Last Updated: Sunday, August 13, 2006 4:53 PM CDT
Art world welcoming Gruett
By Laurie Lenten - Daily News Staff - laurie.lenton@lee.net
Molly Gruett laughed when the idea of hers being the story of a hometown girl making it good was posed.
“I guess you could say that,” said Gruett, “All I know is that everything is going well, very well, for me this month.”
Very well indeed.
For the past handful of weeks the Laona native has attended her share of art receptions and awards ceremonies. What with being the recent winner of the Downtown Rhinelander, Inc. logo design contest, receiving a Patron Award in the 19th Annual Northern National Art Competition, which is being hosted at Nicolet College through September 8, and looking forward to her first gallery showing at The Flying Pig Gallery and Greenspace in Algoma on September 17, life as an artist couldn't be going any better.
By day, the UW-Green Bay Mass Communications graduate is a Web Editor for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, working hand-in-hand with DOT engineers keeping the department's road construction information site updated and looking good.
But in her free time, the mother of a 16-month old daughter, turns to her paints and the creative process. Gruett's artistic passion (and strength, she adds) is painting.
“I enjoy mixed media and am working on encaustic painting right now,” she said.
Encaustic painting, she explained, is a mixed media process of painting with oil paints and beeswax which are then heated to create a chemical reaction.
“It creates a very durable piece of art,” said Gruett, “but what I like about it is that once you complete the heating process you can end up with a very unexpected final product.”
And Gruett's life these days has been a study in the unexpected.
Having a work not only chosen for inclusion in the 19th Annual Northern National Art Competition, but to receive a Patron Award and the $100 check that goes with it on her first time entering the competition was not only unexpected, but no small feat.
Each year an esteemed nationally known judge chooses from hundreds of entries by artists from coast to coast. This year's judge, photographer, author, and Professor of Art at SUNY in Albany, New York Phyllis Galembo, made her selections from over 600 entries from artists in 37 states, said Gruett.
Coming directly on the heels of that experience was the announcement that Gruett's logo design had been chosen by the Downtown Rhinelander, Inc. group to represent the newly designated Main Street downtown district. Gruett's stylized design was heavily influenced by German woodcut designs, she said, and meant to capture the feel of Rhinelander.
“I grew up coming to Rhinelander to shop,” said Gruett, “So I had that experience to draw from.”
But Gruett also had a list of other Rhinelander connections to draw from. Her mom and dad, she said, both work in Rhinelander, at Trig's and Wausau Paper Company respectively. And her in-laws, Allegra and Michael, own Forest T.V. and Appliance on Brown Street in the heart of the downtown business district.
Gruett said she and husband, Jason, have a vested interest in the health of the Rhinelander's downtown, “This is where we want to raise our family.”
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