Bev Jackson Cotter is a member of the Albert Lea Art Center, 101 S. Broadway, where the 2019 all-member show will be open to the public through Feb. 23.

Wow!

That was my response when I walked into the Albert Lea Art Center when Tom Mullen was hanging the 2019 All Member Show. For many, many years, the Albert Lea Art Center has been sponsoring this exhibition, showcasing the works of member artists, and this year’s show is outstanding.

Artists are not always easy to recognize. They don’t walk around wearing berets and carrying easels and paint brushes. You cannot separate them from anyone else you see on the street, or in a mall, or a restaurant or even a theater. In fact, most of them don’t even describe themselves as being particularly creative. Yet, give them an opportunity to display their works, and their inventiveness comes to the fore — big time.

In this year’s show, you will find “Larry, the Typing Horse” made from recycled food tins, a photographically real pencil drawing of the 1884 Austin Opera House, an ironic, acrylic painting of a fisherman who has fallen asleep while a fish jumps just a few feet beyond his line, and books made from handmade paper blended from thistle down and corn husks.

Look further and you will find a custom-made shield containing the family crest, an unusual photographic look at branches — brown and bare, black wooden angular sculptures, bamboo-glazed ceramics and a watercolor painting of a prom dress with tears. Then there are landscape paintings and wildlife paintings and portraits and unique photos of travel to other countries and other parts of our country, all blended into the largest collection that this show has ever seen.

It is truly an amazing display of the artistic talent that is in our southern Minnesota and northern Iowa area. Where did these pieces come from? Art Center membership consists of approximately 300 households within a 50-mile radius of Albert Lea. Then there are a few members beyond that area, people who once called Albert Lea home and have moved their bodies, but not their hearts.

The included artwork comes from fine arts studios and kitchen tables in small apartments, from professionals with master’s degrees and amateurs who love to draw but would never describe themselves as real artists. Together their work makes for an adventurous, exciting, thought-provoking and creative exhibition.

My old Thorndike Barnhart dictionary describes an artist as a person who is skilled in any of the fine arts, such as sculpture, music or literature, and the word artistic as someone having or showing appreciation of beauty. In my mind, that includes all of us.

Who has not been awed by the amazing color of an August sunset over Fountain Lake or the sparkly white frost crystals on bare branches after a foggy morning in January? Whether we grab our cameras or paintbrushes or simply allow that image to settle in our heads, we are all appreciating beauty.

The current art show is made up of impressions — public, private, local, distant, serious, funny, realistic, abstract, off-the-wall or commonsensical. (That’s not really a word, but you know what I mean. In college an English professor once told me that my writing is too creative. My response? It’s more fun that way.)

Each piece has its own story, just as each artist has his or her own story. Whether you understand a piece or not, it gives you something to think about, and isn’t that the purpose of creativity?

In the next few weeks, we hope you will take the time to stop at the Albert Lea Art Center gallery to view the all-member show. You will be pleasantly surprised at the creative and emotional gift that you will receive and the pride you will feel in the culture of our community.