Ask Pearl (Mildred) Painter.

Lanctot, director and curator of Northern Michigan University’s DeVos Art Museum, met with the public on Thursday at a reception for her exhibit, “People, Secrets, and Snacks,” at the Deo Gallery, located in the lower level of the Peter White Public Library. The gallery is part of the city of Marquette’s Office of Arts and Culture.

Lanctot called her exhibit “a series of portraits,” the subjects of which submitted information on a form.

“They answered questions like, ‘What is your favorite snack?’ ‘Who’s your favorite artist?’ ‘What are you favorite colors?’ ‘Do you have a favorite memory?’ or ‘Do you collect anything?'” Lanctot said, “and then I used their answers to make their portrait.”

“Kaelyn at 25 with Foxes and Bunny” is the name of Emily Lanctot’s acrylic-on-wood painting, which is part of her exhibit, “People, Secrets, and Snacks.” The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 1 at the Deo Gallery on the lower level of the Peter White Public Library. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

Some people submitted photographs of themselves, she noted, but not everyone was required to provide a picture.

That didn’t stop her from creating their likenesses.

“I said, ‘I’ll make you a real or imagined portrait,'” Lanctot said. “Some of them are a little more imagined than others.”

Lanctot originally too

k on the project under a pseudonym, Pearl (Mildred) Painter, which came from a former art supply store in New York City named Pearl Paint. Mildred, however, was her grandmother’s name.

“I thought it would be a fun project to think about how this (would) work if I was co-imagining artwork with someone else,” Lanctot said.

Emily Lanctot, right, discusses her exhibit, “People, Secrets, and Snacks,” with Marquette artist Gail Mahan. The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 1 at the Deo Gallery on the lower level of the Peter White Public Library. Lanctot called her exhibit “a series of portraits,” the subjects of which submitted information on a form. “They answered questions like, ‘What is your favorite snack?’ ‘Who’s your favorite artist?’ ‘What are you favorite colors?’ ‘Do you have a favorite memory?’ or ‘Do you collect anything?’” Lanctot said, “and then I used their answers to make their portrait.” (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

Pearl took on her own identity as someone who lived in the Copper Country and painted, the “real” artist said, although Pearl is partially Lanctot. This led to extra thinking on Lanctot’s part.

“I would question things like, ‘I should paint it this way,'” Lanctot said. “Really, should I? Why does it have to be this way?”

That’s when the co-imagination way of thinking came into play.

“How can your imagination be shifted if you were working sort of collaboratively with alter egos?” Lanctot said.

The project started at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was really amazing because I started the project in March of 2020 to be able to learn about people,” Lanctot said, “and some of these people I know but I would never ask them, ‘What is your favorite snack?’ But Pearl, on the form, could ask them that.

“And so it was really delightful to get to know people in a way that I didn’t know them before, although I worked with them on committees or they’ve been colleagues of mine.”

Part of the Deo Gallery exhibit involved decorated cans of snacks that people didn’t necessarily have to open. Lanctot said she had a show in a Copper Country general store last summer and started making labels for cans.

“About the only place I saw design during the pandemic was at the grocery store, and so I started to think, ‘What would you want in a general store? How is the language of consumerism funny? How can it be humorous?'” Lanctot said.

The cans took on that theme. Reception visitors were welcome to take home the cans, which Lanctot considered to be artwork for a kitchen or even an inside joke. Lanctot noted she will continue to paint more portraits in the series, and hopes to show them in the future.

Gail Mahan of Marquette, an artist who creates artwork such as oil paintings and necklaces made from homemade paper, was at the Thursday reception.

“It’s very inspiring, imaginative and very interesting,” Mahan said of Lanctot’s exhibit.

The Lake Superior Art Association curates the exhibits in the Deo Gallery, which is managed by the city’s art and culture office. “People, Secrets, and Snacks” will be on display in the Deo Gallery until Jan. 1.

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.