arts

Morgan Arrowood has been belting out songs and banging away on keyboards since she was four years old. She says even back then - when her parents first signed her up for piano lessons - her style was bold, brash and loud.

In the early nineteenth century, artists spent almost all their time inside studios. Instead of going outside, artists would usually sketch and paint from existing sketchings and paintings. 

The goal wasn’t to paint as realistically as possible, but as beautifully as possible. 

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was different. He started taking his paint outside.

Traverse City-based artist Joan Richmond says Corot was an important link in leaving behind the idealized world in painting.   

Parallel 45 Theatre company is out with a fresh take on the ancient Greek tragedy Medea.
Throughout their advertising campaign, the company has been comparing what it meant to be a celebrity during Medea's day, versus what it means today, with the likes of Kim Kardashian and Lindsey Lohan.
Is it determined by the history books, or trends on Twitter?

Meet Travis Duncan, manager of the Swamp of Suffering. That's the main attraction at Screams In the Dark, a big haunted house set up on the county fairgrounds near Traverse City.

Duncan plays a zombie that’s dressed as a member of a SWAT team. He and his small army of volunteers see themselves as something resembling a theatre troupe.

“This whole idea is to set up an illusion that you’re actually in a swamp," says Duncan. "You’re in a mausoleum, you’re in a graveyard. So we try to keep people in character so they can give that illusion and keep that illusion up.”

Documentary filmmaker Rick Prelinger makes films that are carefully pieced together from his collection of more than 14,000 home movies.

Two of them are playing this week at the Traverse City Film Festival. One film takes a look at the American road trip. The other is sort of a time capsule of the city of Detroit.

If you take in a jazz concert at Chateau Chantal, you’ll see more than musicians jamming. You’ll also see an artist painting the musicians while they perform.

Lisa Flahive sets up with an easel and watercolors in front of a jazz combo. As they play, Lisa moves to the music and makes pencil sketches of the musicians. She then adds big swashes of color to the paper before brushing in the detail work. Flahive began painting jazz musicians in front of an audience about a year ago and she never would have guessed she’d be doing her artwork in front of so many people.