One week into our month-long season of visiting artists, and so much has happened already. The studio has been more active than ever, with resident artists utilizing the classroom, studios and outdoor spaces to work in day and night, and meeting in the evenings to make dinner together.
Elodie Goupil arrived first from San Francisco, and saw Lake Michigan for the first time. After an initiation of boating, beaching, and swimming, she got straight to work on her knitting machine. During her travels here, she collected yarn from across the Midwest and is using it to knit an oversized blanket dedicated to Shared Space. The blanket will be big enough for a small crowd to sit upon the beach, or take a communal power nap under at the studio. She designed her first knittable cursive alphabet to spell out 'shared space' all around the edges of the blanket, and is knitting in pockets that will serve as drink koozies. (If you don't know what a koozie is, please visit the Midwest.) She spoke about her romantic yet practical artwork at the Sunday evening artist talk, and gave us an interactive knitting machine demo the next day, where we took turns adding rows to the blanket.
Along with pitching in at Mary's homestead, Elodie also has plans to crochet a hammock with a boat hook, and weave a beach floatie out of old bird seed bags and pop bottles. She will be an artist-in-residence through August 3rd, and we are excited to see what else she creates during her stay.
Along with pitching in at Mary's homestead, Elodie also has plans to crochet a hammock with a boat hook, and weave a beach floatie out of old bird seed bags and pop bottles. She will be an artist-in-residence through August 3rd, and we are excited to see what else she creates during her stay.
Elodie set up her knitting machine in Eliza's studio, where her knit panels just keep growing.
Mary Rothlisberger, from Palouse Washington was our next resident to arrive, just in time to catch our young artist's slide talk and celebrate Elodie's birthday with us. Another newbie to Michigan and the Midwest, Mary has spent the last month in Grand Rapids working with artists from Cabin Time, a roving and rugged art residency. She came to us with her cosmic-energy-gathering Hoping Machine, and plans to construct another during her stay. Her main project this week has been homesteading in the meadow behind the studio. We have three open acres of sweet peas and brambles, cornered by deciduous forest, where Mary is setting up camp. Her first task was to repeatedly trudge through the rough grasses, forging a path back to the forest clearing that will become a home made of sticks, a meeting place, a library, a gathering of hoping machines and forts, and a sculpture park. She has constructed two walls made entirely of sticks found on the forest floor, piled and woven together. Always the earliest to rise, Mary truly is busy as a beaver.
There is much more site-specific fun to come, as Mary will be a resident artist for the entire season- until August 15th, and will be collaborating with her long-time pen-pal, Paul Richardson, who arrives on August 1st.
There is much more site-specific fun to come, as Mary will be a resident artist for the entire season- until August 15th, and will be collaborating with her long-time pen-pal, Paul Richardson, who arrives on August 1st.
Mary forged a path into the meadow from our parking lot, by trampling the brambles with a sled made from a discarded forklift palette. Follow the rainbow to her homestead.
Josh Orion Kermiet joined us on Tuesday. He is coming from his home in Portland OR, but is really from Lansing, our fair state's capitol city. Upon his arrival we all took a field trip to the neighboring town of Hart to eat at the best taqueria, stock up on groceries, and tour the Shelby Gem Factory. Josh is making a newspaper during his stay, and Larry at the gem factory gave us a great lead to follow- a local hero named Swift Lathers who published a weekly one-page paper, and homesteaded in the Silver Lake Dunes. Josh's Michigan edition of Free Spirit News will include his own drawing diary, Michigan curiosities trivia, and submissions by artists and weirdos from around the state.
Along with his research on local towns and their folklore, he is also working on animations, and writing daily reviews of the sunset from Pentwater beach. Josh will speak about his work at our Sunday evening artist talk this weekend, July 29th, and will be a resident artist through July 30th, when he will release his much-anticipated publication.
Along with his research on local towns and their folklore, he is also working on animations, and writing daily reviews of the sunset from Pentwater beach. Josh will speak about his work at our Sunday evening artist talk this weekend, July 29th, and will be a resident artist through July 30th, when he will release his much-anticipated publication.
Josh's desk with drafts for his paper and research materials from the Pentwater library.
We wrapped up the week here with our Sunday evening artist talk, featuring resident artist Elodie Goupil and visiting artist Linda Kline.
Linda was an excellent speaker, sharing her art-investigating travel stories, slides of her precious metal clay jewelry, and several of her silk-felted scarves in person.
She will be teaching two workshops on Nuno Silk Felting this Thursday, in the morning and in the evening, and we expect a good turnout of students and the creation of some interesting scarves. We were happy to see some new faces in the audience, and will keep working to connect local artists and appreciators with all of our amazing visiting artists.
Linda was an excellent speaker, sharing her art-investigating travel stories, slides of her precious metal clay jewelry, and several of her silk-felted scarves in person.
She will be teaching two workshops on Nuno Silk Felting this Thursday, in the morning and in the evening, and we expect a good turnout of students and the creation of some interesting scarves. We were happy to see some new faces in the audience, and will keep working to connect local artists and appreciators with all of our amazing visiting artists.
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