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Oomen-Yamasaki collaboration features “Innocents in Peril”

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“If art heightens our awareness or makes us more conscious of the victims of wrongdoing, then maybe we move the needle,” as writer Anne-Marie Oomen said, “one iota of one iota.” The artistic collaboration between award-winning photographer Taro Yamasaki and writer Anne-Marie Oomen—both Leelanau County residents—strives to do just that. Their exhibit, titled Innocents in Peril, is now displayed in the Erie room at the State Library of Michigan in Lansing. The exhibit consists of 22 of Yamasaki’s award-winning photographs and oral histories paired with 19 of Oomen’s poems, inspired by the photographs. The exhibit features Yamasaki’s photographs of children surviving conditions of war or living under oppressive regimes. Yamasaki’s photographs of innocents ravaged by war, disease, natural disasters, and the cruelty of tyrants, will also be featured on May 13 at the Dennos Museum’s Milliken Auditorium at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City. The free event, which commemorates achievements by Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, is titled “Speaking truth to power,” and runs from 5-8 pm.

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The things they carry: exploring the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s VESSELS exhibit

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The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s current VESSELS exhibit offers an out-of-the-box look at bowls, baskets, urns, pods, and other objects that store and carry things. This juried exhibition is on display until Oct. 27 and features 28 exhibitors from Michigan, California, Illinois, and Rhode Island. Of particular note, the exhibit includes the Creation of the World 6/9, a needlework tapestry from Judy Chicago’s “Birth Project”—a feminist initiative from the early 1980s, in which Chicago collaborated with more than 150 artists to create dozens of images combining painting and needlework that celebrate various aspects of the birth process; from the painful to the mythical. This series celebrated the birth-giving capacity of women along with their creative spirit. With women’s reproductive rights under siege, and the arts reemerging as a forum of social and political expression, we chatted with the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal about VESSELS and the inclusion of a work from “Birth Project.”

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He Lived by His Lights as Long as He Could: Requiem for Phil Thiel

Phil Thiel, recently departed, was in some ways mystifying. His life comprised several eras. He won fast friends in each. In his all too brief 65 years Phil was an altar boy, an Eagle Scout, a college dropout, a world traveler, a cooperatives advocate, a bioregional organizer, a hippie carpenter, an environmental activist, a writer, editor, and publisher, a champion of renewable energy, a caterer, a shopkeeper, a gonzo sports fan, a connoisseur of wine and liquor, a gourmand, and Cedar Michigan’s Mardi Gras King, circa 2014. This past March 8 he was felled by a cardiac event outside the Long Lake home his mother shared with him.

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Sounding out with Manitou Music audio engineer Maria Ulrich

If Maria Ulrich is the wizard at the sound board (or more likely these days, at the tablet and monitors), then lucky listeners and presenters alike can relax under her professional support. Ulrich will run Glen Arbor’s Manitou Music series starting next year.

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Dennos Museum to feature Ken Scott photography

The Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College will present an exhibition by photographer Ken Scott, Sept. 21-Oct. 26. The exhibition is being presented in collaboration with the Leelanau Conservancy.

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Calling all quilters

Are you a visual artist interested in exploring a new medium? Are you a quilter, but do not think you are an artist, or want to expand beyond the traditional? The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) is offering a special Fabric Art workshop this September. “The Quilt as Art: Introduction to Non-Traditional, Contemporary Quilt Making” will be a two-day weekend event Sept. 8-9 at the GAAA building in Glen Arbor.

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Forthcoming Art of the Sleeping Bear Dunes calls for submissions

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The Leelanau Press, a nonprofit publishing company, is undertaking a major effort to recognize the work of artists who have painted in this unique northern Michigan gem. A future publication, Art of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, and a major exhibition at the Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City will celebrate what has recently been media-designated as America’s Most Beautiful Place.

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Harvey Gordon to be Interviewed at Talk About Art

The paintings of Harvey Gordon are the focus of a solo exhibition at Traverse City’s Dennos Museum Center in April. On April 5, Gordon gives a preview of these new works — as well as a short tour of his long painting life, at the next “Talk About Art” interview, 7:30 p.m., at the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA).

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