ZDG Visiting Artist Series
Taryn Okesson | June 2023
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Taryn Okesson b. 1982Taryn Okesson is a visual artist from the Marquette area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She earned her BFA degree with a Concentration in Electronic Imaging from Northern Michigan University in 2009.
Okesson and her husband continue to live in the Upper Peninsula, but began traveling the country by truck and camper in late 2019. It was these experiences on the road where Okesson was able to hone in on her artistic voice. Okesson was singularly inspired by the deserts of the Southwest. Prior to traveling, Okesson was involved with the Marquette Artist Collective, she had an active role in the Collective’s activities and their dedication to opening The Gallery downtown Marquette, MI. During her time with them she planned exhibits in The Gallery and around Marquette. Recently Okesson joined the Lake Superior Art Association and participated in her first member show, receiving a Second Place Award. Okesson was one of the artists working on Mia Tavonatti’s Power of Words mural in 2020. Prior to that Okesson |
volunteered to paint The Mondrian Garage mural as part of an effort to bring more public art to Marquette.
This winter, 2022-2023, Okesson was a guest artist at Zia Gallery and a featured artist at The Center Gallery in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Okesson would like to continue to grow into her creative practice through new experiences and find more opportunities to connect with other artists, artist communities, art fairs, collectors and galleries. |
Click here for Taryn Okesson's online portfolio.
Susan Grant | May 2023
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Renee Michaud | March/April 2023
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I am a mixed media collage artist living in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan . My family and I make our home just outside of the small town of Ishpeming enjoying the pleasures of a "Yooper's" life.
I earned a degree in art education from Michigan State University. My area of emphasis while at State was printmaking, which lends itself well to the layering techniques in my collages. Each of my collages invites the viewer to come close and explore the images and stories represented . My collages involve a multitude of mixed media resources including paper that I have created or found, fabrics, threads (usually old authentic collections) acrylic paints, inks, pastels, old photos and found objects. LateIy I have been learning and working in fabric collaging. Fabrics are my pallet, threads create my line work. I continue adding elements to build my quilted compositions layer by layer. It is the mystery of the "underneath".... the layering that allows the storytelling to emerge. By building up the surface areas the collages are no longer flat two dimensional pieces, but are sculpted and rise from the support giving texture and depth to each creation allowing a 2D work to take on a 3D effect. Art plays many roles in the world, but I believe one of its greatest gifts is to bring joy and beauty to the viewer. Coaxing a smile, laugh or sigh as you gaze upon the piece before you. |
Kalil Zender | January/February 2023
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I have been making jewelry my entire life. It started with beads, and by the time I was a young teenager I was helping my dad at his metalsmithing bench. For years I worked for my family making trade silver reproductions – modern replicas of the metal jewelry made by French, English, and Indigenous silversmiths in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, which was traded or sold to the Native people inhabiting the Great Lakes region. When I got a little older, I began to branch out and create my own designs. From then until now, my work is inspired by tribal and ancient jewelry from around the world, particularly North Africa, Thailand and traditional Great Lakes and Southwest jewelry. Today, there is an abundance of electric, digital, and computerized tools for making and engraving jewelry without getting your hands too dirty, but I still prefer the feel of old-fashioned, bare bones tools. I use a hand-powered “wiggle” engraver to cut the details into my pieces in the engraving style perfected by those original trade silver artists in the 18th century. Every line, flower, dot, and squiggle on the face of the silver pieces in this collection was cut by hand, with a handmade tool. |
The work is slow and requires patience and concentration, but this is where my mind clears and the vision of the piece before me takes over.
