Our prairie lakes region boasts some of the most eclectic and accomplished artists around. "Meet Me On The Tour" is your invitation to connect personally with these creative individuals.
Artists are listed alphabetically by last name. This is a partial list - not all participating artists are included here.

A - H

I - Q

R - Z

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"What a wonderful way to meet the artists behind the fantastic art work!"

2026 Studio Tour Events
I'll be spinning wool yarn and demonstrating different kinds of fibers.

Laurie Connolly

I've been working with fibers most of my life! Creating beautiful items has been my life's work.

I work with silk, wool, leaves and dyes to create usable items to wear and use. Fusing glass to make unique products has been an enjoyable learning experience.
  
I felt wool and silk and then leaf-print and dye the felt. I make many different covers for use on journals and art media notebooks. Also silk scarves, necklaces and other silk items. 

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"Please visit me and my friends at Off the Wall Gallery in Clitherall for Art of the Lakes Studio Tour!"

Della Conroy

Della Conroy is a lifelong resident of Stevens County in Minnesota. She is an artist and musician who lives and works at her studio in Hancock. Della has learned her skills by participating in many workshops and classes over the years.
 
Della works in watercolor, pastel, acrylic, oil, encaustic, and collage. 
   
Della likes to experiment with different papers and media such as watercolor on yupo, collage and encaustic, but most of her work is done in watercolor, pastel and oil. Her typical subject matter includes the prairie landscape, floral and abstract art.

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"Connecting with people who share a passion for the art form is incredibly meaningful to me, and I truly value every conversation and connection made through my craft."

2026 Studio Tour Events
I will have the process of how to make handmade paper available for those who are interested.

Shirlee Aho Daulton
The Art House

With 18 years of study under an Iowa State professor and extensive workshops in woodcuts and papermaking, my artistic background is diverse. This foundation, combined with advanced pottery training, allows me to bring a unique, multi-disciplinary perspective to the art I create at The Art House in Ottertail, Minnesota. 
 
Unique artwork including woodcuts, handmade paper from plants, fish prints , clay, paintings, fiber arts and unusual jewelry. 
    
I create unique, handbuilt claywork and paintings inspired by nature, working between Arizona and Rush Lake, Minnesota. My acrylics, alcohol inks, and handmade baskets incorporate local flora and fauna, reflecting the natural beauty of both environments. Each piece is a one-of-a-kind tribute to the world around me.

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"Come meet me on the Studio Tour!"

Julie Gish

From an early age I took an interest in drawing and painting. Through high school and college years and beyond I remained an occasional “artist”. With 20 years working in Interior Design, I had a creative outlet in my work. In retirement I’ve been more devoted to my art.
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My art mediums include acrylics, watercolors, mixed media and fabrics. 

My art process is not complicated. I paint and create what I want. Bright colors excite me and I find acrylics lend themselves to that expression of color! My love for fabric brought me to experiment with fabric art. I like to think of it as painting with fabric.

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"I will be doing a demonstration each day of the tour and will have a matted original painting as a drawing for one lucky person."

Grace Haverty

I have been painting many years. I not only teach art classes in watercolor, I still take art classes to keep learning and to keep my mind open to new ideas.
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​My mediums are watercolor, ink and pencil.

I love to paint flowers. I always have fresh flowers in my home and paint them often. First I sketch in the flowers lightly and then I proceed to paint them.

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"My studio space is very special to me. I really appreciate the opportunity to share it with the visitors who walk through my door during the Tour."

Kristi Swee Kuder
Sommerfryd Studio

I’m a multi-disciplinary artist who works with natural fibers, wire and stainless-steel mesh. I’ve taught workshops throughout Minnesota, as well as volunteer, and have served as a board member and chair of Art of the Lakes. I’m a 2016 alumnus of St. Catherine University Women’s Art Institute, an LRAC McKnight Fellow and multiple MSAB Artist Initiative Grant recipient.

My works have been in solo and group exhibitions regionally, nationally, and internationally and I maintain my studio near my residence at Otter Tail Lake, MN. 

Working with natural fibers, I use eco-print, cyanotype, and natural and commercial dyes to create beautiful one-of-a-kind garments and accessories for summer wear. With a raised awareness of the need for sustainability, I’m also using my imagination and creativity to upscale thrift store garments. My voice is added to my pieces through my hand stitching—often using the timeless Japanese technique called Sashiko.

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"My work is touchable! I will have scan codes I encourage patrons to view to talk about the works."

Studio Tour Events
I will have a table of collage materials for patrons to make keepsakes.

Lyssa Lovejoy
Lovejoy Fine Art

I create layered, expressive artwork rooted in resilience, connection, and the beauty of becoming. I hope my work invites viewers to slow down, look deeper, and find their own story within each piece.
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I create in multiple mediums, letting each series take on its own style, energy, and direction.
  
