From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. 

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This play is🔥

Twin Cities actor Peyton McCandless is looking forward to seeing a new stage adaptation of her favorite childhood book, “Dealing with Dragons.”

The series, written by Patricia C. Wrede beginning in 1991, features Princess Cimorene, who refuses to fit the expected mold of a princess and instead runs off to live with a dragon and have adventures. The novel received the 1991 Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy and Science Fiction. Staged by Phantom Chorus Theatre in collaboration with Arts Nest, the show runs from Friday, Jan. 17 through Feb. 2 at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis. 

This is an all-ages show, but at a running length of 2 hours and 15 minutes, it may not be appropriate for very young children. 

Peyton McCandless raves about Phantom Chorus Theatre’s puppetry, including the dragon Kazool, who is over 10 feet tall.

Peyton says: I saw [Phantom Chorus Theatre’s] most recent show that was called “The Alchemist’s Bargain” at the Twin Cities Horror Fest this last fall, and it was one of the most visually stunning, amazing things I’ve seen in a really long time.

As far as I can tell from what I’ve seen, they’re total geniuses about puppets. They’re really inventive and creative in the puppets that they create, because they make all their own puppets, and also in how they actually use those puppets to tell the story.

And it really feels like they’re not just using puppets for convenience or because it’s cool, but because they actually understand deeply what that art form is. I really can’t think of a better way to put dragons across on stage.

— Peyton McCandless

A stitch in time

Lyn Reed is a former art teacher and a ceramic artist living in Orr, but she made the trip to the Northwoods Friends of the Arts in Cook, Minn., to take in the joyful colors and compositions of fabric artist Cecilia Rolando of Ely.

Entitled “Piecing it Together,” the exhibit runs through Jan. 31. Several small quilts designed and sewn by NWFA’s Round Robin Quilt Group are also on display. 

Lyn Reed offers this look around the gallery, where the colors and textures provide a welcome burst of inspiration in January.

Lyn says: She calls it fabric collage, and that’s exactly what it is. She must have just an incredible resource of fabrics because I notice fabric from Southeast Asia … Japan … she’s used doilies, antique lace, gingham …There’s a piece I really like that’s red and white spiral.

She cuts different pieces of different sizes, and she’s collaged those together. You can see that she’s layered them. She’s using all different types of stitching, and the lines actually look as if they’re in a drawing. The compositions are really beautiful. 

It’s like a cornucopia of all different types of fabrics from around the world. If you love fabrics, you will enjoy Cecilia’s work.

— Lyn Reed 

Photo freedom

Photographer Sarah Weiss of St. Paul is intrigued by a photography exhibit opening this Saturday entitled “With Liberty and Care for All.” Organized by Sarah Sampedro, the photography exhibit includes the work of more than 20 artists in the FotoMatter Artist Collective.

There is an opening artist reception this Saturday, Jan. 18, from 6-9 p.m., and the exhibit runs through March 22. The exhibit is on view in the first-floor gallery of the Northside Artspace Lofts; dial “1” on the call box for building access. 

Sarah Weiss says the photo exhibit grew out of discussions, led by Sampedro, about the concepts of freedom.

Sarah says: What if we put more care into the idea of freedom? What if we had the definition of freedom be more about “us” rather than ‘“I?”  

The work itself is really thought-provoking and introspective, and very much, I think, poignant … just a conversation that we’re due to have as a society.

— Sarah Weiss