Local authors Scott Husby and Tracey Cullen will be at the JHP Art Gallery to discuss their new book - John A. Spelman, Artist and Printmaker: From Appalachia to Minnesota's North Shore.

JOHN SPELMAN III, one of Minnesota's most notable artists, was an accomplished printmaker who spent much of his life in Grand Marais. Woodcuts and linoleum-block prints were Spelman's preferred medium, but he also produced pencil drawings and watercolors, and tried his hand at poetry. From 1937 to 1941, he taught art at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County, Kentucky. While there, he created a striking series of prints of rural cabins and homesteads, many of which he collected in a book entitled At Home in the Hills. In 1942, Spelman moved to Grand Marais and turned his attention to depicting life in a small North Shore community. He continued to portray rural landscapes and buildings, including structures such as fish houses and logging camps that no longer exist.

The book, John A. Spelman, Artist and Printmaker: From Appalachia to Minnesota's North Shore, is currently available for purchase from JHP Art Gallery and Drury Lane Books and will be available for purchase during the author talk.

This book and accompanying exhibit was sponsored by the Cook County Historical Society and made possible by a generous grant from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation. The majority of pieces were loaned by Sharon and Donn Eliasen or are part of the permanent collection of the Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery. Other members of the local community also kindly contributed artwork.