Dave Mehling

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, October 24, 2008

Dave Mehling of Duluth, MN is a rag doll. A cross between Jeff Buckley and Jeff Tweedy, the femo-masculine quality of Nina Simone, the sentimentality of Damien Rice, and the acrimony of a young Bob Dylan, he shapes his performances to both satisfy and reward his audience.

Genuine pop, alt-country, psychedelica, soul and dirty stomp & clap acapella are all genres within Mehling's average performance. He's got something for you, your punk rock kid-sister, your soccer mom, your "good ol' days" grandfather, and your eccentric uncle (granted, 'you' may be any one of the above).

Since beginning performances at the impressionable age of 16, he has taken a
self-critical approach to finding his voice and discovering the community around him. In the last 6 years, he has performed at dozens of venues, recorded several collections of songs, and honed his style of writing and performing.

Now, throwing his management degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth out the window, picking up his late uncle's battered Gibson guitar, and preparing to release a string of 3 EP's in 2008, Mehling sets out to help his audience find what we are often looking for but rarely recognize: art.