I work on several pieces at once, building layers that allow each painting’s story to develop naturally.

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"The Studio Tour allows me to talk to many art lovers and get ideas of what they would like to see."

Faythe Mills

I graduated with a Graphic Design Degree in 1990. Illustration courses prepared me for illustrating eleven books so far. I've done many portraits of pets and people.
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My mediums include soft pastel, acrylic, pencil, watercolor, ink wash.

Many of my paintings are from photos I've taken in Mexico and other travels I've been on.

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"Meet me on the Art of the Lakes Studio Tour! "

John Offutt
House of Mulciber

I put myself through undergrad (B.A. in Art, 1991) as a screen printer. After the birth of my daughter, I earned an MFA in Glass from the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, (1996) and spent the next 30 years earning my living as a glassblower in my garage. I was a co-founder of the Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists and the director of the FMVA's Studio Crawl for the past 22 years.
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My mediums are blown glass vessels with innovative surface treatments and color applications.

All of the work that I blow starts out as molten clear glass in a 2100 degree furnace. The colors are added and the patterns are created while I make the vessel. I have also started fusing sheets and pieces of glass in a kiln to create flat work.

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"I enjoy meeting new people who are interested in art. And it’s especially fun to see the same people year after year."

Kathy Peterson

I am a self taught artist having had a couple of good local mentors. Painting as often as possible is my goal to becoming a better artist.
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My medium is mainly watercolor with an emphasis in landscape. I also do pet portraits in mixed media and people portraits in pencil.
 
My pet portraits start with a mono print of acrylic paint made on a gelli plate. I will draw the pet image right on the print using colored pencils. Last I add highlights with white marker.

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"You're invited into my working studio to experience my creative space. Please come in, say hello, and take your time exploring."

Susan Seaborn
Studio Grace

Susan has been painting in watercolor for over 30 years and has been creating art in various forms most of her life. She continues to explore and share her love of creating through teaching and by staying active in art organizations. Susan has taken many workshops from great watercolor artists over the years. After being accepted into national juried art shows, a particular number of times, Susan has earned signature status from the Arizona Watercolor Association (AWA) and the Red River Watercolor Society (RRWS). You will see those initials, in her signature, after her name. Susan is a retired nurse, a wife, a mom of three, and a gramma of five boys!
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Susan is an award winning watercolor artist known for her expressive florals and luminous use of color. She enjoys painting a variety of subjects and especially loves working from life and painting en plein air. Susan also enjoys teaching and sharing her love of watercolor.

In addition to her paintings, Susan also creates handcrafted jewelry in sterling silver, copper, and brass. Several new pieces will be featured in her studio, to include bracelets, pendants, rings, and earrings.
   
Susan is inspired by color and light. She paints fast and deliberate and often designs her painting around what inspires her at the moment. She welcomes splatters and splashes to create movement in her work. She often uses stamps and stencils that she has created, as well as vintage tools to create textures in her paintings. Susan can be sneaky too, putting Morse code messages into her painting with dots and dashes. She admits that it is a great way to send a healing message to someone who needs it as well as to move the viewers eye around her painting.

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"I'd love to meet you and chat on the Studio Tour in 2026!"

Bill Seykora
Turning Lake Designs

I have been exploring wood for over 40 years, settling into wood turning around 1998. Learning the tricks of the trade as a self taught turner. Exploring and challenging myself with new ideas and techniques.
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Wood is my primary medium - bowls, benches/tables, charcuterie, cutting boards, pizza cutters, to butter knives. All made from local woods to exotic African and redwood species, highlighting them with resin, colored pencils and more.
 
Originally working with wood bowls - then exploring charcuterie boards with resin adding colored pencil, Japanese Knotwood and other odd items to see what can happen. The combination of colored pencils and resin added a whole new avenue to explore ending up with pepper grinders to Lazy susans full of color and a new design with exciting challenges. Creating pieces as the wood lead me - from butter knives to large tables.

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"There are a large variety of really good artists on this tour! I'm located at "Off The Wall" Gallery with several other artists and we have a huge selection to shop from!"

Merodie Seykora
Turning Lake Designs

I have been working with clay for over 50 years. I have taught Elementary- high school art for several years and also through community ed, and retired in 2014. I have shown my work in Colorado and Nebraska, but primarily in art shows in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

I am primarily a potter, with a love of texture and the challenges of throwing, hand building and manipulating the clay in new and exciting ways. You will also experience colored pencil earrings made from the scraps from my husbands art along with woven towels and the play of colors in my paper weavings.
 
My pottery is high fired and tend to be mostly functional as I feel it is important if you're going to use it, it should be comfortable and make your coffee taste better! I like to work both on the wheel and hand building. I have always been drawn to textures and patterns which you will see in my work.