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Dale and Cindy Wedig | October/November 2022
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Cindy Wedig
Artist Statement I seek honesty in my artwork. Artwork that reflects who I truly am deep below my flesh within my spirit or soul. It is as exclusive to me as my fingerprints and it desires to free itself in a visible form. Like the voice of a dear friend it urges me, pushes me, instructs me. It never lets me down if I obey. If I listen. I seek to reflect intimacy with material. Perfection is not necessary. Humanity is imperfect. I seek to uplift those who encounter my forms. Uplift them to a place other than the earth they are standing on. To a place that reconnects them with a truth they once knew but somehow forgot in hopes of helping them to return. Artist Bio Cindy Wedig is a native-born Yooper. She is an artist of clay, oil, and cold wax. Recently she has begun adding hand felted works to her art. She graduated from Northern Michigan University where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in ceramics. After choosing to stay home and raise her children she began to focus on her art career and now has exhibited in both invitational and juried group shows, as well as, solo shows. In addition, she produces clay functional ware for her online Etsy shop Wedig Mud and Metal. She currently resides in Trenary, Michigan with her best friend and husband Dale. She is surrounded by the beauty of the cedar forest and the Whitefish River. She has three children and four grandchildren with a fifth on the way. Family and faith are the most important things to her and her art is a conduit for them. In her spare time when she is not creating art she prefers a fly rod in her hand. She spends her summers standing in the river next to her 88-year-old father trying to perfect the dry fly cast and winters at a desk trying to perfect the art of fly tying. She is so grateful for all that her Heavenly Father has given and considers herself most blessed. |
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Dale Wedig Artist Statement One of the greatest artistic interests I have consistently engaged with over my professional career has been with the compound hammer forming of sheet copper. The outcomes are only limited by my imagination and the skills/knowledge I have accumulated over the past 40 years. I recall the first attempt I made with this material every time one of my students does the same. I think, “can I make what I can draw”. I struggle to impose my will upon this material in every form I am inspired to attempt. To date, very few finished works look like the original idea conceived in my head. I will keep working on that. Artist Bio Dale Wedig is a Professor of Art and Design at Northern Michigan University. For the past 40 years he has headed the Metalsmithing and Sculpture concentrations. Throughout his professional career he has maintained a private home studio producing work for galleries, exhibitions, and commissions throughout the United States. His home is in Trenary, Michigan surrounded by the woods and where whatever weirdness is in the water helps to make art. He feels blessed with a great wife, family, friends and life. |
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Contact info: PO Box 158, Trenary, MI 49891
Work: (906) 227-1490 / Cell: (906)458-2885
dwedig@nmu.edu www.daleandcindywedig.com
Work: (906) 227-1490 / Cell: (906)458-2885
dwedig@nmu.edu www.daleandcindywedig.com
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Dan Cook | September 2022
I formerly owned Cook Sign Service and am now doing acrylic paintings. I have painted signs since I was 17 and now in my retirement I am painting scenes from the Marquette area. My grandfather, Walter Cook Sr. started Cook Sign Service in 1936 and my father, Walter Cook Jr. worked the business until his retirement. I took over the business, along with my wife, Marilyn, and built up the billboard business along with the commercial sign business. Over the years I worked with some very good sign painting artists and learned as much as I could about color and brush control. As I was busy in the sign business, I noticed that not many artists painted our shoreline as it relates to the harbors. Once I had the time, I started to paint scenes that, as a child growing up on the east side of town, I saw and appreciated. I spent many days fishing the cinder pond and along the coal dock. I decided that I needed to somehow help others appreciate our harbors. |
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Judy Parlato | August 2022
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After 30 years identifying as a public school teacher, I retired and purchased a sewing machine. I was ready to embrace a new identity. I tried sewing traditional quilt block patterns and my enthusiasm for the result was lukewarm to cold. I was soon inspired by outrageously daring women who run with scissors and break all the traditional “rules” of quilting. I had the desire to jump on the art quilt bandwagon, but lacked some design tools that made those inspirational quilts sing to me.
