For 50 years, visitors to the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center have been greeted by massive granite relief wall sculpture, located on the exterior of the building near the ticket office.
Sister Mary Charles McGough of St. Scholastica Monastery, a Cloquet native and prolific artist, was commissioned to create the work, titled “Tree, Water, Rock.”
A 2014 book about McGough’s work, “Saved by Beauty: Sister Mary Charles McGough, OSB,” contains the following description of the work:
"The influence of modernist design is powerfully evident in one of Duluth's largest outdoor sculptures: Sister Mary Charles's ten-by thirty-foot granite relief, near the original entrance to the (DECC). … The sculpture is comprised of twenty-four variously textured panels of grey granite depicting abstracted nature forms. Even today this work remains fresh, complementing the faceted geometry of the original auditorium building."
McGough’s work was featured during the grand opening celebration; a News Tribune photo from 50 years ago captured her in conversation with Mayor George D. Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
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McGough died in 2007 at age 82. Her work can be found in other venues and in private collections in Duluth and the Northland, and an exhibition of her work was held at the Tweed Museum of Art in 2014.
Her work included sculpture, woodcuts, icons, graphic design, fabric banners, sculpture, ceramics and more.
"God has been very good to me, blessing me with this gift," she told the News Tribune in 2002. "I try to use it as best I can."
