Ruth Conklin Gallery hosts seventh annual Sticks Trunk Show

Press release
Sarah Grant, creator/owner of Sticks Furniture and Object Art, will appear as a guest artist at the seventh annual Sticks Trunk Show, July 31-August 2 at Ruth Conklin Gallery.
Hours for the exhibition and personal appointments with Ms. Grant and staff for custom orders are from 2:30-5 p.m. Thursday, July 31 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 1 and Saturday, Aug. 2 at the gallery on M-109.

The trunk show features the Michigan debut of Sticks’ special edition pink ribbon Hallelujah Lady sculptures to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. For each handcrafted sculpture in birch, poplar and driftwood sold through October, Sticks will donate $100 to the Komen foundation, with a minimum pledge of $10,000. The reception to the limited edition sculptures has been “very good.”
“We all are aware of breast cancer’s victims,” Ms. Grant, mother of three daughters, said in a telephone interview. Newly remarried, she noted her husband’s first wife died from the disease.
Sticks’ work is also benefiting a Leelanau County nonprofit. Ruth Conklin, owner of Ruth Conklin Gallery, has donated a $5,000-Sticks Fishtown plaque, designed and executed by Sarah Grant, to the Leland Fishtown Preservation Society for its 2008 summer fundraiser.
The national headquarters for Sticks is in Des Moines, Iowa. Since 1992, the studio art company has created more than 1,500 designs for home furnishings, accessories and collectible folk sculptures, individually crafted, painted and embellished with wood-burned phrases that personalize lifestyle and family memories.
Despite a slowing economy, Sticks’ “most wonderful products” continue to be upbeat and life affirming. “We are not living in fear as so much of America seems to be,” said Ms. Grant. “Our products are positive and reinforce who we are as Americans.”
Ms. Grant, who vacations in the Sleeping Bear Dunes area, uses many motifs of the northern Michigan region. Last summer saw the successful launch of a Mackinac Island Press children’s book, Sleeping Bear: The Legend, featuring her wood-block illustrations.
For more information about the trunk show, contact Ruth Conklin Gallery at (231) 334-3880 or visit www.ruthconklingallery.com.