COOK – Members of Northwoods Friends of the Arts recently discussed ways to honor the late Susan Martin, one of the founders of the group, and how the group will preserve her memory for generations to come.

To do that, the group is adding something new to its October members gallery, and will create a small memorial to Martin, asking members to create pieces of art in her memory on the subject she knew and loved best, the wilderness of northeastern Minnesota.

“Sue was a great leader and got people involved,” NWFA President Shawna Kishel said. “Her enthusiasm you couldn’t deny. She had a knack for bringing people in and making you feel better about yourself and convincing you that you could do anything.”

The women gathered around the table remembered fondly the cold winter, eight years ago, when Martin gathered a handful of artists from the Cook and Lake Vermilion area to find a way to sustain and create a voice for artists and find a way to give Cook a bigger footprint on the map.

“I wasn’t there in the beginning, but I remember a little later on, people would ask her what to do,” Lois Garbish said. “People would always ask what there was around, and she would tell them a three-letter word, E-L-Y…she wanted something around here.”

Martin, who also owned Moosebirds with her husband Ron, felt she was sending too many people eastward to Ely and that Cook had more to offer and she wanted to change that.

As a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the home-owners association, she thought an arts collective could do just that.

“Sue had this idea that artists should be self-supporting with their art,” Alberta Whitenack said. “She had the big picture of everything; she was extremely creative and positive. She could make friends with anyone. She believed in living your life. She appreciated people, the water, the animals and the birds. She was excited about everything in life.”

From humble beginnings first at the Cook Public Library, then the U.S. Forest Service building, and finally to its current permanent location on River Street, Martin had an instrumental role in ensuring the viability of the NWFA and turning it into a place where she one day would step away and let it grow on its own, and she did just that.

“She was full of ideas on how not only to make more money, but to have a bigger presence,” Kishel said.

“It was really a shock when we lost Sue,” Cathryn Peters said. “But, she instilled in us that we all had to do it, we couldn’t rely on one person to keep it going, it had to be everybody.”

The ideas that would keep the NWFA going were vast and many, from spoken-word poetry to Martin wondering if bird-watching could be turned into its own art form. Art wasn’t just about what could be painted or written, it was about what could be taken in through experience.

“How can you get other arts involved?” Whiteneck said of Martin's planning. “There was always a next step. It was always on the horizon.”

Martin’s work went well beyond her involvement with the NWFA. From owning Moosebirds to helping other upstarts across the region through her work with the Minnesota Entrepreneurial Fund, with her obituary noting, “Sue helped people realize their dreams of starting their own businesses with her support and expertise so they could become independent.”

Her husband, Ron, remembers when Martin would work in her parents’ appliance store in Illinois, and would take charge of her siblings. And at Moosebirds, Ron said, she was always on the move and asking people if they needed more to do.

And when the work became too tough and overwhelming, Martin would be there with kind words to keep one going.

“We’ve had times when you get burned out,” Kishel said. “You’d have a conversation with Sue, and she would point out your accomplishments and see where you could go from there.”

“Sue didn’t ask you to do anything you couldn’t do,” Whitenack said. “She lifted up people who didn’t always know what to do and was hard on the people she knew could do better.”

It wasn’t always work for Martin, though. Ron said she would always ask for him to go fishing with her, and she would create her own artwork in the wilderness around their adopted home of Cook.

It’s that wilderness the NWFA hopes will enshrine her legacy at the gallery next month. The NWFA has asked its members and the public to submit pieces of art from all media that showcase the landscape of the northeast as a memorial to Martin.

Some of Martin’s own work will be on display, on loan from the family.

“Visitors will have a sense of the northland that she lived in and she painted,” Whitenack said. “Big shoes are hard to fill.”

The October gallery show opens on Friday, Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. More information on the NWFA and how to submit artwork can be found on their website at http://www.nwfamn.org/.