
Creativity Q+A With Mark Mehaffey
Mark Mehaffey relocated to Leelanau County five years ago. He lives in a house that bumps up against the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — a fitting locale: A large […]
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Creativity Q+A with Mary Fortuna
Traverse City artist Mary Fortuna, 66, draws on a number of inner resources to fuel her creative work — chief among which might be a self-identified weirdness. Over the years […]
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Creativity Q+A with Scott Lankton
Blacksmith Scott Lankton [left] was “hooked on hot steel” the first time he worked with it. The Leelanau County artist, 66, went on to find a vocation in the forge, […]
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Creativity Q+A with Dorothy Anderson Grow
As part of the exhibition Ropes, Ribbons, Twigs, and Things in the GAAC’s Lobby Gallery, Traverse City artist Dorothy Anderson Grow talked with Sarah Bearup-Neal, GAAC Gallery Manager, about the […]
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Creativity Q+A Video: 99 Clay Vessels Project
Alison Kysia is the creator of the multi-media visual art and storytelling project 99 Clay Vessels.
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Creativity Q+A Video: Baskets of the Anishinaabek
In 1987, the Leelanau Historical Society began documenting, interpreting, collecting, and preserving birch bark and quillwork baskets, and black ash baskets.
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Creativity Q+A with Lauren Everett Finn
Painter Lauren Everett Finn, 64, isn’t shy about mixing her media. In any given composition, the Benzie County artist [pictured left] might develop an idea by collaging an element to […]
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Creativity Q+A with Lindy Bishop
Landscape painting is the focus of Lindy Bishop’s practice. Lindy lives in Elk Rapids, the town in which she was raised, in the midst of a region where the landscape […]
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Creativity Q+A with Meg Staley
There has never been a straight line through Meg Staley’s career. But every experience — from sale clerk, to department store clothing buyer, to printmaker — has factored into the […]
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Creativity Q+A with Melonie Steffes
Melonie Steffes, 48, learned by doing. And by reading library books about practice and process. And by finding other makers to mentor her. Her paintings are filled with bears, insects, […]
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Creativity Q+A Video with Linda Alice Dewey and Anne-Marie Oomen
A conversation with painter Linda Dewey and poet Anne-Marie Oomen about their collaborative project On The Precipice, a small exhibition of four paintings and four companion poems…
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Creativity Q+A with Kaz McCue
Kaz McCue’s lives as an educator, studio artist, and regular-guy-walking-around-the-place blend seamlessly into one another. Everything is connected. Everything cross pollinates, whether it happens in the studio or the classroom. […]
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Creativity Q+A with Karen Anderson
Karen Anderson came “out of the womb searching for meaning.” The Traverse City writer has found it in a bowl of oatmeal, buckle snow boots, canoeing the Manistee River, and […]
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Creativity Q+A with Bob Downes
Bob Downes, 69, “always wanted to be a novelist.” And, that is what he became. Bob Downes is the essence of peripatetic. The author of seven books, many of which […]
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Creativity Q+A video with Rodney Martin
Woodland Studies is a series of black and white photographs by Grand Rapids photographer Rodney Martin. The region’s woodland, rivers and natural areas are well documented by all manner of […]
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Creativity Q+A video with the Big Heads Corp.: Papier Mache
As part of the GAAC’s PaperWork exhibition, we’re in conversation with two people for whom the old art of papier mache is foundational to their work – Dorienne Sherrod and Sharon Morris of the Big Heads Corp.
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Creativity Q+A video with Mary Beth Acosta: Collage
Leelanau County artist Mary Beth Acosta works in collage, under the creative nom de guerre “The Feral Housewife.”
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Creativity Q+A video with Geo Rutherford: Artist’s Books
The genre known as “artist’s books” is not easily defined. People have been making beautiful, artful books for centuries. But “artist’s books” defy convention, and occupy a niche all their own.
