Hands On: People at Work Art Exhibit

Beginning on Labor Day, Water and Oil Art Gallery will host the exhibit “Hands On: People at Work.” Selected works will offer tribute to the sweat equity earned through hard work, artisanship and craftsmanship. Featured artist Judy Westergard will be displaying her series “A Show of Hands—Hands as Portraiture.” Evocative of their owners’ personal narratives, Westergard describes the inspiration that led to these works:

“I grew up in historic northeast Minneapolis in a blue-collar environment. I studied my mom’s hands as she hung clothes and rolled dough for pierogi. I watched with a five-year-old’s fascination our next door neighbor’s hands as she used her ax to decapitate a hen for dinner. And even as a kid I sensed that my family’s welfare depended upon my dad’s ability to use those strong hands of his to shovel coal into the boiler of a Soo Line steam engine. The folks in my neighborhood survived by working with their hands. This probably was the beginning of my fascination with them.”

The exhibit will be on display through the month of September, with an open house Saturday, Sept. 13 from 5-9 p.m. All ages, free.