If you go to Saturday's Brew Ha Ha event in LeClaire Park, make sure to talk to some of the people serving in the home-brewing area, booths 37 through 39. These folks could be your new best friends, and not just because they're handing you samples of their beer.
They're both 58 years old, and they've both been creating artwork professionally for decades. They're linked by this weekend's Riverssance Festival of Fine Art in Lindsay Park but have very different attitudes toward the life of a professional artist.
The Great American Thing is, in some ways, a victim of its own success. The exhibit, the first major show at the new Figge Art Museum, opens on September 17 and focuses on modern American art from 1915 to 1935, the "modernist" period roughly coinciding with the interval between the two world wars.
If you hear the phrase "underutilized asset," your eyes probably start to glaze over. But if that underutilized asset is the wind, and if using it more means it costs less to power your home, you might want to pay attention.
The big attraction in LeClaire this past weekend was Tug Fest, but city leaders hope visitors paid attention to 6,000 square feet on the levee. It's nothing special - it looks like paving stones embedded in gravel - but it's a symbol of what's happening in this small town situated on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River.
As Development Director Margaret Babbitt led me up the Figge Art Museum's wide stairway to its second-floor galleries, I was momentarily stunned by Sol LeWitt's enormous drawing that occupies most of the north wall.
"We just unpacked Grand Wood's palette," a worker told Figge Art Museum Director Linda Downs on Monday, while she was giving me a tour. Such are the details that the museum's staff is attending to in the days leading up the Figge's grand opening on Saturday.
If you're in a band, you might know that things are getting serious when business overtakes music as your primary concern. "Lately, it's been all business," said Tom Swanson, singer and guitarist for Jim the Mule.

Living History

He helped create Southern rock music. He was instrumental in paving the way for today's jam bands. He is indisputably one of the greatest guitarists to ever live. His group was one of the inspirations for Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous.
"Some people think that art should shock, provoke strong emotion, but I don't do that," said Rock Island artist Akiko Koiso. "In art, I want something that I enjoy, that I find relaxing, and that brings me peace.

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