Juliet arrived first, early enough on Saturday to do a slip-casting workshop with me and go exploring the in neighboring town of Hart. After discovering the best tacos for miles in the back of La Mexicana de Pancho, we headed over to the Shelby Gem Factory to marvel at the perfectly faceted creations and meet the founder, Larry. In her art practice, Juliet is often researching local lore and oddities of a place, and making work from this accumulated research. She is in the MFA program at University of Michigan and could only be in Pentwater for the weekend, so I wanted to show her around the area to take in some local history and culture.
Michelle arrived in the evening and got straight to work, setting up a light box and shooting fake eyelashes stuck in corn syrup for her Perceptual Beauty series. Michelle is our first artist-in-residence, and it is also her first residency. She showed up prepared, with photography equipment and a lot of materials to experiment with, including makeup, fireworks, and a camoflage hunting shroud.
On sunday, after exploring downtown Pentwater, both artists gave a slide presentation on their past and present projects. We had a nice gathering of folks, who proved to be an engaged audience as we discussed, asked questions, and gave feedback to the artists over refreshments at the studio.
Michelle arrived in the evening and got straight to work, setting up a light box and shooting fake eyelashes stuck in corn syrup for her Perceptual Beauty series. Michelle is our first artist-in-residence, and it is also her first residency. She showed up prepared, with photography equipment and a lot of materials to experiment with, including makeup, fireworks, and a camoflage hunting shroud.
On sunday, after exploring downtown Pentwater, both artists gave a slide presentation on their past and present projects. We had a nice gathering of folks, who proved to be an engaged audience as we discussed, asked questions, and gave feedback to the artists over refreshments at the studio.
images top left to bottom right: Michelle gives a slide talk, Juliet makes a mold of a snow-globe, Eliza demonstrates mold-making, Juliet pours slip into her mold, Juliet opens the mold, Juliet holding her first clay casting of a snow-globe
Juliet had to depart Monday morning to return to school, and for the next three days I facilitated Michelle's work at Shared Space. She appreciated the feedback given at the slide talk, and we further discussed her current work and where it is going. She had time to shoot at several locations and produced six new images in her series about makeup use. We were welcomed into the community, receiving tours of the Gem Factory and South Summit School. As Michelle works full time for NASA in Cleveland, she was able to have this space, time, and new environment to experiment in and make more work in a few days than she may have in a few weeks at home.
images top left to bottom right: Michelle shooting outside of the Shelby Gem Factory, Michelle shooting with a light box in the studio, Michelle napping on the studio couch at 3am, Michelle setting up a shoot in the woods behind South Summit Elementary, "Eyelash Refraction" photograph my Michelle, Camouflage Portrait photograph by Michelle
See more of Juliet & Michelle's work on their websites:michellemariemurphy.com --- juliet-hinely.com
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