he got out of the military. Moved up here in '59. I taught at the high school and Bill was a coach and a math teacher at Franklin Jr High, this building in fact. And we were going to stay for 3 years but we got going with the scuba diving business and we bought lots of property low and behold what is it. Many many years later we're still here. We got 3 kids, they're all married, they all have kids Good Life, I have one great grandson. I had over 8,000 students at the collegePPby the way and I used to tellppthem Oh boy you get in art and you have natural highs You don't have to work at being happy PPyou're just going to be happy.ppWhen I first started I was very conscious of what others thought and after about the first five years I decided, I don't care what they think if I'm enjoying it that's the important part. So I went on to doPPthings that made me happy.ppWhen we bought this building in 1990, we decided the architecturePPwas so weird because it'spppoured concrete. So we would have to do something with the interior that would fit in with the idea of poured concrete. The first idea was to do this for a floor. You know you come in the front door. Well I started working on it in 1991 or 92 and worked on it for quite a while Well I was sensible. It's put together with 2 foot squares cause I knew if I had to exhibit somewhere the only way I could move it would be if there were small pieces. It was movable at one time it isn't anymore. It took a whole lot of work to get it up on the wall. Finally I had a couple students that were doing kind of like an internship so I let them work around the outer edges. The theme of course are the dolphins and the scuba diver. I have done small mosaics in the past but never anything this big. I'm glad I did it. Overall it turned out fine. It is 8 feet by 6 feet. It has 6,950 or so something of those little tiles. This is one I use for young children. It's hands on. These fish I sewed, stuffed em and put velcro on them and the kids can come in and rearrange it any way they want. This is called recycling by the way. This is stryofoam. This is badminton net that I had laying around the house. I was given a Busch grant and I went on a one quarter sabbatical. They gave me money to study the Mississippi from the Headwaters down to Little Falls. At the time, I was a private pilot so I would fly the plane to these different destinations, often to Bemidji and leave it parked there. Rent a car and go out. But I have a series of 18 of the Mississippi River. This one is done as impressionistic and it's down in Little Falls area. It's just the rocks,ppits actually one of the last ones of the series. The inspirationPPfor the next ones was theppnegreos. We did a program in Brainerd called differing visions. and photographers and artists and poets and musicians all got together and came up with this presentation. It was a long time ago. ppThe black and white photo is part of the study I did of New York City. When we were out there for the gate our daughter is the one on the left with the black coat on. That's the carousel the old, old carousel and we rode it. Such fun! I love carousels. That photograph is importantppto me, I did a whole series I've got 30 photos that are framed. This is an abstract of a painting that you'll be looking at next. I teach everybody how to take a realistic interpretation, simplify it and make it into abstract design and this is one of them. I know it just an abstract composition that you've just looked at This is the realistic one. The students thoroughly enjoyed sketching birds in this zoo. This beautiful zoo. Oh here is the painting I was looking for there are 97 fish in that. And the only ones that have actually found them are little kids. Like I had a 9 year old that sat I don't know how long. He just said yeah I could find them, I can find them all. Most adults get bored after finding about 30. laughter But it's fun it's challenging. I did a series of European paintings after I'd taken students to England on a study tour. I've actually been to Stonehedge 7 times and every time the sky is just wild. Traveling in Europe for 9 years taking students I have been exposed to so many different types of art. They all come back and say I don't want to just paint. Let's try something different try something new and different or unusual. I think that's the true artists creativity in them. It was a good experience and that's one of things that art allows you to do. You can organize in such a way that everybody enjoys it because whether you are teaching them,PPwe did a lot of black andppwhites too doing just black and white or you're teaching them the color theory. It's always a learning process and because it's visual most people enjoy it. Many of my former students have come back and exactly what has happen to them. They get this happy feeling when they do art. I think part of it comes from sharing with other people. I don't know what I'm going to do until I start,ppI don't have anything in mind. So we just go for broke. I just love to paint. It's so relaxing for me. I don't know how people can not enjoy painting. But sometimes they don't. I'll show you what I'm at That's kind of spontaneous. What you do you have to wet your paper first. And normally I just run it under the faucet cause it too hard to get over there right now. I think I'm gonna work with a unlimited palette, which means I have the prerogative to do anything I want. One thing you learn as an artist is you have to repeat colors or your continuity and the balance is just not good. If I put it down one place, I'm going to probably put it down two other places too. I like to work with color theory and if there is green I like to have red next to it. Cause there opposites ppif they flow together they turn into mud however, so you have to be a little constrained about where you're putting it. As you can see I'm just adding color. I like to add color and see what it makes me think of and then go from there. That's why I hated sketching always. I'm just going to be playing and I'm organizing color basically and the colors make me think of flowers. What I'm doing is putting down value changes and intensity changes. Now value change means light and dark. Intensity means bright and dull. You can see some of these areas are much brighter than others. I love color: as you can see if you look around the room. I am