This year’s Northeast Iowa Artists’ Studio Tour will feature nine artists from Allamakee County sharing their work and how/where they create it

by Julie Berg-Raymond

The Northeast Iowa Artists’ Studio Tour (NIAST), established in 1998, is Iowa’s first, largest, and longest-running studio tour of its kind. This year, it is being held Friday, October 9 through Sunday, October 11. Hours are daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

NIAST is a free, self-guided, driving tour through the hills and valleys of northeast Iowa for behind-the-scenes visits to both private studios and public galleries. The Tour radiates up to 40 miles in all directions from the central hub of Decorah; winding through scenic northeast Iowa.

In this article, the Tour’s artists and studios located in Allamakee County - what one artist jokingly calls “out in the far east,” and another refers to as “out on the edge” - are given special attention (listed with their number on the Tour, their artistic specialty, and the address of their Tour location). We’ll begin our journey with the two artists whose work is most familiar to this reporter - many of whose pieces, in fact, reside on her own walls, counters and shelves.

Val Miller (#20): Paintings and prints
15 Allamakee Street, Waukon
“For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be an artist,” says Val Miller, a fifth-generation resident of Waukon. “I remember being seven and blowing out the candles of my cake, wishing I’d grow up to be an artist!” she recalls. “I’ve been painting and drawing at my kitchen counter since I was a little girl.”
Miller studied art and business in college and has a degree in fine art from Bradley University in Peoria, IL and a degree in marketing from The University of Iowa. As any working artist may recognize, that combination of business and marketing is a savvy one. Making art is one thing; getting it in front of people, selling it, is another. It’s certainly not the case that artists have to sell their art, to be considered successful - one really has nothing to do with the other. But if a person wants to make a living as an artist, it helps if the work can find a customer/client base and sell.
Miller’s work sells. Steel Cow gallery/studio in downtown Waukon is familiar to residents of and visitors to northeast Iowa. Indeed, one of the things Miller says she loves about being on the Northeast Iowa Artists’ Studio Tour is “sharing the beautiful building that [her husband] Josh and I spent so many years remodeling - and fighting to keep standing twice, after the fires we had,” she says. “It’s a lovely space that’s been in Waukon for 100 years and I’m so grateful and proud that it still stands.”
Miller’s website shop at www.steelcow.com is a busy one; and her murals grace the sides of barns and of buildings like the Oneota Community Food Co-op in Decorah, and WW Homestead Dairy in Waukon, among others. “The girls and friends”™ of Steel Cow™ - her unique collection of cow paintings and prints, each with its own name and unique personality - has developed a devoted following in this region and beyond. Her newest work involves beautiful, stunningly realistic portraits of flowers, often on large canvases.
“An internal desire to create is what drives me,” Miller says. “I have to. It’s a need; and things in my life go haywire quickly if I’m not creating.” She finds inspiration in the things around her that she loves - cows, her first love; other farm animals; most recently, her garden-grown flowers. “I began growing flowers on a large scale in 2020 and began painting them in 2024,” Miller says. “I started photographing them in 2020; but the photographs didn’t excite me like painting does - so I started painting them.” She grows about 400 peonies, 800 dahlias - “and tons of lavender now, on the lavender farm we started. All my flower paintings come from the flowers I grow in my gardens.”
Two years ago, Miller started an online painting club called Art Garden Therapy, where participants paint small flower paintings from flowers in her gardens. “Anyone can paint with us because it’s all online and I take you step-by-step through painting a complete small painting in one sitting,” she says. “We are welcoming new members into our painting club now and you don’t need to have painted before to join. I’ll tell you everything you need from the supplies to what steps to take,” she says. “It’s super fun and I love introducing painting to those who have either never painted before or to those who haven’t painted in a long time.”

George Blair (#21): Studio stoneware pottery
119 Third Street NE, New Albin
We head over to New Albin, now, and meet George Blair - who has described his work as being “rooted in function and inspired by the forces of nature, the landscape, and the history of ceramics.” Blair has been making beautiful, functional ceramic art for six decades - residing in this reporter’s home, for example, are the following: a mortar and pestle; soup bowls with Blair’s signature shells decorating the handles; small plates and large mugs; a decorated butter holder; and, a new addition, a beautiful charcuterie dish that evokes the river, trees, and rolling hills of the Upper Mississippi River valley.
Blair’s love for making pottery found him as an English student at Northern Illinois University. Just finishing his bachelor’s degree, he signed up for a ceramics course and, ultimately, found his life’s path. “I liked it so much I decided to pursue an art degree,” he says. Blair’s teacher and mentor was Gib Strawn. “Gib was a master potter,” Blair says. “I don’t think anyone could match him for forming a pot on the wheel.”
When Strawn attended a workshop in California and brought back a platter made by the Japanese potter, Shōji Hamada (December 9, 1894-January 5, 1978), Blair was further inspired. “I thought it was almost magical,” he says of the Hamada piece - “it was a reflection of his philosophy, mingei (folk art).” For Blair, that philosophy is about “beautiful, useful things in everyday life … I didn’t know the philosophy at the time,” he says. “I was just inspired by this guy’s work. And it stuck with me for over 60 years.”
Blair went on to earn a master of fine arts degree, and taught art at Northern Illinois for five years. Sixty years after turning towards pottery, Blair’s work continues to reflect the philosophy of his earliest inspirations; but as is the case with all artists, he has developed and evolved his own style, having long ago joined what he thinks of as “a cooperative - a cooperation of artists. To me, it’s about a continuum and a history of those who made pots before me,” he says. And he is always learning, experimenting with form and design, finding inspiration in the work of potter friends, even as he and his own work inspire those fellow potters to move beyond their comfort zones.
One such artistic give-and-take has been with a potter who only fairly recently made ceramic art a focus of her life - Linda Haugen. We find Haugen and her studio on our way back to Lansing, not far from the banks of the Mississippi River.

To read the full article, pick up the Wednesday, September 30, 2026 print edition of The Standard or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.