Marnie Karger creates paper-cut artwork of lakes

Marnie Karger biked the short distance to the southern end of Lake Bemidji with her brothers when she was young. They would show up around dusk, when they could have the beach to themselves.

Usually, the siblings "horsed around for a half-hour, before the sun got too low," she said.

Over the last decade or so, Karger, a full-time artist who lives in Shorewood, has found that just about 'everyone and their brother' has a lake story, especially in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Karger creates elaborate paper-cut artwork that re-imagines the reflective depths of lakes and streams near and far, many of which underscore those personal ties.

Her paper-cut interpretations, which include images of Lake Minnetonka, Minneapolis' Chain of Lakes and Lake Superior, are largely the result of a happy accident.

In 2007, Karger, who early on fashioned origami snowflakes, peddled paper-folding books along with various handmade cards through her online shop at Etsy.com.

A stint at a scrapbook store increased her love for the tactile material. Karger played around with cardstock that came in graduated shades, crafting imaginary topographies. She enjoyed experimenting with swivel-blade craft knives, as well, mastering difficult curved cuts.

Karger's resulting pieces sold well, and it wasn't long before people started making requests for specific locales, seeing the possibilities in her abstract amoeba-shaped designs. Her first custom piece? Deer Lake, near Grand Rapids.

The lakes idea took off, and Karger went from earning only enough for the occasional family dinner out to contributing meaningfully to the household income. She decided to pursue her art full-time.

Today, Karger's intricate pieces are sold locally and in Chicago and New York. Besides fulfilling individual and wholesale orders, she works with art brokers who connect her to sizable businesses, and she also takes commissions.

Right now, she's in the middle of pieces that will be headed to a fishing lodge in British Columbia and another, for an individual, of the fictional Tri-Island Area in the retro "Monkey Island" video game — not a "first," she said.

Her work isn't limited to lakes, though. She has also rendered Peter Pan's fictional Neverland, a quirky, textured pineapple and newborn baby footprints.

She attributes their popularity to the fact that they're accessible and often represent something metaphorical, "a home, a happy memory, and a link to our rather magical environment," she said.

People often bring up the family cabin or a lakeside wedding or learning how to swim. For those who get in touch with her, the lake might be "the most peaceful place on the planet," Karger said.

Being privy to those anecdotes is an unexpected perk of the job. "It reinforces a nice sense of humanity," she said. "We do stake claim to these places in reverent and spiritual ways."

For Karger, a former high school English teacher who once contemplated a career in biology, it's also a nice way to combine the "artistic and scientific hemispheres" of her brain, she added.

At first, Karger cut everything manually. When that became laborious, she turned to a digital cutting plotter machine.

Her pieces still involve plenty of handiwork, especially when she's smoothing out the spots the machine misses. Also, she assembles each piece by hand, one layer at a time. A "jelly bean" lake might be completed in an afternoon, while a more detailed body of water could take a week.

Karger works from her home studio, once a guest bedroom, while her web developer husband has an office downstairs. "We're in our own little worlds, and the dogs go between us," said Karger, whose workspace is plastered with loving notes from their two children.

When she starts a project, Karger scours the Internet for maps conveying shoreline and depth data. She immerses herself in the geography, history and culture. "It's a bit like armchair traveling to all of these different places," she said, adding, "I get a kick out of learning about the lakes and the places I'm cutting."

Sometimes it's tough to find a map of a certain lake, but it's bound to be in someone's doctoral thesis, she said.

Next, she makes a digital cutting template, carefully tracing the map and choosing which "bathymetric" contour lines to include in a piece.

Although she takes some liberties, Karger tries to stay true to the lake's features. "While I don't recommend taking my pieces out in the fishing boat with you to find the hot spots, they are fairly accurate renderings of what's really beneath the waves," she said.

In fact, a former colleague who teaches science was inspired to assign his students a similar sort of topographical project, Karger said.

For her, "digging into what's underneath the surface is fascinating," learning whether a glacier or a river or a meteor played some role, she said.

An island might only be visible seasonally, depending on the water levels. Lake Minnetonka looks like "a series of blobs," which makes for a complex piece, Karger said.

Although the research is mainly for background, it helps to know if the straight edge of a lake is a dam or if the water is super deep. She uses the darkest shades for the deepest areas.

The special cardstock is dyed all the way through, meaning the hues aren't simply a veneer. That adds depth.

People often mistake her pieces for watercolors due to the interplay of color and shadow. Sometimes, it can be tricky to find the right paper. When a supply is low, "it crashes my world," she said.

Her favorite color scheme is all white. "When you frame it, people ask, 'why are you framing a piece of blank paper?' " They have to get close-up to see the layered image.

Wendy Machin, the showroom manager from Nash Frame Design, first noticed Karger's work when her clients brought in her pieces to be framed.

"Her pieces are unique," she said. "I love the colors."

Machin has been eyeing them for the shop over the past year. The store, which has locations in Minneapolis and St. Louis Park, is opening a third in Lake Minnetonka in late June. Machin picked out pieces that highlighted nearby lakes for each, and she plans to display them prominently in the showrooms.

Roger Barrett of Pharmacie, a home goods and design store in Minneapolis, also has high praise for Karger's work. "We love the clean, modern interpretation of something so quintessentially Minnesotan — the lakes," he said.

Anna Pratt is a Minneapolis freelance writer. She can be reached at annaprattjournalist@gmail.com.