Five Foot Twenty Design Lounge: A Local Artist Painting His Own Happiness

The old Valley Window Company building in Moorhead is now an art gallery.

Five Foot Twenty Design Lounge and Gallery is the brain child of Dennis Krull, who pursued art after being laid off.

Seven years ago, Dennis closed a chapter of his life when an ad agency let him go.

Now, he’s moving through the pages with the help of art.

There’s a warm welcome when you walk in to Five Foot Twenty.

Paintings hang against the wall, designed shirts drape over the shelves and everywhere you look there’s some kind of artwork.

“I just wanted to open up a gallery space in Moorhead. I felt that Moorhead needed a bit of art culture with it,” says Krull.

A culture that Krull says is growing in the F–M region.

He wants to be an outlet where local artists can showcase their work.

Krull adds, “We want to work with the community. Any aspect of the community we can highlight or enhance through our work, we think that’s a plus.”

Currently, Eric A. Johnson’s artwork is hanging in the gallery.

Krull stands at 6’8” and says he used to tell people he was 5’20” as a joke.

But what was once a joke has now become his passion, a passion that he is always exploring.

“I don’t necessarily gravitate towards one thing because I like capturing whatever I can with the camera. Then taking those images to manipulate them and create a new image, a new look,” says Krull.

A new project that he’s taking on is encaustic painting.

Krull shares, “I work with programs where I layer my images together to create a new image. It helps gives that depth, that 3-D look. Work with the wax over the images that I create.”

In his studio, it’s all about tapping into that right hemisphere of the brain to get the artistic juice flowing.

“As times gone by, I’ve been enjoying it more and more, that creative process of coming up with an image,” says Krull.

Being so tall, he hopes that Five Foot Twenty stands to mean much more than a work of art.

“Hopefully it connects with people,” says Krull.

Five Foot Twenty will host Hop–Art, a community art event partnered with Junkyard Brewery.

It is scheduled for April 21th.

You can find more information here.