Art & Soul Artists

After retiring from a long career as a cabinet maker, I returned to the simple joy that first drew me to wood in the beginning: the pleasure of shaping something honest with my hands. As the one‑man force behind Rusty Nail Woodcraft, I built pieces meant to be used, touched, and lived with. Today my craft has widened into a playful mix of turned bowls, cribbage boards, small benches, and whatever else the grain inspires. I still love the quiet conversation between tool and timber, and I’m happiest when a rough piece of wood becomes something that feels good to hold.

I’ve lived in Ely, Minnesota since 1973, where my husband and I raised our three sons and settled into the rhythm of the Northwoods. Once my days were no longer consumed by work and family, I finally gave myself permission to dive into art. Ely makes that easy—its wild edges, dramatic seasons, and everyday beauty offer a never ending stream of ideas. There’s always something here worth capturing.

Marissa Kayne Saurer’s work is shaped by a vision that feels both intimate and slightly unmoored. Her paintings do not aim to simply replicate landscape; they translate it into memory, mood, and vibration. She creates work that feel touched by altered perception without ever losing their tether to the natural world.

Her expressionist style is distinctive. In her hands, trees, water, sky, and distant landforms become emotional structures rather than fixed objects. A curved horizon may suggest the way vision shifts at the edge of awe, while layered swirls of paint can evoke the immersive drift of a mind fully absorbed by wild places, a sense that the visible world is only part of the story. This gives her paintings a quiet intensity: they are grounded in place, but they also point toward something inward, expansive, and difficult to name.

Consie Powell is an artist and writer who loves to snoop in nature’s lovely untidy places, creates books for young readers, binds her own sketch journals, and each day finds herself making visual or written notes (and usually both) to keep track of how life dances around us. She gets outside with sketchbook, hand-lens, and binoculars whenever she possibly can.

Nancy Ensley has been part of Art & Soul Gallery since its beginning, always trying to feature the North Woods in her work. Her interest in art began at a young age while working as the commercial artist for the 9 public libraries in Arlington, Virginia. Following a career in medicine she returned to art after moving to Ely and joining the local watercolor club and Art & Soul. She has also exhibited in several other galleries in Northeastern Minnesota, including the MacRostie Gallery in Grand Rapids and the Merrill Lynch Gallery at the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth.