Metal sculptor Karmen Rheault shows off the process of making her art at her Snowfire Studio north of Moorhead during last weekend’s FMVA Studio Crawl. (Photo/Russ Hanson)

Nancy Edmonds Hanson
hansonnanc@gmail.com
Despite dark, wet days, the 15th annual Studio Crawl connected nearly 80 professional and student artists with curious art patrons on Saturday and Sunday.
Metal artist Karmen Rheault of Moorhead, who had worried the unseasonable weather would keep her audience home, was pleasantly surprised by the 335 who visited her Snowfire Studio. “It was very comparable to past years,” the metal sculptor and jewelry maker said. “I’m happy that people make the trip out here, since we’re a few miles from the city.”
At the end of the 16-mile trek to her farmstead, guests watched her demonstrate her metal-cutting and welding techniques outside her studio, located in a picturesque red century-old granary. Large-scale welded-steel sculptures line the road into the farmstead; other work was displayed in her home. She showed the technique of cutting complicated forms from sheets of metal with a plasma cutter, which reached temperatures of 30,000 degrees – three times the temperature of the sun.
A total of nearly 80 artists welcomed visitors to 40 locations for the “meet the artists” event. Other Moorhead stops on the annual tour, sponsored by Fargo-Moorhead Visual Artists, included Barbara Benda Nagle, Brenda Luthi, Emily Williams-Wheeler, Ruth Severson, Jodi Peterson, Britt Dalice, Jacqueline J. Anderson, Dennis Krull, Barry Kutzer, Ashley Kunz and professors and students of the MSUM School of Art.