Photo by Michael Crouser
Author and artist David Coggins inside his studio that overlooks the Mississippi River.
Author and artist David Coggins inside his studio that overlooks the Mississippi River.
Inside a sprawling studio in a Grain Belt Brewery warehouse, stacks of art and design books, and collections that include—but are not limited to—old landscape paintings, Turkish textiles, paint brushes, taxidermy, and Chinese lanterns, tell the lifelong story of author and artist David Coggins. The latest addition to this museum-like surround is Coggins’s recently released book, Paris in Winter, an illustrated memoir that pays homage to his beloved Paris. Welcome to a maximalist’s dream.
Art and artifacts mimic life in David Coggins’s Minneapolis studio, a space that visually tells the story of this author and artist. It’s a story that just gained a new chapter with Coggins’s recently published book, Paris in Winter, a fanciful travelogue of his family’s annual trips to Paris for New Year’s. The Coggins family is known in art and literary circles for their creativity—Coggins’s wife, Wendy, is a floral designer, and his son, David, is a writer and editor living in New York. His daughter, Sarah, attended school in Paris, so the family’s connection with the City of Light runs deep. Coggins recounts his recollection of those seasonal sojourns in his new book through ink and watercolor drawings, alongside passages that reflect moments of conversations, lingering meals, street and shop scenes, and people passing by. The book covers 13 years of trips the family took, from 1997 to 2010.
Although Paris is darkest during winter, this is when the author enjoys visiting it the most—the months of silk scarves and leafless lime trees and leather boots the color of cognac.
For Coggins, Paris’s many layers are what make it so interesting. That’s something you could say about the artist himself. The 68-year-old is the embodiment of multifaceted. He’s a writer, painter, photographer, illustrator, set designer, and collage artist. His work has been shown across the United States, Europe, and South America. The Minneapolis Institute of Art has Coggins’s book series, Robert Carolina’s Daybooks, in its permanent collection.
When he’s in the Twin Cities, Coggins spends much of his time in his Northeast Minneapolis art studio—3,000 square feet that embodies a cabinet of curiosities: paintbrushes and canvases, wooden masks, stuffed birds, bowling pins, and seashells. There’s an antique Chinese theater puppet, and next to that are some small ceramic Aztec faces and a honeycomb.
There’s certainly a sense of whimsy here, something that can be said, too, in describing Paris in Winter. On another level, it’s a playful exploration of a vibrant European capital where Picasso and Matisse once made themselves at home. A land of Champagne, haute couture, and tiny martini glasses filled with caviar and cream.
On Paris
“It’s just so magical. French philosopher [Blaise] Pascal talked about how people are restless and have to go out into the world. Being able to spend time in Paris allows me to fulfill a very important part of who I am. There’s this feeling that there’s a great world out there and needing to be in it. Paris is the culmination of that.”
On his studio
“It is a world unto itself, a space that is inspiring and comforting, where I can reflect, dream, work, take a nap. It is kind of a work of art itself, a kind of gesamtkunstwerk, embracing all forms of art, painting, architecture, décor. It has developed organically without plan; it is layered and heavy with time, like an old European city. Like Paris.”
On local winter favorites
“I enjoy walking along the river in Minneapolis and across the Stone Arch Bridge—it reminds me of walking along the Seine and across its many bridges. I also walk in the Walker Sculpture Garden, which in its formal design and devotion to public sculpture is reminiscent of the Tuileries Garden [near the Louvre]. I’m a fan of traditional sculpture, too. . . . My favorite here is in Loring Park. It is of Ole Bull, the virtuosic 19th-century Norwegian violinist wildly popular in his day but little-known now.”
On future visits
“We still go to Paris every winter and usually the kids join us for a while, but now after a day and night of sampling the city’s treasures, I reach for pillow, not notebook. In the end, [Paris in Winter] is not only a book about Paris but about embracing life. Paris is a city full of life and beauty, which, if you give it a chance, will allow you to embrace it. Better yet, it might embrace you back.”
