Art

Art Kristi Kates In the U.S., it’s typically called “henna tattooing” (although this term is quite incorrect–we’ll ex-plain in a minute) and it can be found everywhere from upscale galleries and cultural events to amusement parks, county fairs, and sidewalk vendors. But exactly what is it?
Well, the simplest ex-planation for Westerners is that it’s a trendy and beautiful form of body art that is most popular in the summer months, especially in resort areas like Northern Michigan. But henna’s history reaches much farther than a mere seasonal fad.

Art Jolynn Paige Many would say that the village of Northport at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula has been in a bit of a slump over the past several years. Businesses have closed, including the town’s major employer, Leelanau Memorial Hospital. Families have been forced to move away due to lack of work, and the town’s school has seen a drop in enrollment.
But a renaissance is on the horizon, in the form of a declaration by the prolific and populous art community of Northport shouting out, “We are here. We love this place and we’re not going anywhere. Come join us!”
Woody Palmer, for example, is undaunted by stories of doom and gloom.

Art Katie Hudson Local photographer Holly Nelson loves to capture the light. “I always look for the right lighting, which is what photography is all about,” she says.
The 27-year-old Honor native has recently come out of a dark time in her life. Last December, she was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on her pancreas.
It was an islet cell tumor, a rare form of cancer that affects about one in a million people, doctors told her. It usually strikes men and older people, and it doesn’t run in Nelson’s family, which made her case even more unusual.

Art Robert Downes Peer beyond the elegant storefront windows of Benjamin Maier’s gallery in downtown Leland and you’ll find a contemporary landscape of swirling colors, captured in clay.
The gallery walls are filled with Maier’s creations, ranging from Oriental teapots to vases, cups, dishware and stoneware pots, all imbued with a dreamy sense of style and color. It’s clear at a glance that Maier, 29, has a singular vision that brings out the best of what clay has to offer, draped in a sublime range of glazes and colors.
Maier’s celebration of the earth happened by chance. After graduating from Traverse City Central High School in 1996, he attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, completing a degree in political science with a minor in economics.

Art The glory of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore is revealed with maximum impact at the new Ripple Effect Studio and Gallery in the Village of Empire.
The gallery provides a summer worksite and exhibit space for acclaimed large format photogra-pher Jeff Ripple. A resident of Naples, Florida, the photographer has exhibited in more than a dozen solo and group museum exhibits, won numerous awards nationwide, and has authored nine books of natural history.

Art Carina Hume t’s 88 degrees out and glass blower, Lynn Dinning, is standing in front of a 2,100 degree furnace. Talk about suffering for her craft...
A former member of Artists North, the once-vibrant group which got its start in the 1970s, Dinning, as well as Northern Michigan’s arts community, has learned to evolve.
Formed in 1975, Artists North was the most widely known artist group in Northern Michigan at the time, promoting artists from Antrim, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.

Art Carina Hume You can visit at least one arts & crafts fair every weekend all summer long in Northern Michigan, many of which feature scores of talented local artists as well as those who travel all season long from across the country. Here’s the rundown on an art fair near you:

June
15 & 16: Cheboygan’s Annual Summer Arts & Crafts Show, 6/15, 4-9 p.m., 6/16, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Washington Park.
23 & 24: Summer Solstice Art Show, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., East Park, Charlevoix
24: Old Towne Arts & Crafts Fair, Union Street, TC,10 a.m.-5 p.m.
30: Art Rapids! A juried fine arts fair with live music and kids’ events in Memorial Park, Elk Rapids. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. www.artrapids.org
30: Mackinaw City Juried Arts & Crafts Show, 8 a.m.-10 p.m., Conkling Heritage Waterfront Park

Art Tim Madison Mike Sincic’s paintings are remarkably realistic for a blind man’s. He paints...shockingly well. The paintings are idyllic: beaches, sunsets and other nature scenes. After seeing his work, it seems impossible at first that a man who gets around with a cane and the help of a friend’s elbow could have created these works of art. As I watch him -- sweeping his cane in a wide swath at the crosswalk outside the coffee shop where I am meeting him for an interview -- I can’t help but doubt. Are there many naysayers?

