GRAND MARAIS — Artist Nan Onkka starts each of her prints with an image in her head. A relief woodcut printer, she has to think backward about how she wants to get color and designs onto a page. Any space she carves will become a blank space on the scene as she adds layers of ink onto a page.
“It hurts my brain a little bit. You have to think of layers and problem-solve how to get it to look exactly as you want,” the Grand Marais resident said. “And because I work in the reductive style, I have to decide — before I know how good the print turns out — how many prints I’m going to make of that image.”
Onkka works on her images by layering colors, going from light to dark inks, to give them a watercolor-type effect.
“The inks that I use have some transparency in them, so the light colors don’t really sit on top of dark colors,” Onkka said.
Inked color is added in layers to each print when Nan Onkka creates a woodcut relief.
Teri Cadeau / Duluth Media Group
Onkka’s known mostly for her Northern landscape scenes — and for the miniature prints that she turns into an annual calendar. She also makes a variety of stickers and has both a greeting card wholesale business and a greeting card club. Every three months, members receive a box of six greeting cards, or 24 cards per year.
“I started that a few years ago, but wasn’t sure what to expect. I was kind of blown away by the response. There are people out there who have been part of the club for over four years, since it started,” Onkka said.
The stickers have also been very popular. She said she started turning her prints into stickers a few years ago because she wanted to keep her art accessible price-wise.
“My dad was an artist and my mother an art teacher, so I grew up going to art fairs. And I remember being like, ‘I want to buy something. And I can only buy a greeting card. Oh,'” Onkka said. “Now one of my favorite things is seeing a 5-year-old with their crumpled-up $3 to buy a sticker.”
Rollers, ink containers, and carving tools make up the majority of Nan Onkka’s printmaking studio.
Teri Cadeau / Duluth Media Group
One of Onkka’s most popular stickers has been
which contains the image of a loon emerging from the lake with monarch butterfly wings.
“I liked the symbolism of the loon and the monarch. Both of these species migrate; both make Minnesota their home part of the year,” Onkka said. “I thought it looks kind of like a call to action, and people seem to agree.”
She posted them on her website and donated all of the profits to mutual and legal aid in Minnesota.
“I’ve also passed that on to small businesses who buy my stickers wholesale; they can use that one to raise funds to donate,” Onkka said. “It’s truly been like a butterfly effect, seeing one action in my little studio ripple out all over the area.”
Onkka has been making prints as her main profession for about six years. She took printmaking classes when she was in college for studio art and K-12 art education. As she worked as a teacher, she kept noticing that printmaking was the unit she enjoyed the most, so she started doing it in her guest bedroom while still living in Minneapolis. Onkka and her husband moved to Grand Marais in 2018, while she was on maternity leave and had difficulty finding child care, so she stayed home and decided to pursue making prints.
“Six years later, here we are. My husband helps me with part of my business, and it’s become a family thing,” Onkka said. “I always grew up around art with my parents, and now my children are too.”
Nan Onkka runs a print through her press.
Teri Cadeau / Duluth Media Group
Onkka still teaches art — and especially printmaking — at the Grand Marais Art Colony, and once a year at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. She’s currently teaching a youth art discovery class followed immediately by an adult printmaking class.
“Both groups are fun, different energies for sure,” Onkka said. “I still like getting to teach art.”
Teri Cadeau is a features reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. Originally from the Iron Range, Cadeau has worked for several community newspapers in the Duluth area, including the Duluth Budgeteer News, Western Weekly, Weekly Observer, Lake County News-Chronicle, and occasionally, the Cloquet Pine Journal. When not working, she’s an avid reader, crafter, dancer, trivia fanatic and cribbage player.