Thanks to the advice of Michelle Tuccini, I enrolled in a color and composition class taught by Kathleen Conover. I not only learned much, but I met some more amazing women. I started putting my new knowledge into practice on fabric as well as artists’ papers. I was enamored by color, design and texture. I took more art classes and met with artists individually to learn techniques using watercolor, oils, acrylics, alcohol inks, and dyes. Every new thing I learned on paper, I put to practice designing an art quilt. When I discovered multi-media quilts, I was soaring!!!! I now introduce myself as a fiber artist. I accept every design challenge I am given by my quilting guilds or art quilt group. I love to stretch myself with these challenges. I enter contests and submit my quilts for display so I can strive for better and better machine quilting, composition, design and color use. I am grateful to Michelle, Kathleen, Joanne Shelby, Penney Mellen, and my amazing art quilters: Jane Vandenburg, Tracey Cairati, Nancy Henderson, Karen Dill, Danita Rask, Susan Liimata, Kathy Maynard, Kathy Peters, Holly Kreag, Kathryn Norton, Alice Johnson, and Teresa Zelinski. An artist reception for Judy will be held on Saturday, August 13, 1-4pm at the gallery. |
Kathleen Conover | July 2022 Visiting Artist
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An Artist’s Journey
An abstract painter at heart, I enjoy non-objective painting and a strong “abstract under structure” is a dominant pursuit in all of my work, with or without imagery. This month’s collection of watermedia paintings for Zero Degrees Gallery include some work from my most recent “Searching Series”. Covid has left many of us asking questions, reorganizing our priorities and Searching. Some of that searching has been for meaning in my personal artwork. For over 4 decades individual allegorical figures have been included in my paintings and it was time to get these muses, inspirations and “assistants” together: The horse is a universal symbol of journey. The dragonfly is a master of transformation and change. The blackbird is a messenger. Origami cranes signify my prayers for peace. They are all here to help me navigate further down the road on my journey with flexibility, strength and hopefully - grace. KathleenConover.com |
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Connie Tonkin | June 2022 Visiting Artist
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I have been actively involved in the art world for at least the last 30 years. I started doing stained glass in the early 90's, and for a while worked at a glass shop. In the late 90's and early 2000's started taking watercolor lessons from Carl Mayer, Helga Flowers, Marge Carlson and many others. I've been involved with the VIPS artist group since 2004, and am also a member of LSAA.
I found, as I worked in watercolors that I really enjoyed doing flowers. I liked the loose look you could get with this medium. Around the time that Covid started, and we couldn't get together in groups, I started watching videos on YouTube. I found the acrylic paint pouring was something I was interested in. When I started doing some pourings I really enjoyed the freedom of this technique. It was abstract and yet I could always see very loose flowers in this technique. I hope you enjoy the results as much as I do. |
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Erika Potila | April 2022 Visiting Artist
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Artist Statement
My love of spoons started 19 years ago, when my mom bought a spoon for each my sister. It became our new favorite! Unfortunately, we didn't know how to take care of them and they soon split. A couple years later, needing a new gift idea for my sister, I asked my husband (who's a remarkable woodworker) if I'd be able to make a spoon. He set me up and very patiently taught me how. It became my love and passion! I work with cherry, maple, lilac, plum, apple, walnut, birch, and sometimes ash, a lot of which comes from our yard and woodpile. The beauty in the different grains that pop out when I get them wet between sandings enhances my love for what I'm doing every single time, not to mention how they feel and smell so different. My favorite by far is lilac. The buttery feel when finished far surpasses any other wood. I am meticulous when it comes to the end product.. Always being in the kitchen myself, I need spoons to hold up, even in boiling water. It was a long process of trial and error before I was truly satisfied. I sand to 1000 grit, then hand buff with a paper bag. I then rub in a combination of walnut oil, coconut oil and beeswax and put above my wood stove to soak in. Feeling such joy and connection when using my spoons, they've opened up my love for all handmade crafts. And I know they will for you, too. My spoons, if taken care of, will be something you'll love and will have to pass down from generation to generation. -- Erika Potila |
Bernie Park | March 2022 Visiting Artist
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Artist Statement
Although the formative years of my art making were firmly grounded in the abstract genre, I have spent the last several years exploring regional landscape painting. After moving to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, I gradually became seduced by the beauty and power of the woodlands, water and variety of moods one experiences living above the forty-fifth parallel. I try to capture the light and the atmosphere, the strength and subtlety that, for me, convey a sense of tranquility and spirituality that emanates from this very special place. I purposefully omit fauna, human configuration, manmade structures or elements as well as spectacle. No crashing waterfalls, rainbows or "wow" moments, only the mundane or everyday need apply. My preferred medium is oil paint thinly applied in layers and glazes on solid supports or canvas. Most of the work is comprised of modest to medium size dimensions that serve to draw the viewer in for a more intimate experience. --Bernie Park |
Artist reception for Bernie Park Saturday, March 12, 1-4pm
Deb Laurie | January 2022 Visiting Artist
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Artist Statement
Fall and winter are my favorite seasons with Lake Superior and its mercurial weather. I attempt to capture the feelings nature inspires in me, through a language of paint, ink, and textures. I hope to inspire others to appreciate what an incredible place we live in. Watercolor is my medium of choice, either paper or rice paper; using the batik method of resist with melted wax. Inktense sticks (or ink pen), gesso, and palette knives are also used to create textures. |
I have evolved into exploring with oil paint and cold wax recently, finding my way with this new medium and technique.
