The St. Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota, has  announced the selection of the Summer 2014 Artists at Pine Needles. Dave Beck of  Menomonie, Wisconsin, Anne Marie Queenan of St. Paul and David Spohn of Lindstrom  will participate this summer.

This program of the research station provides residencies for natural history artists and writers at the research station’s Pine Needles cabin and offers interaction with  environmental scientists and the local community. The residencies will begin in May and  continue through late August.

For the first time, the program welcomes back a previous participant for a second residency. 3D digital artist and sculptor Beck (website) produced a digital animation titled “Log  Jam” when he was an Artist at Pine Needles in 2010. Now teaching in the School of  Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Beck produces new media with a  historical and environmental focus. His residency plans are to design a 3D interactive  video environment, incorporating themes from the exploration and development of the  American Midwest.

Anne Marie Queenan (website) is a writer, video and documentary producer who has worked since 2008 on projects conveying important issues affecting the Minnesota River. She  plans to develop an oral and video history/blog which profiles the natural history of the  St. Croix River. She will collect and share stories, images, and sounds of the river valley.

David Spohn’s art has been focused on two fronts, the creation of books and the art of printmaking. He creates solar plate etchings; a recent series of dragonflies was supported by a McKnight Foundation Fellowship grant with selections included in the permanent collection at the University of Minnesota-Morris. He plans to delve deeply into the environment of the river valley and commit to creating art that both celebrates the river and educates about its challenges.

The Artist at Pine Needles program is held at the cabin of the late James Taylor Dunn, noted historian of the St. Croix River Valley, and fulfills his wishes that this property be  used as a scholarly and artistic retreat. The St. Croix Watershed Research Station in  Marine on St. Croix is the environmental research department of the Science Museum of  Minnesota.

Previous Pine Needles Posts:

• Ryan Rodgers: A day in the life of an artist-in-residence at Pine Needles
• Artist Seeks St. Croix River Memories
• Presentation by Pine Needles Artist and Poet