art

Ever since it opened in 1991, the Dennos Museum Center has had one executive director: Eugene Jenneman. After all these years, he's retiring at the end of June. Jenneman’s path to become an art connoisseur took a different route than most would expect.

There used to be Anishinabek art in the Clinch Park Tunnel in downtown Traverse City. But in 2013, the tunnel was remodeled and the art was painted over. Now, the Traverse City Arts Commission is returning native American art to the tunnel. 

Agostina Segatori owned the Café du Tambourin in the late 1800’s. The Parisian cafe was a popular spot with artists, including Vincent Van Gogh. One day, Van Gogh decided to paint Agostina.

Alan Ross worked with Ansel Adams for about 10 years. Like Ansel, he’s known for his striking black and white photography.

Alan says a lot of people know about Ansel – the photographer – but fewer know him as a person.

Rebecca Childs’ grandmother-in-law painted and sketched right up until her death last year. Her name was Evelyn Henry, and she was 99 years old. And Evelyn changed the way Rebecca thought about her own art.

“You can’t have an excuse if a 99-year-old woman is sketching in her bed, you know, the last week of her life,” she says.

Most people who knew Jean Parsons, will tell you— she was tough and expected a lot from her students.

Jean never married, and didn’t have any children. So, she spent her days pouring into her art and investing in her students. 

Now, one of her students has created remembrance of her in the Benzie County village of Lake Ann.

Shanny Brooke moved from Florida to Traverse City about nine years ago. Soon, she noticed that her type of art, was missing. She sees a lot of what she calls “loons and dunes,” but little modern or contemporary art. 

Shanny says that’s because businesses cater to tourists and visitors.

Chris Sims doesn’t think that the Traverse City art scene is bad, it’s just that it can get a bit insulated.

“When you stick to just local only, you start to just sort of pull from each other,” he says. “That just sort of leads to the same outcome creatively.”

Chris is the founder of Prjct omni, an art project that features contemporary art from all around the world. Last Friday, Prjct omni’s second exhibit opened in the Warehouse MRKT in Traverse City. And while most of the response was very positive, some of the paintings got a few folks a little riled up. But Chris says even a negative reaction with art is better than no reaction at all.

It took Linda Beeman three years to find someone to teach her how to make a Japanese woodblock print. 

She finally found someone teaching a workshop at the Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids. 

“When I pulled my print on the last day, I burst into tears,” recalls Linda. “Because it felt like this is what I was made to do.” She was at Interlochen, teaching her own Japanese printmaking workshop. 

For many musicians and bands, summer is the time to get out and tour. And when they’re out on tour, posters are needed to help promote the different shows.

That’s good news for Emma Berger. 

She’s a graphic artist from Traverse City who designs everything from posters to t-shirts for bands across the country. Her work has brought her in contact with artists like Brandi Carlile, who performs tonight at Interlochen Center for the Arts. 

Peggy McNew is a painter from Empire, Michigan. There’s nothing unusual about that— there are a lot of painters in Leelanau County. But Peggy is different. She’s legally blind. 

And a question that she’s wrestled with is whether or not that matters in relation to her art.

Beth Bricker is a painter from Glen Arbor. When she bought a home last summer, her property had a lot of trees on it. Then the infamous August 2nd storm, happened.

After waiting out the storm in her bathroom, she emerged to find a tree had landed in her bedroom and studio area.

In fact, she had five trees fall on her house, and seven more on her garage. Her property which used to be covered in trees, was suddenly wide open. She says she is going to miss all that shade.

“I’m a middle-aged woman," says Bricker. "I get too hot way too fast, and I’ve got ... high windows here which really didn’t used to have any sunlight coming in.”

But on the other hand she says she can now look up and see stars at night. Those types of new views are the inspiration behind a new exhibit at the Glen Arbor Art Association. 

New Views: A Storm of Art is a juried exhibition of art. The art association wanted to give artists an opportunity to express themselves and help the community heal.