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Carolyn Snyder | December 2021 Visiting Artist
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Artist Statement
Color and the challenge of describing the 3-dimensional world in a 2-dimensional image have fascinated me since childhood. While in college, I was too busy pursuing a degree in biology and graduate work in pharmacology to take art classes. Years later, as a stay-at-home mother of two toddlers, I did take some evening classes and began to paint in oils. A chance conversation at a community art fair led to employment as a medical illustrator at the Medical College of Wisconsin, creating black and while line drawings for teaching and research publications. I loved the work, but quit making my own art. After retiring to Marquette (in ’02), I began painting again. I have learned and benefited from classes in the art department at Northern Michigan University. My media is oil painting while exploring a variety of subject matter. I love painting the beauty of nature; often it is the challenge of painting water with its colorless, yet colorful surface and eerie depths. Another visual fascination of mine began in college. While studying cell structures and functions in a histology class, I kept finding myself distracted by the patterns, visual designs and amusing personas I often saw in many of the electron micrographs (black and white photographs of cells viewed with an electron microscope). I use these for inspiration; because the electron micrographs are black and while, the color choices are purely my own. I also come back again and again to the challenge of portraits and capturing likenesses on paper or canvas. --Carolyn K. Snyder |
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Join us!
Artist Reception Saturday December 11 1-4pm
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Martin Zehnder | November 2021 Visiting Artist
Biographical Narrative of Marvin Zehnder
In 1951, I enrolled in the Art Department of Michigan State University
and took my first ceramics class that year. This class, taught by Lou
Raynor, was to be a building block that shaped the rest of my life.
After a 2 year hiatus during which I served in the US Army, I graduated
from Michigan State University in 1957 with a degree in Art Education. I
remained to earn a Master of Arts degree in painting and ceramics.
After a brief period teaching in the secondary school system of
Menominee, Michigan, I enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts ceramic
design program at Alfred University in Alfred, New York. Alfred
University has the reputation of being the international center for
ceramic artists and educators. This is where I met and married another
ceramic student, Monica Bellew. During the first year of study I was
to be taught by some internationally recognized personalities of the
ceramic world, such as Val Cushing, Robert Turner and Ted Randall. After
one year of study I was awarded a scholarship to intern as an
artist/designer for Haeger Potteries of Dundee, Illinois. This program
was copied from a similar one that was being used at the Arabia ceramic
factory in Finland. After the project length of a year, I remained at
Haeger as artist/craftsman/designer.
This was the time when Northern Michigan College was changing from a
primarily education institution and was growing into the University
status. The current Art Department was emphasizing art education. The
new Art and Design department was headed by Mike Gorski. On January of
1967, I was the first hire to develop a studio area in the new Art and
Design department. I was given $1000.00 and an empty room and told to
develop a ceramics studio. For the next 30 some years I exhibited
locally, regionally and nationally while changing and outfitting studios
to accommodate the growth of the department.
I retired from Northern Michigan University in 1997 and continue to
explore my use of the ceramic medium. Another serious interest is in the
horticultural world, and that is reflected clearly in the forms I
produce. Throwing on the potter's wheel and the container form are the
major factors in all of my pieces, but the shapes and forms from the
plant world are obviously reflected in my ceramic objects.
