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WABASHA — Fine arts has long been a passion of Rob Trussell and Judy Anderson, a couple who opened a business, Local World Gallery, that features artwork and products from 26 local makers.
The business, in Wabasha, opened five years ago, when the couple moved to the area after many years in the Twin Cities. They felt it was the right location for a nice novelty store, but they didn’t want to carry just anything.
They wanted to curate a shop full of art and artisan products from local makers from the surrounding area in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Their own passion for art comes from their hobbies; Anderson is a potter by trade and Trussell uses the store space to teach beginning guitar lessons.
“I was in home remodeling and I was looking for a different career because that’s kind of taxing,” Trussell said. “So I said you know I think I could open this store based on your pottery, and we’ll curate other artists and let’s go for it.”
The store includes a good mixture of painters and potters’ work on display, as well as homemade soaps and lotion from Rochester. One thing they would like to get into the store is more woodworkers or wood items.
Trussell and Anderson also wanted their store to appeal to the range of senses.
“I really wanted us to have the silk scarves because there’s movement there,” Anderson said. “It’s not just a static art. When you open the door, they flow in the breeze and they’re soft to touch. We’ve added the soaps with all natural goat milk soaps with wonderful aromas and ingredient combinations.”
Trussell and Anderson are always looking for more artists for the store, but Anderson also makes sure there is more than enough art around the building. She has been a potter for more than 30 years and has more than 100 pieces at Local World Gallery.
Anderson specializes in a technique called sgraffito. This process can be done by putting a layer of glaze or slip on a piece of pottery, letting it dry, and using a pottery carving tool to scratch at it to show the base layer of color. She uses this process to make realistic drawings of various animals.
Maya Giron / Post Bulletin
When Anderson first started experimenting with sgraffito, she drew farm animals. Now, she focuses on Minnesota animals with a few others thrown in for her own enjoyment. Her favorite animal to design changes often, but currently she is really enjoying turtles and otters.
A lot of the artists featured in the store have connections to Anderson through her art journey in the Twin Cities. Others are just locals who the couple has approached or who have approached them. They are always looking for more makers to feature as long as the style fits their store.
One such artist is John Meyer, a local painter who recently died. Meyer painted landscape pieces near Pepin, Wisconsin, and Trevino, Wisconsin. The store has about 60 of his paintings.
“He just passed away here in February but I got to know him over the last four or five years and we have his paintings to sell,” Trussell said. “They’re still owned by the estate but we’re still marketing the sales and so that’s a really big deal for us and he worked in watercolor and oil both extremely well.”
Trussell has worked to restore some of the paintings and reframe them. They plan on having a commemorative birthday sale on his work to honor him between Aug. 8-10.
“We have the whole rest of the collection, another 120 or so paintings, up in the attic here,” said Trussell. “He was extremely prolific. It’s really a really powerful thing for us, the John Mayer collection. So we’re trying to treat that with as much reverence as we can.”
In addition to partnering with local makers, they also get a lot of visitors from the nearby National Eagle Center — a connection that’s now a little harder to bridge due to road construction. Anderson sells mugs with eagles scratched into them, and says she loves being able to work with them.
Maya Giron / Post Bulletin
Maya Giron / Post Bulletin
Maya Giron / Post Bulletin
local world gallery
Maya Giron / Post Bulletin
Sara Guymon is a Post Bulletin business reporter. Guymon grew up in New Ulm, Minnesota. She graduated from New Ulm Public High School and went on to attend college at the University of Minnesota Duluth. While at UMD, Guymon pursued a major in journalism and a double minor in photography and international studies. Prior to coming to the Post Bulletin, she worked as a staff writer for the Brainerd Dispatch. There she covered the City of Baxter and business.
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