LUVERNE -- Nestled in the back yard of Tim and Carol Ceynowa's home in Luverne is a quaint studio filled with light from three side windows and skylights above. It's quiet -- serene even -- and the perfect place for the artist within Carol to craft beautiful works of art.
Ceynowa's studio will be showcased this weekend in Luverne's second annual Holiday Studio Tour. The event, from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, includes eight different locations in the community and showcases the works of Jerry and Kathy Deuschle, Katie Walgrave, Sandra Dowie, Marilyn Zimmerman, Marcella Slater, Chris Nowatzki, Brenda Winter, Kristin Peterson, Judith Edenstrom, Francis Ladd, Cindy Reverts and Jim Brandenburg.
The tour is free to anyone who wants to attend, and a courtesy shuttle will be provided to take people from one studio or gallery to the next.
"I think people are interested in where we do our work," said Ceynowa of the concept behind the studio tour.
Her studio, Titania's Garden, is named after the head fairy in Midsummer Night's Dream. It hints at Ceynowa's fondness for fairies, which in recent years has worked its way into her artwork. Though pottery is her mainstay, she crafts dainty-looking fairies and designs fairy houses out of driftwood and other articles found in nature.
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"We spend a tremendous amount of time by ourselves creating," Ceynowa said. "This is our time to reach out and show people what we've done. I'm most comfortable in my studio."
Ceynowa's love for art grew out of a pottery class she took while in high school in the 1970s.
"I started throwing pots in the 11th grade," she said. After high school, she attended St. Cloud State University, earning a minor in art.
When Ceynowa and her husband moved to Luverne 25 years ago, she kept busy raising their children and teaching in the local school district. She went on to direct plays in the high school for 11 years, and also became involved in the Green Earth Players theatrical group.
Still, she found time for her artwork. It was an outlet for her while caring for a son with juvenile epilepsy. The studio, moved into their back yard 16 years ago, became a sanctuary.
Today, Ceynowa is an artist in residence at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, S.D., while pursuing a major in art. She works closely with ceramics professor Gerry Punt and helps mix glazes for student projects. She also utilizes the school's outdoor kiln to fire some of her own pottery creations.
While she has two kilns of her own at home, one gas and one electric, the firing process there doesn't yield some of the more vibrant colors she can get when her pots are fired in Augustana's outdoor kiln.
Since returning to the classroom to study art, Ceynowa has taken up oil painting, though she is quick to say she hasn't sold any of her paintings -- it's more of a personal outlet for her creativity.
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"I'm always a potter," she said. "There's different seasons I rotate."
When the urge strikes, she switches from throwing pots to crafting the fairy houses. Then, she might move on to making fairies with dainty dresses and colorful features.
"I'm Irish, and I've always had a love for fairies," said Ceynowa.
For her fairy houses, she most recently collected driftwood along Minnesota's North Shore. She has also found dead wood while vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and her husband has been known to bring items back from his mountain treks in Colorado.
Next spring, they plan a trip to Gold Beach in Oregon, and she anticipates retrieving a collection of driftwood artifacts to send home and use in more works of art.
Ceynowa's fairy houses, fairies, stoneware and ceramic pottery will be on display and for sale during Saturday's Holiday Studio Tour in Luverne.
People may start at any one of the studios or galleries on the tour. Locations include Titania's Garden, 515 W. Crawford St.; the Carnegie Cultural Center, 205 N. Freeman Ave.; Those Blasted Things, 924 S. Kniss Ave.; Prairie Moon Gallery, 105 S. McKenzie St.; Brandenburg Gallery, 213 E. Luverne St.; Deuschle Studio, 1294 131st St.; Myhre Studio, 125 E. Main St.; and The Coffey Haus, 111 E. Main St.
There will be an artist's reception at 5 p.m. Saturday at The Coffey Haus. Those who stop at all of the studios and galleries on the tour may register to win an original, signed Jim Brandenburg photo, "Birches in Snow." The drawing will be conducted during the reception, and individuals need not be present to win.
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