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Creativity Q+A with Shanny Brooke
Shanny Brooke, 42, is a classically-trained singer who found her way into visual art + painting after she hit a career/life roadblock. A package of student canvases and a tin […]
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Creativity Q+A with Nick Preneta
Nick Preneta, 37, works in wood. Green wood. Mostly with his chain saw. Notching and carving and creating marks, both intentional and serendipitous. The Leelanau County artist, trained as a […]
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Creativity Q+A with Shanna Robinson
Shanna Robinson, 63, moves fluidly between media. “I’m a fiber-sculptor,” she said, “but I work in whatever medium suits my idea at the time.” The Horton Bay resident, newly retired […]
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Creativity Q+A with Lynne Rae Perkins
As part of the GAAC’s Everyday Objects exhibition, we spoke with Leelanau County author + illustrator Lynne Rae Perkins. Lynne, 66, is the author of 14 books for children, including […]
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Creativity Q+A video with Michelle Stitzlein: The Art of Repurposing
Ohio artist Michelle Stitzlein is a creative force whose sculptures elevate familiar objects to a new level of art.
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Creativity Q+A Video with Steve Palmer: Maker of Fish
As part of the GAAC’s exhibition Everyday Objects, we’re in conversation with Leelanau County artist Steve Palmer – maker of mixed media fish from found and antique objects.
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Creativity Q+A with Susan Thompson
Benzie County artist Susan Thompson believes “Art is a gift that is meant to be received and that touches others. Art is an essential and primary means for mutual understanding, […]
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Creativity Q+A with Susan Tusa
Photographer Susan Tusa learned her craft in the days before digital, and plied it in the field of print journalism. She was a staff photographer with The Detroit News; and […]
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Creativity Q+A with Michelle Tock York
Michelle Tock York, 60, is a sculptor working in clay, and with a wide range of intriguing found objects — from organic finds [e.g. driftwood gleaned from the beach] to […]
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Creativity Q+A with Nancy McRay
Nancy McRay, 65, is “a fiber artist … mostly a weaver” of tapestries who pushes the medium out of its historic, domestic context, and into the Capital “A” Art world.
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Creativity Q+A with Terry Wooten
Terry Wooten, 72, is an oral poet, a bard in the truest sense. This Antrim County artist has authored more than 500 published poems, and memorized 567 poems.
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Creativity Q+A with Angela Saxon
Angela Saxon, 59, is a self-described “mark maker.” That’s her calling and the basis of her creative practice, which is about seeing more, getting beyond the surface of things, and depicting layers of time in her paintings, prints and drawings.
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Creativity Q+A Video with Joan Richmond
Traverse City artist Joan Richmond responded to the COVID shutdown in her Northern Michigan town by going to work in her studio. She created 60 collages, a selection of these abstract, color-and-line composition are exhibited at the Glen Arbor Arts Center.
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Creativity Q+A with Jesse Hickman
Jesse Hickman, 65, moved to Northern Michigan from Chicago, Illinois more than 25 years ago, wife and two small children in tow. The creative opportunities that Chicago offered this visual artist were weighed against the challenges of raising children in a city.
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Creativity Q+A Video with Paul Stebelton: Author of Writer’s Block
The Glen Arbor Arts Center presents an interview with Paul Stebelton. Traverse City poet and proprietor of Landmark Books, a bookstore, and Landmark Press, talks about his 2018 chapbook “Writer’s Block.”
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Creativity Q+A Video with Crystal Neubauer: Pushing Through Creative Block
The Glen Arbor Arts Center presents an interview with Crystal Neubauer. Wisconsin visual artist + teacher working in mixed media, talks about her 5-Minute Strategy for pushing through creative block.
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Creativity Q+A Video with Joan Richmond: Collage
Traverse City artist Joan Richmond responded to the COVID shutdown in her Northern Michigan town by going to work in her studio. She created 60 collages, a selection of these abstract, color-and-line composition are exhibited at the Glen Arbor Arts Center.
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Creativity Q+A Video with Fleda Brown: Writer’s Block and Not-Writing
The Glen Arbor Arts Center presents an interview with Fleda Brown. The Traverse City poet and author, talks about writer’s block and not-writing.
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Creativity Q+A with Colleen Kole
Colleen Kole is “an artist who uses textiles.” She hand dyes her fabrics – makes her own materials – and with them creates abstract, contemporary quilts.
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Creativity Q+A with Cherie Correll
Cherie Correll, a mixed media artist living in Benzie County, retired in 2010 after decades of teaching art in the public schools.
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