mixing the oranges and the reds and the yellows. Think I'll put a dark center in that one. You're probably thinking so is she doing one flower, ten flowers or three flowers. I don't know yet it all depends on how I feel. Now it's more fun if you create as you go. Your interpretation of watercolors is very best is spontaneity react to what is what you see. But I think the fun part of art is you can organize in such a way that you are going to imprint an image on someone's mind and they won't forget it. The impact that art has had on my life is something that is really close to my heart. Because I have found joy. I have found contentment. I have found excitement. I have found challenges. I'm the type that always says you have to pushPPboundaries and in art you canppdo that. I'm the type that always says you have to pushPPboundaries and in art you canppdo that. We're at the Blackduck Woodcarvers Festival. It is held the last Saturday in July every year and it's a fantastic event. We've had 29 years of woodcarving shows. The visitors can expect to see carvings of all kinds. I'm just amazed at how talented some people are and how beautiful their work is up here. This is an unbelievable show that people shouldn't miss. ? ? My name is Ray Boessle Jr and I'm from Bigfork, MN. I build birchbark canoes which I was taught by my wife, Chrissy I worked 3 years for grandpa who startedPPbusiness back in 1920. Canoeppbusiness been here a long time the canoes have been even longer. Originally it wasn't really a business. Her grandfather built canoes made some money at it back in the 1920s and 30s. They were only getting like a dollar a day workingPPin the gravel pit and so heppneeded some extra money when he quit the gravel pit.PPHe was building a canoe and appguy bought it so he kept building it. Bill was my grandfather and he was famous for building canoes for manyPPyears. Made them for the stateppof Minnesota for museums and stuff. Through all this time there'sPPbeen different people cameppthrough and they would write up articles about him. ppEventually a guy named Charles Kuralt, which most people know from CBS, he heard about Bill building the canoes. He looked all over and hePPfinally found Bill found outppwhere he was at. He came I think in 1981 or 82. They were here for a week and they filmed Bill and did all the camera stuff with that and then Charles Kuralt came in on Friday. He came in and I thought he was a game warden. He came in wearing all khaki clothes. I thought we were in trouble with the game warden or something. Ya Know He comes in and introduces himself to Bill and everything. He sat down he sat by the riverbank with Bill and they talked about stuff. Bill told him how was back here in the old days. They sat and talked, he came in the house and he had dinner with Bill and Violet and I got to eat with them too, the camera crew and stuff. He was just a real friendly guy. Just like aPPneighbor down the street justppwalked in and said hi ya know. Started talking it wasn't likePPhe was a famous person orppanything. He's real common about everything so it was kinda nice meeting him. This here is my building table. This is where I build the canoes and this is my wife's grandfather's. It was Bill Hafeman's before I ever used it. He had this table before I was here and it might be asPPold as I am. A lot of thepptools I use the jig and a lot of clamps and tools that I use are all tools that were my wife's grandfathers. The canoe I lay out on this table here. And you see those cracks in the boards here.PPThat lines up with the sewppseam from the side of the canoe. It's all sewed with roots from a Black Spruce tree. There is no nails or glue in the whole canoe. So I lay the bark out flat and we sew what we call a blanket first. Which is 15 pieces sewn together. There is 3 bottom pieces and there is 6 side pieces on each side. They get sewn together in a blanket. I make the PPend by sewing two piecespptogether flat. on these small platforms that I have down here by the wall. They have a crack between the boards same as this so I can sew two pieces together. Then I bend bow stems on these jigs here. This is for a Chippewa or Ojibwe long nosePPand this one down here is forppa indistinct talking Malecite tribe style either one I can make with this shape of bow stem This one down here is Alqonquin old style. So I make different tribal style of canoe by dependingPPon what shape I bend the bowppstem. Then that bow stem gets sewed inside the canoe inside the end and shaped the end. After the ends are made and the blanket is sewn. I have this frame you can see here that's shaped like a bottom of the canoe. So that just shapes the bottom. The form in there I brace it so it stays centered on the canoe. So it doesn't move around. I keep that brace down I fold the sides up uses these jigs here on the sides. Thereppis 7 of these jigs on each side of the canoe. Here, here and all the way down on both sides. And those give me the depth of my canoe. And also placement so I getPPthe width of the canoe. Therepp36 inches wide in the center and then they taperPPdown to the end. After that Ippclamp the gunwales on the top. That's the longPPwooden rail on the top of theppcanoe. In the old days they use to mount guns on PPthe top of the boats, like theppships, sailing ships and also on the big canoes, the North Canoe and the Montreal Canoe and so the top wall aboard a ship you just called a gun wall which got gunwale. or gunnel. And that's what these are the top wall of the ship of top wall of a canoe. After gunwalesppare clamped on I do the root bindings here. These root bindings there is about 70 of those and they hold the gunwales tight together so the ribs don't pop through. This here is a spruce root. This will hold the whole canoe together. canoe together. And it's sewn together with these roots. It takes about 500 feet of roots to do a canoe this size here. I've got 3 holes underneath the gunwale. So I just start in the first hole and I pull the root through and I take the wide end and I stick that in between the gunwales and push that down in there. I go through each hole about 3 or 4 times I try to make the binding about the same width of binding. You think about the natives never had all these tools. When they made the canoes even like an awl like this all they had would be like a deer antler which they would grind on a stone to