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Please join Zenith Bookstore as we welcome award-winning artist & author Sam Zimmerman on Friday, October 23rd at 7 PM. Sam will share his latest book, Walking My Ancestors’ Path: A Collection of Paintings and Stories (Minnesota Historical Society Press). Sam will talk about his paintings and stories and answer questions from the audience. His beautiful book will be available for purchase and Sam will personally sign them for guests. Please invite a friend!When Sam Zimmerman / Zhaawanoogiizhik returned to the North Shore of Minnesota in the late 2010s, reconnecting with family and the rugged landscape unleashed his creativity: He completed eighty paintings in just a year. That artistic fervor was on display in his first book, Following My Spirit Home, published in 2022. If the works collected there celebrated reconvening with his family, the creative pace he has kept since further charts his devotion to the northland and his gratitude for the spirits who inhabit it. Walking My Ancestors’ Path features paintings and stories from this more recent productive and reflective period.
Arranged seasonally, these paintings in Zimmerman’s distinctive style evoke characteristic North Shore scenes, capture skyscapes and landscapes, and highlight creatures whose spirits have connected with his own. The accompanying stories, many also retold in Ojibwemowin by Manidoo Ma’iingan, reflect on points of inspiration, emotional resonances, and everyday events in the artist’s life. A separate section, “To Tell a Story,” explores how this impulse links Zimmerman to generations of regional storytellers, including his cousin, writer Staci Lola Drouillard, who penned a foreword for this volume.
This compilation commemorates animal spirits ranging from bees to rainbow trout, from hummingbirds to wolves, and is illuminated with the vibrant flora and vivid hues of Minnesota’s beloved northland.
Artist and educator Sam Zimmerman / Zhaawanoogiizhik is a direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe). Drawing on ancestral connections, Zimmerman continues the Anishinaabe tradition of storytelling, embedding the themes of environmental stewardship and conservation of the North Shore in his studio and public art commissions. He lives in Duluth, Minnesota, and regularly explores the natural beauty of Minnesota’s North Shore. He has several books out including How the Birds Got Their Songs, I am on Indigenous Land, and his most recent Napesni Renegade.
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Event venue
318 North Central Ave, Duluth, MN, United States, Minnesota 55807
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