Elizabeth Howe | October 2021 Visiting Artist
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Artist Statement Wind, Water and Wandering I have always painted in the hopes that the viewer can feel the wind in the trees or the wetness of water. Making the connection to nature through the creamy expressive strokes of the brush and colors of the palette. This series of paintings explores wandering the shores of Lake Superior, both its rugged and sandy coast. Included in this are works that capture that wandering, but with a twist, watching the wanders. Pondering not only my rejuvenation of being by the lake, or touching the rocks and earth, but taking it deeper and connecting with others doing the same. Every day is fresh inspiration. Elizabeth Gartner Howe Bio I’m a watcher… if you were to take a hike with me in the woods or on the shore you would find we stop often to look. To see color, light, and forms of things. I was born in 1960 and primarily grew up being outside in Michigan, in the USA. Taking to painting as a young kid started me on a path, of paintings, commissions, design studio work and as a muralist. Teaching art also became a passion. I like to help ignite the journey of exploring the act of creating with students of all ages. Both using skill building as well as creative expression to achieve that goal I live and work on the shores of Lake Superior in Marquette, Mi where it is hard for me to unsee the color and beauty of nature, painting directly and from the memory of places, using a colorful palette and expressive stokes to inspire the viewer to connect to the natural world and maybe a little daydreaming. |
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Kelly Gilligan | August 2021 Visiting Artist
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Kelly Gilligan graduated from the NMU Metals department in 2011 and has been making and selling her Jewelry since then. She is using a technique called Saltwater Etching to create designs and textures on her Jewelry, giving them both an elegant and comfortable feel.
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John Hubbard | June/July 2021 Visiting Artist
Professor Hubbard developed the Drawing and Painting and Printmaking concentrations in the Art and Design program at Northern Michigan University. He taught the lower level cognate offerings, was in charge of the graduate program, developed the paper-making facilities, and was the Exhibits Coordinator for the Lee Hall Gallery for eight years.
As a professional artist, he has been included in over 200 juried exhibitions, 16 one-person exhibitions, and seven two-person exhibitions. He has served as a juror for seven exhibitions in the Midwest, and was awarded two Creative Artists Grants from the Michigan Council for the Arts. In 2005, he was selected Artist in Residence at Isle Royale by the National Park Service. He has conducted numerous workshops, and has work in 20 permanent collections, including Dow Chemical Company, Michigan Bell Telephone, Ford Motor Company, Kansas State University, Neville Public Museum, Austin Peay State University, Brueckner Museum, as well as many private collections.
Since his retirement from teaching at Northern Michigan University in 2014, he has continued to pursue his work as a practicing artist, concentrating his efforts in painting. Professor Hubbard lives and works with his wife, Susan, in his home on Big Shag Lake in Gwinn, Michigan.
Professor Hubbard developed the Drawing and Painting and Printmaking concentrations in the Art and Design program at Northern Michigan University. He taught the lower level cognate offerings, was in charge of the graduate program, developed the paper-making facilities, and was the Exhibits Coordinator for the Lee Hall Gallery for eight years.
As a professional artist, he has been included in over 200 juried exhibitions, 16 one-person exhibitions, and seven two-person exhibitions. He has served as a juror for seven exhibitions in the Midwest, and was awarded two Creative Artists Grants from the Michigan Council for the Arts. In 2005, he was selected Artist in Residence at Isle Royale by the National Park Service. He has conducted numerous workshops, and has work in 20 permanent collections, including Dow Chemical Company, Michigan Bell Telephone, Ford Motor Company, Kansas State University, Neville Public Museum, Austin Peay State University, Brueckner Museum, as well as many private collections.
Since his retirement from teaching at Northern Michigan University in 2014, he has continued to pursue his work as a practicing artist, concentrating his efforts in painting. Professor Hubbard lives and works with his wife, Susan, in his home on Big Shag Lake in Gwinn, Michigan.
