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Living Magazine
Excerpts from:
Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel
 Sunday edition- 2007 By Donna Marie Pocius Photos by John Robb Kathy Mand Beck cracks people up when she tells them her decorating style is “egg-lectic.” Beck is a decorative egg artist, who lives above her Dovetail Gallery in, of all places, Egg Harbor. Her story began to grow when she discovered in the early 1990's a new art form and a historic log building in the heart of this village on the Door county peninsula. More recently, Beck has shared the upper level of the two-story home with her husband, Tom Mand, who moved from New Holstein about one year ago. Beck hails from Wauwatosa.“So, I've just taken one step to the next. To me, this is heaven – the closest thing I can think of. I think we are blessed to be here,” Beck says. The circa 1873 home has hand-hewn dovetailed logs and a 1917 addition with cedar shake shingles. Historical records show that the peninsula's only medical professional, Dr H.F. Eames lived in the log home as he built a bigger place on a nearby hill.In the 1800's, it wasn't fashionable to have a log house; you were considered poor. So he immediately had the logs covered up.” Beck says. Fast-forward to 1993, when Beck purchased the home and hired a contractor to expose and refurbish the logs as well as reapply chinking between them. Today, the gallery's exposed tamarack beams, log walls and wood floors provide a natural backdrop to Beck's art (decorative eggs, glass, copper sprinklers and clay sculptures) as well as work by other artists.A new stairway leads to a 600-sauare-foot private space filled to its intimate brim with a personal art collection and family heirlooms. Here the displayed eggs are gifts. A greater collection sits under glass downstairs in the gallery, where an Egg Art Museum showcases a 70 million-year-old dinosaur egg, a Faberge' Easter egg and nearly 400 eggs from all over the world.Beck paints and carves eggshells with flowers and other natural scenes, personal inscriptions and even company logos. She also creates stunning egg sculptures, integrating carved eggshells with her glass art and found natural materials – rocks, leaves and more. The egg is the strongest shape in the world. “When I purchased it in 1993, you couldn't see any logs. There were five layers of material on the outside and three layers on the inside covering it all – all different kinds of material before we got down to the logs. And then it was a wish and a prayer – we didn't know if the building would stay standing. Almost all the chinking had fallen off between the logs. We had to take all that out, put insulation in there and the logs were then wire-brushed and cleaned with linseed oil. Q. What were you thinking as you restored the building? For media interviews and site visits, please contact Kathy Mand Beck at (920) 868-3987 or email kathy@dovetailgallery.com. Back to the Egg Art News |
A Magical Blend of Art and Nature!
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