Fine Art was formed in 1977, by Ken Carlson (guitar), Terri Paul (vocals), Kay Maxwell (vocals) and Colin Mansfield (guitar). Their first album, made with the help of Monty Edwards (drums) and Andy Schirmer (bass) came out in October of 1978, before the group had played on stage. The first Fine Art live show was a benefit for KFAI-FM and was broadcast live to the Twin Cities. In 1981 they released a limited edition EP, Scan. They also recorded an album's worth of material for Paul Stark of Twin/Tone Records. Before anything could be released, however, the master tapes were destroyed. A cassette of rough mixes from these sessions does exist. Fine Art's final recordings were made at Ambient Sound in 1984. Over the years Fine Art was together, the band went through a variety of personnel changes. Monty was replaced first by Rex Morriss, then Alan Meyer, then John Hewitt (Urban Guerillas), then Alan again then Dan Picasso. Andy was replaced by Elizabeth Frantes, Jay Smiley, then Dave Wynn. Terri left to marry Chan Poling (Suburbs) and was replaced by Jennifer Holt (Tetes Noires). After Jennifer left, Kay was the featured vocalist, and the band was augmented by Mike Johnson (John Music) (keyboards) and Sly Williams (Ike Turner) (percussion).