Art Carina Hume Northern Michigan plays host to a hotbed of talented artists, and Bay Harbor’s Gallery on Main is no exception. The gallery, open since Memorial Weekend 2005, boasts a tremendous variety of work – from pottery to prints to furniture to paintings – certain to please local residents and vacationers alike.
“We can hold about 25 artists,” says Larissa Flynn, gallery manager and artist herself. “About half are from the area, here year-round. The other half are kind of scattered around Michigan or spend their summers here.”
Large windows create a welcoming entry and the compact space is neatly arranged with groupings of artists’ work spread throughout the gallery.
“I try to have a wide range of things to appeal to many different tastes,” says Flynn. “We have abstracts, we’ve got bronze wildlife sculpture; we try to keep it Northern Michigan.”

Art The classic African masks, sculpture and jewelry at a new exhibit at the Dennos Museum Center may have the look of artifacts that could be hundreds or even thousands of years old, but their timeless quality continues to influence the creation of art in our own time and culture.
European encounters with the arts of the African peoples south of the Sahara desert profoundly influenced 20th century Western art, contributing to the styles of many noted artists, such as Picasso, who was known for using African mask forms in his paintings.

Art Danielle Horvath “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” ~Vincent Van Gogh



By Danielle Horvath

Self-expression has long been used to “unlock” emotions, resolve conflict, reduce stress, increase self-awareness and gain personal insight. In Benzie County, self-expression and the healing power of art are themes of a new show focusing on mental health.
Art as therapy is used to help children deal with grief; it is used in hospitals to aid patients in the healing process; in prisons to help inmates see another side of themselves; as a treatment in halfway houses and homeless shelters.

Art Kristi Kates Ice sculptures are one of those art forms that are sometimes taken for granted, perhaps because they can just as easily show up on a cruise-ship buffet table or a wedding reception as at an art-specific event. But they are just as worthy of acclaim as art done in other mediums, and perhaps more difficult logistically than most of the others. 
Even for the creatively-inclined,  the av-erage person can’t just pick up a chunk of ice and start sculpting in order to get the kind of clear, sharply defined, beautiful results that are most desired. There are a wide variety of variables that go into ice sculpting, from temperature to the kind of ice used.

Art Carina Hume There’s been a lot of magic in Harry Colestock’s life: He helped put John Glenn Jr. into space, enabled surgeons to efficiently melt a knot at the end of a suture, and puts smiles on the faces of many with his magic act.
A resident of Walloon Lake, Harry’s magical beginnings go back to his childhood. Born in 1923, Colestock was a child of the Great Depression who quickly learned the value of work. When his father lost his job, the family sold their house, purchased a five-acre piece of property just west of Birmingham, and lived in a tent.

Art Kristi Kates The C2 Gallery story actually starts with the Koucky Gallery, a gallery that was popular in Charlevoix from the late ‘80s up until 2005. 
Cheryl Carey had been working for the Kouckys since 2003 when they called her from their Florida location and told her to pack everything up and put it on sale as they had decided to close the gallery;  the Kouckys - Chuck and Nancy - had grown tired of the trek between their Charlevoix gallery and their Florida gallery every year, and they wanted to concentrate on their Florida location.  Cheryl Carey, along with her husband, Mike, whose family are good friends of the Kouckys - then saw an opportunity they couldn’t refuse.  “Yes,” Mike Carey confirms, “it just seemed like a great opportunity for us to do something we love.”

Art One of the most bizarre things you’re likely to see this year (or any year) is the new installation of bug art at the Dennos Museum Center: “A Terrible Beauty: Compulsion and Repulsion,” which runs December 10-March 4.
The installation by artist Jennifer Angus features 5,500 exotic insects collected from around the world and arranged in compelling patterns.