make corners and use it for drilling or they would leave it round if they wanted to use it enlarging a hole right here. You just go through each one of these holes until you get the width of the binding that you need it to be. The roots aren't always straight up and down here you got kinks. Sew it in there and you work with it. You get the bindings as tight as you can get them. Then when the ribs go in there a groove on the inside gunwale that I make when I make the gunwale. The ribs are just hammered in. When the ribs getPPhammered in between theppgunwales that tightens the roots a little bit more even. I'm on the last hole That's as wide as I'm going to make that binding. I go back through the first hole to the inside and I just cut it off. So it just makes a little S lock underneath the gunwale so the root dries in place and it holds. There is no fancy knots or anything to it. Every other binding I think there is one here, there's a peg. We peg every other one. And the natives used to use like thorns from a thorn apple tree. And that would hold it so the inside gunwalePPdoesn't push up when you putppthe ribs in. After the bindings were all done knockppall this woodwork and framing it all come it. I'll line it lengthwise with cedarpplining which I have some of over here. This goes lengthwise inside the canoe. You see from this Cedar log here the outside layers are lighter that's a sapwood that's what I make into a lining.PPThe heartwood is darker whichppis dryer and stiffer and I make that into the ribs for the canoe. So I get the ribs from the inside of the tree and the lining from outside the tree. I get both of them out of one piece of wood then. These are tools I use here This here is a fro like you use for making shingles I just beat that in with my maul. That's what I use to starting a split. When it'sPPheavier like this I needppsomething with a handle which gives me leverage for breaking it apart. Then after it gets down I just use a butcher knife like this here. You start to split and you crack it apart. First I'm going to be taking the bark off and this fresh and it works better when it's fresh. That's just a wooden wedge that I use here., You see that's all wet inside that's the sap on it yet. First I gotta get the width of the ribs hammering hammering hammering I'll take the hammer and wooden wedge There are different kind of wedges some are oak as some Osage orange a fella from Indiana gave me I tried those. I just need a wedge that's harder then what the cedar is. hammering hammering hammering hammering hammering Now I mark from the outside of the tree and the sap wood. I'll split the heart out of it. You split the cedar at the heart is out you always keep your split in the center and you can control the split as it goes down. This split this way easier then the grain that did the other way when I was using the wedge. Now I just stay in the center all the time. hammering hammering I don't run the scroll all the way down. cause you can see where it makes these in the wood here. If you did that all the way down then it would fracture when you try bending the rib. So you start your split with your blade. And after you start of the split you pull it apart by hand. Now this it's thinner I can just use a butcher knife likePPthis I don't need the leverageppof the fro. You twist the knife in it. You see I keep my feet against it so the end doesn't flop around use your knees and sometimes use whole body use everything you're splitting cedar. The reason we use the heartwood for the ribs is because it's drier and stiffer and it holds the shape of the canoe better. Where the sapwood is more flexible and won't hold it's shape as well. When you're splitting like this at times it feels like your just pushing the split through when you start at the top here. Like you are pushing the split right through it. This here would be the thickness of a rib then. ppI have a shave horse here Chrissy's grandfather use to say that PPeverybody had one of theseppshave horses they made handles for your tools and stuff with these. It was something everybody had when they first homesteaded up here. It's just a clamp you step down on the clamp and then this dumb head comes down against your work and you have both hands free using your draw knife. We leave the ribs widerppin the center, so it has more strength for holding the shape of the canoe. We taper on the ends so that will go between the bindings. And there's a rib. Wider in the center so it has the strength and narrow on the ends so it will go between the bindings. Now I'm down to the sapwood here, so this here will all be made into the lining. You have to keep this end from flipping around or otherwise you lose it. You control aPPsplit as you go down by howppyou bend the wood. See the one on the left here this side here, I'm bending harder because it's a little stronger. You bend the heavyPPside and it keeps the splitppgoing down straight The reason this lining is in the canoePPbecause without the lining inppthe canoe the bark will shrink between the ribs and the canoe looks like a starved horse on a the water with all the ribs on the outside. Which would be drag and slow the canoe down. You put this lining in before you put the ribs in and makes the outside shell stay smoother PPand makes the canoe faster onppthe water. The reason we make it as thin as we do is PPbecause when we put in theppcanoe it gets lapped over each other like this. And if youPPhad a thicker piece and theppbark went over there would be a hollow underneath between thePPbark and the lining where thatppwould be too thick. So we split it thinner that way it keeps itself tighter against the bark. Makes a stronger shell on the canoe then. Takes me about 3 hours to get enough cedar split out for a canoe the ribs and the lining both. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Common Ground. We'll see you next week. If you have a segment idea for Common Ground pertaining to north central MInnesota contact us at [email protected] or call us at 218-333-3022. To view this episode or any Common Ground segment, visit us at lptv.org ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? To order individual segments or entire episodes of Common Ground please call 218-333-3020. Common Ground is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. With money from the vote of the people on November 4, 2008.