Jason Schneider | April 2021 Visiting Artist
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Jason Schneider is a studio furniture maker who works with traditional woodworking processes in non-traditional materials to create unique three-dimensional objects. He received a BFA in Furniture Design from William Paterson University and an MFA in Furniture Design from San Diego State University. Over the past two decades, his work has been widely exhibited at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, CO; Aspen Art Museum, CO; Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, PA; Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA; and the Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, NY; among others. He has given lectures and demonstrations at the Central New England Woodturners, Worcester, MA; Google, Mountain View, CA; and Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC. He is the former Studio Coordinator of the Furniture Design and Woodworking program at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO. Currently, Jason is an Assistant Professor of the Woodworking and Furniture Design program at Northern Michigan University. Artist Statement My work explores the beauty and character of corrugated cardboard in functional and sculptural forms. This study of the fine use and function of this low-status, recyclable, and often overlooked material is what drives my curiosity. The inventive process of creating objects with corrugated cardboard is exciting and stimulating, often resulting in a highly textured and elegant surface and form. |
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Tim Trombley | March 2021 Visiting Artist
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Artist's Statement I've always been drawn to the "big picture" landscapes. I’m there to soak in and capture all of the details in every direction. Without exception, there is always more than what can be included in the print. This small collection here is stepping out of my usual approach of presenting the larger scene and taking a more intimate look at the landscape. This technique is not new for me but it is something I seldom work on. Most close-up work tends to be studies in colors, contrasts, textures and forms. Sometimes those combinations can make some interesting abstractions. Sometimes it just simplifies a greater scene into its basic elements. This is just a sampling of some smaller landscapes that I find interesting Artist Bio Tim Trombley’s love of photography began as a hippie hitchhiking across America with an old Brownie camera. After earning a BS in Forestry from Michigan Tech University, Tim enrolled in some photography classes while working in Lansing and later earned a Master of Arts degree in Photography from Purdue University. A five year stint as an interpretive ranger in the National Park Service led him to many beautiful places where he honed his landscape photographic skills, but he always returned to the Upper Peninsula, finally making it his permanent home in 1994. Tim feels the most rewarding part of landscape photography is that of discovery and exploration. Making images to share the experience completes the process and compels him to go back for more. Surrounded by the beauty of the Upper Peninsula and with the Hiawatha National Forest and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in his backyard, Tim finds ample inspiration and opportunity to create his amazing photographs. |
Patty Gagnon | January/February 2021 Visiting Artist
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Patty Gagnon has been a resident of Marquette, Michigan for 20 years. She received a BFA/painting degree from NMU in 2015 and a BA in English Literature with an art minor from UC Santa Barbara in the 1960s. She has also attended innumerable art workshops, including Turkish tile design in Istanbul.
Raised on dam projects around the world, she met her husband, Harvey, in Pakistan. They continued moving to new places with their three sons. In 2005, they served in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan. SURPRISED BY JOY ‘Surprised by joy’ is a quote used by author Louise Penny in her Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series. It’s written on a plaque secured to the back of a park bench. Ms. Penny got it from CS Lewis, and he references a poem by Wordsworth. So, not a new idea – joy – but something I had forgotten in 2020. It surprises us even in times of pandemics and uncertainties. Joy isn’t the same as happiness or pleasure. “Joy is never in our power.” It doesn’t deny death, darkness, evil, despair. We and our world are made up of all these parts, yet, look around and every once in a while it smacks you – joy. So here are the surprises of joy that hit me when I looked out, up and around. |
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Barry Bernstein | December 2020 Visiting Artist
I’ve been making vessels and
firing in the Raku process for over 35 years. I use the vessel form
as my canvas and the firing process as my paint brush. Slight adjustments in the firing and cooling create a wide range of colors and textures. I try to create visually strong forms and strong surface treatment. Pieces must have both to be considered successful. I make simple forms with very little embellishment to get at the strength and inner beauty of the vessel form.
My pieces reflect the hues and
the forms of our Upper Peninsula environment. Many of my pieces celebrate the Northern Lights. Others are reminiscent of Lake Superior and the brilliance of the fall colors.
Other influences include 7th to 17th century Asian ceramics and Native American pottery. Another is an artist/instructor named Richard Devore who fired his pieces numerous times. Devore fired his pieces in an electric kiln and I thought I would try the technique with Raku. To my delight, I obtained hues and textures not usually found in Raku. This has led to other experimentation including glaze firing the pieces twice in an electric kiln before I Raku fire. Each piece gets 2-4 Raku firings. Sometimes I over fire the pieces and then under fire them. Each subtle change in the Raku process creates different results. I’m still experimenting.
Joe Graci | November 2020 Visiting Artist
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