Brenda J. Clark celebrates 20 years in Leelanau

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Among the pantheon of local artists, Brenda J. Clark’s paintings of Leelanau are so entirely unique—and so singularly vibrant—that they can easily be recognized as hers. This summer marks the 20th anniversary of Clark’s eponymous gallery, the Brenda J. Clark Gallery, which she founded with her husband, Johnston Mitchell. Located in downtown Suttons Bay, after a brief nascency in nearby Leland, Clark’s “working gallery” abides by an accessible approach: doors always open to encourage communal interaction.

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Meeting an old friend for the first time

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In the summer of 1994, I met a northern Michigan writer—though not in person—who made a lasting impression on me: Leelanau County’s own, essayist Kathleen Stocking. I soon came across Stocking’s first book: Letters from the Leelanau: Essays of People and Place. After examining the front and back covers and conducting my open-any-page-and-decide test, I had to have it. Here was a writer who grew up in Leelanau County, whose family had a remarkable history in the area (notably, the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is named after her father), and who, as I would read, captured the essence of this special place. Little did I know that this would lead to an improbable encounter nearly three decades later.

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Graham Powers settling in but not settling

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What do hospitals and theaters have in common? More than one might think. At least, that’s the contention of Graham Powers, the general manager of the Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay. Powers came to his position after working on the hospitality side of healthcare with Parkview Health System in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. “My professional background is in healthcare management and hospitality. There are a lot of parallels in theater management,” Powers says. Such as the fact they are both community-facing, serve large segments of the populace, and in the case of the Bay and Parkview, both are not-for-profits.

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Susan Yamasaki finds wonder in birch bark art

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Susan Yamasaki has been a Leelanau County resident for 18 years. Like many people here, she loves to walk in the woods. She lives on a hill up the road from Big Glen Lake and her home was in the line of devastation from straight line winds in the storm of 2015, when so many trees were downed. One of the trees was a very old birch tree. She began collecting bark from the fallen trees. Birch bark is naturally waterproof and does not rot easily. “They give and have given us so much in their lifetimes,” she says, “Their last stage is to decompose into the soil, providing nutrients and shelter for other living things. She decided she wanted to make something from that bark that honored the life of the tree. Come see Yamasaki’s birch bark assemblages at Lake Street Studios from Aug. 4-10. A reception for her will be held 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 4.

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Words that matter: Coffee with Holly Wren Spaulding

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The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s Coffee With the Authors is a live, conversational interview with local and regional authors about the writing craft and process. This series continues Sunday, July 30, at 1 p.m. with poet Holly Wren Spaulding in a conversation about keeping and banning words. Spaulding, a northern Michigan native now living in southern Maine, published her third book of poems, Familiars, in 2020, as a response to the 2015 deletion of words by the Oxford Junior Dictionary (OJD). The OJD’s deleted words list includes names of flora and fauna, in order to make room for newer words from the world of technology, such as “chatroom” and “bullet point.” Familiars is full of poems about “trees, flowers, magic, touch, memory, erasure, power, and [Spaulding’s] grief over the changing climate.” In her July 30 conversation, Spaulding will talk about the power of words, choosing them with care, and the ways in which she works to keep language vital through her writing. The Glen Arbor Sun interviewed Spaulding prior to her upcoming coffee date at the Arts Center.

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Infinite Disc leads chain reaction

Leland hosted its first art walk for the Consenses Walks project earlier this month, a challenge for artists of varying mediums living in the same community to work together in an artistic game of “Telephone.” Leland was chosen for the experimental project’s second location by founder Sally Taylor, who led a group of approximately 125 people on a stroll around town to decode the chain of seven artists’ work and find out what common threads wove their way through the links. The adventure began with Leland summer resident and sculptor Charlie Hall’s Infinite Disc, located on the front lawn of the Old Art Building.

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Play-based learning and nutritious meals in a Guatemalan preschool

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Lizzie Brown, a 2021 Glen Lake School graduate and 2023 Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) graduate who is currently enrolled at University of Michigan-Flint, reflects on her recent trip to Guatemala, and what she learned at a model preschool run by Planting Seeds International, a nonprofit with northern Michigan support.

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Mel and Fell cooks, caters and delivers

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For Melanie and Tim Griffith, the past few years have seen growth in their catering and meal prep/delivery service Mel and Fell. The COVID-19 pandemic helped spur the food delivery side even as it devastated their event catering business. But just as they were hitting their stride, Tim suffered an injury, which they are now recovering from. “I banged my head and got a brain bleed,” he says. As a result, they cut back on some of their larger events to concentrate on their meal preparation business. And as their business continues to grow, they are working with a renewed appreciation for what they have and what they can bring to the table. “We’re doing good,” says Mel.

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Destination South Manitou Island

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“My first foray onto the shoreline of South Manitou Island as a volunteer lighthouse keeper for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore became one of my gladdest moments in life,” writes volunteer lighthouse keeper Jonathan Schechter in this essay featured in our July 13 edition of the Sun. “It remains so today, and now, after six tours of duty at that historic 1871 lighthouse overlooking the often-stormy Manitou Passage of Lake Michigan, I reflect on how it all came to be and already look forward to next year. And I will share three confessions.” Read the story for Schechter’s confessions.

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Dana Boomer, HANDDS to the rescue

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Dana Boomer is a pure Leelanau “local.” Born and raised along M-72 in the little valley between Fritz and Gilbert Roads on her family’s fruit farm, Boomer went to Glen Lake School part-time and was homeschooled part-time. “Six years ago, I started fostering dogs for ‘HANDDS to the Rescue.’ It is a network of dog-fosterers run by a diverse board in people’s own homes, there’s no central kennel. All of the dogs go to foster homes so that we can see their personalities in order to find the right family to adopt them,” said Boomer, who is also the Kasson Township Clerk.

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