Renberg Originals, a relic of local art and history, will be on display at the Fine Line Art Gallery for a short time. The sculptures were recently unveiled after the artist’s daughter discovered boxes where the pieces were stored for likely over two decades. Residents are welcomed to view, or purchase, the sculptures before they are relocated.
Sporting sunglasses and a wide-brimmed summer hat, Edith Renberg discusses her work with two potential buyers at the Fort Festival. The photo was captured by Debra Pilon in a clipping of the Times from Wednesday July 6, 1977.
Beside the black and white photo of Renberg is another photo featuring two handcrafted figurines accurately described as “dreamy and whimsical” in the caption.
One of her figurines is of a young lady wearing a long dress who leans her chin delicately against a broomstick. The details, such as sleeves pushed up past her elbows, a torn piece of dress fabric, hair braided neatly into a vintage updo, and a bucket made of wood, demonstrate Renberg’s abilities to create true-to-life sculptures.
According to the clipping, Renberg had been devoting herself entirely to her artistic endeavors since retiring a few years prior.
Renberg usually sold her sculptures from her home on Thompson Street. At that time, she had two children and four grandchildren.
In 1985, Renberg passed away.
Renberg’s interests in art began naturally at a young age. She carved her first sculpture when she was 16 years old.
“In fact, her dad, a native, gave her father a chunk of soapstone. And at the age of 16, she carved a cougar and it is just lifelike,” says Julie Lutz, Renberg’s daughter and oldest of two children.
Lutz recalls a lady in town who owned a jewelry store that Renberg had worked for back in the day, telling Lutz that her mother often sat in the backyard playing with mud to make things. “It was her toy.”
“Even in Fort Frances here, when they were digging up the street, [my mother] would go and take the clay and work with it and purify it. Because if she made a square flower pot, if you didn’t purify the clay, it would fall in on itself. And some of her little boots on the very bottom of it, it’s got local clay”
Renberg first worked at the paper mill for a short period of time before deciding to make art as a living, which would enable her to provide for her two young kids while spending time at home.
“She was so kind and so good,” Lutz says. “My father died when I was eight. So my mother first went into oil painting. And that’s how she got her little extra money. Because at that time, widows allowance wasn’t too popular.”
Lutz says that her father, Arthur Renberg, also worked at the paper mill and built them a two-storey home which saved costs because the labor was his own.
“She started out doing portraits. And that was short lived because only so many people wanted their portrait painted. And then she went into scenery.”
“She had a little station wagon, and she’d go back north to the lakes. And she would take pictures,” says Lutz, who then tries to describe an old sliding box camera that her mother used.
“I can remember when we were going to go on a trip, she would paint a scene. One scene I do remember is of Main Street Emo. Emo is about 20 miles out of Fort Frances. And she sold it and we went on a trip.”
Lutz says they traveled to the west coast with the profit made from the purchase.
Many of Renberg’s sculptures were inspired by the dress and lifestyle of homesteaders, along with people she encountered in town. “She had a display at the library. She paired the homesteaders and couples. And she usually has a story behind it,” says Lutz.
“There was one couple I remember, and something had happened to her face. And my mother made up a story that she had lit the old wood stove with flammable material and it exploded and burned part of her face. That was one story I remember.”
In addition, Renberg made several sculptures of residents in Fort Frances.
“She did the father of Ellen Watson. And I think I’ve got one whose name is Hans. He’s kind of drunk and he’s having a fun time, and my mother’s little note on the bottom of that was, ‘I can remember this man when I was 16, and he was always happy.’”
Lutz says her mother often wore a magnifying glass headband and referred to photos when working. “And that’s how she could get the faces so intricate,” she says.
The process to create a sculpture or oil painting took hours. Lutz recalls as a young child being forced to sit still for hours on end. “And you can see she caught me when I was mad. And my feelings it’s in the drawing!”
Today, most of Renberg’s paintings have been given to her grandchildren. “My brother had three children and I have four, so the grandkids have picked up her pictures.”
Although Lutz’s children grew up on a farm, where she wanted them to experience a “different type of living,” they often visited grandmother Renberg in town.
“[My mother] was very busy. And she was never bored. She always had some project on the go. And she was also very hospitable. So we had a lot of people coming in and out of our house. Like friends and stuff like that.”
When asked why she wanted to move to town after many years of living on the farm, Lutz replies that it gives her more time to herself. She says she didn’t pick up the same artistic interests as her mother because she was busy raising four children on a farm about 15 miles out from Fort Frances, but with some of her mother’s old paint brushes stored nearby, she says she may try it out one day.
“When you’re out on the farm, every time I looked out a window, I had to do something. Whereas now I’m in town, I look out my window, and I see the people across the street and I’ve got free time.”
Lutz recently picked up rug hooking and has several projects she hopes to finish.
“I called myself the ‘happy hooker,’” she says, laughing. “because I was hooking rugs. And my project before I leave this earth is to finish the hooking. I got about three serious looking projects on the go that I wanted to finish.”
Emily Hyatt, a member of the Fine Line Art Gallery, urges residents to check out the Renberg Originals before the end of the year. She says its been on display since September and will likely be relocated once the year ends.
“I just think it’s a piece of Fort Frances history and heritage. And it’s important for people to be aware of it,” she says.
“When Julie was moving, she started going through boxes that had been her mother’s. So really, they haven’t been on display for probably the last 25 plus years. That’s what’s so interesting about this, it’s like a little slice of history that people get a chance to see.”
