Greetings From: Exploring, Learning, and Grounding Through Signs

Photos of Greetings From courtesy Diana Albrecht.

 

An often-overlooked part of the landscape: signs.

Hand-painted on brick, flashing neon. Some are relics, pointing to businesses no longer there. But the most memorable signs speak to something greater than themselves, according to artist Kelsi Sharp.

Sharp is a professional sign maker and owner of Sharp Signs. In a new show at Augsburg University, she documents and shares some of her favorites from across the Twin Cities and Minnesota.

 

Touring Minnesota through signs

Greetings From is formatted, in part, like a tour. There are two road trips — a trip along the North Shore, and a trip through the Saint Croix River Valley. There’s also a second gallery dedicated to the Twin Cities.

Each gallery includes Sharp's photos of signs in their natural habitat. Most are attached to a business. Some are “ghost signs,” advertising things that are no longer there. For the most part, Sharp didn’t include people or cars in her photos, just the built environment.

The show features perennial-favorite landmarks, such as Betty’s Pies and Dusty’s Bar. It also includes sketches of signs, painted by Sharp on the walls.

Each road trip is accompanied by a handwritten note from Sharp. One details her route for future travelers; another includes honorable mentions for visitors interested in a self-designed scavenger hunt.

These travelogues provide a fascinating glimpse into Minnesota through the eyes of a professional sign maker. Sharp had only recently moved to Minnesota when Jenny Wheatley, gallery director at Augsburg, approached her about doing a sign-centered show.

“I said yes without knowing what it was going to be,” recalls Sharp. “It became my exploration as a sign maker of these different regions.”

The materials and landscape were a change from where she lived previously in New Mexico. Growing up along Route 66, metal signs were omnipresent. 

“I didn’t do hand-painted signs until I came to Minnesota,” she recalls. “I became aware of the world of hand-painted signs when I moved here. That’s what clients were used to, and that’s what they were asking for. Now that I’m a part of it, I see that it’s very Midwestern.”

 

 

Sign styles or hallmarks even vary slightly by regions within Minnesota. In the Saint Croix Valley, Sharp noticed a bevy of hand-painted signs. In the metro, she noticed gold leaf.

Through the show, visitors see Sharp learning about and documenting local signs. It’s also been set up to allow both Sharp and visitors to learn and experiment with the sign-making process.

 

Archive, installation, and teaching experience

The show is part archive, part sketch, part installation. It’s a teaching exhibition and has been a learning experience for all involved, say Sharp and Wheatley.

Visitors get a glimpse into the process and often express a new appreciation for signs that they see in the wild. Wheatley learned about the craft through working with Sharp, and Sharp was able to experiment in the context of a gallery show.

“My professional sign projects have to be executed perfectly,” says Sharp. “I don’t get to experiment with things where I can’t guarantee an excellent outcome. In the show, I was really interested in trying new things.”

The show spans three galleries at Augsburg. The Gage Gallery, devoted to the Twin Cities, has the name of the show in gilt lettering on its windows, which was done using imitation gold leaf, a new technique for Sharp. At the opposite end of the Gage Gallery, there’s a re-creation of the hand-painted Viking Bar sign from just down the road. Sharp painted it on brick, then installed the panels together on the gallery wall.

 

 

Alongside the photos are Sharp's hand-painted sketches of other favorite signs. The only example of her professional sign work included is a sketch of the Marty’s Deli sign — meandering cursive on the restaurant’s wall of windows.

Sharp and Wheatley also wanted to offer teaching experiences for students and the public. As part of the opening reception, they collaborated to paint an almost 50-foot sign on the wall of the 720 Gallery at Augsburg, which is also used as a community and event space.

“We had more than 50 people come and paint a beveled sign together and do wheat-pasting collage on the sign,” says Wheatley. “Kelsi had it all mapped out and made the process very approachable. She walked us through the sign-painting process and people got to try it on.”

 

Trying out a part of the process behind sign making gave participants a more tactile glimpse into the craft.

“It makes it come to life,” says Wheatley. “This is something that is a practice. It’s a skill and a trade.”

 

Community ownership

What do signs mean? Sharp says they give people a sense of ownership in their communities.

A sign is a landmark, or at least an accompaniment to a landmark. It’s instantly recognizable. It’s semi-permanent. It’s something to expect, and most likely, it will meet expectations. It will be there. It signals familiarity and stability.  

Sharp is enamored of the way signs are described in a City of Minneapolis ordinance.

“The ordinance opens with what signs are supposed to accomplish,” says Sharp. “They’re supposed to improve the flow of traffic, but also to increase safety in other ways. Signs communicate that people care about a neighborhood and are investing in it.”

 

 

Especially in the context of the physical world, signs go beyond marketing. For Sharp, they help her feel firmly rooted in her neighborhood. As a renter, she says it’s one of a few small ways in which she gets to take ownership.

Her goal for the show is not only for people to develop a new appreciation for signs, but for them to think more deeply about why these signs mean so much to them and to the community.

“I want them to gain that permission and understanding of why it’s so important for us to relate to signs in the way that we do,” says Sharp. “Not only to look at signs differently, but to use that to ground you in a place and take ownership of that place.” ◼︎ 

 

Kelsi Sharp preparing the show. Photo courtesy of Jenny Wheatley.

 

Greetings From is on view through June 30, Mondays through Thursdays, 10 AM - 4 PM at Augsburg University. To see more of Sharp's work, visit her website or Instagram.