When you work in clay you just never know how the final piece will turn out as the glazes are not what they turn out to be when finished. Because of that, and as a challenge to manipulate color I started weaving textured patterns together pushing myself thru trial and error. I became fascinated with the process and where it will take me. 

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"Looking forward to meeting you on the Studio Tour!"

Studio Tour Events
Sunday: live wheel-throwing and trimming demonstrations! We'll also have our 30-cubic-foot natural gas kiln open, offering a behind-the-scenes look at where the excitement happens. 

Patrick Shaugnessy
Clayhouse Pottery Studio

Married to a potter for 40 years, I’ve been surrounded by clay and studying the craft for two decades. After retiring from my floor-covering business, I now split my time between beekeeping and the pottery studio, creating functional stoneware like honey jars, mugs, bowls, and butter dishes.
 
I’ve been refining my skills on the potter's wheel, crafting a variety of functional stoneware pieces. From daily-use mugs to specialty honey jars, each wheel-thrown item is designed to bring handcrafted quality to your home. It’s a rewarding continuation of my decades-long connection to the craft.
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"Enjoy exploring local studios and visiting the artists. Recharge at nearby eateries between stops. If a studio is buzzing, consider planning a return visit to dive deeper later. Enjoy your art excursion!"

Studio Tour Events
Five artists will be displaying at Clayhouse Pottery Studio!

Sandra Shaugnessy
Clayhouse Pottery Studio

For over forty years, I’ve explored the depth of clay—from a teen apprentice to earning my MFA. My "Ceremoniously Functional" soda-glazed pottery blends ritual with daily life. Today, I create from Clayhouse Pottery Studio in Ottertail, Minnesota, continuing a lifelong fascination with this ancient, transformative material.
 
At Clayhouse Pottery, I create stoneware clay built for everyday use—think sturdy mugs, oil bottles, and versatile serving platters. I also make seasonal clay flowers, wren houses, bells and "sassy trays" stamped with my take on world events. All work is fired gas in a atmospheric soda kiln or electric kiln. Food safe.

My process includes wheel thrown and slab constructed, often with alterations out of round.

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"Let's have fun!."

Studio Tour Events
If you ask, we’ll offer an actual ‘studio tour’ this year at our place on Round Lake. We can look through the two small studio buildings I use to make my stuff, and perhaps this year I’ll do a throwing demo. 

John Shaw
Round Lake Studio

It started in kindergarten with that simple handprint. My mother was an occasional potter, and I grew up with wet clay in the house. I worked with clay through high school and college, eventually putting it aside for architecture. I practiced as a licensed architect in Iowa City for thirty-five years and built a small architectural firm with a focus on sustainable design. This has afforded me the luxury of returning to clay. My wife Terry and I live on a small lake in North Central Minnesota. And our cat Katie, of course.
 
In collaboration with glassblower John Olesen, I have been experimenting with the intersections of clay and glass, exploring how the two materials can be brought together.

I have a great respect for clay as a material, born of course from my lifelong juxtaposition, but also from its ability to become nearly anything one can invent: some make it look like softly tanned leather, some like highly polished stone.
  
My work is very often spare and understated, with sparse clean accents. Most often the color, texture and quality of the bare clay is foremost, demonstrating the inherent beauty of this stuff. Clay can be anything, which makes it an ideal material with which to explore the duality of the world, and the necessary dialogue between opposites, the intersection of soft and hard, smooth and rough, cell and crystal.

When clay is transformed by heat, that moment of making becomes fixed, this always feels a bit like freezing time.

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"Our location is a bit off the main route but an absolute must stop for the views, demos, and work."

Brad Wegscheid

Brad graduated from the Minnesota Center for Arts Education before going to receive a BFA in Graphic Communication. Nearly his whole life has been spent living and creating in MN. His work can be found in several public venues and has been featured on Common Ground on PBS several times.
  
Most of my work is sculptural with a whimsical nature. I work with clay, wood, metal, cement and found objects.
 
If my work makes you smile, take a step closer or stop for a moment the work is a success. Life is short so the process of creation should be fun, and fulfilling. It is my goal to share that fun with any audience who likes whimsy, fun and joy.

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"It is so worth it to take the self-guided tour to as many studios as possible to engage with artists, see fabulous works of art, and purchase something impossible to live without!"

Mary Jo Wentz

Fiber / Textile artist, Felter, Painter
  
Mediums include fibers, alcohol inks, wool, silk, bamboo.

I have three different processes:

1. using vintage fencing masks I use embroidery floss, wire, metal pieces, sisal, and feathers to embellish the masks.
2. using alcohol inks and yupo paper and primed canvas to paint works of art.
3. using wool roving and other wool fibers I create works of art using both needle felting, wet felting and nuno felting. 

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