Nine Glen Arbor galleries and artists studios are keeping the night light burning this summer as part of Art After Hours. Art After Hours takes place one last time on August 17, from 5-7 pm. It offers visitors a chance to take a self-guided walking tour of galleries located in Glen Arbor’s art district – a five-block area from Lake Street to M-22 to M-109 West.
Glen Arbor Artisans gallery opened on July 5 to feature Kristin Hurlin’s and Paul May’s art. The building, across M-22 from the Lakeshore Inn and kitty-corner from the tennis courts, is sleek, industrial and striking. Like the new M-22 store on the east end of town, the Artisans gallery features a board and batten exterior that leads the eye on a vertical path, not a horizontal one. “It makes you feel taller,” said Hurlin.
How do lovers of Glen Arbor who don’t have immediate access to our beautiful dunes and lakeshore stay in touch with their favorite destination? Chances are they follow the Glen Arbor Facebook page, which is facilitated by Paul May and his son Keenan (with help from Glen Arbor Sun co-editor Mike Buhler, and occasionally Simon Winograd, too). Paul May and wife Kristin Hurlin produce and sell their furniture, photography, ink and watercolor illustrations under the brand Glen Arbor Artisans.
When the Glen Arbor Athletic Club closed this past May, it left the Old School building on M-22, arguably among Glen Arbor’s most recognizable landmarks, sitting vacant. But thanks to a group of local artists, the schoolhouse has again found a purpose.
The lovely pitcher plant (Sarracemia purpurea) lives in the extreme acid conditions found in our local peat bogs and fens. A nearly spherical flower with showy pinkish-purple sepals is borne at the end of a scape (leafless stem) that can reach two feet. Unusual leaves, springing from the base of the plant, form tubular “pitchers” that fill with rainwater. The pitcher leaves have a flared lip that serves as a landing strip for insects. Inside the rim, downward pointing fine hairs and a numbing secretion cause the bugs to fall into the water, where they are digested by a whole ecosystem of organisms living in the “pool”. When an older leaf is sliced open, a collection of insect parts can be seen at the narrow base of the leaf. The pitcher plant is a carnivore like the Venus flytrap, supplementing its diet with insects to compensate for the nutrient poor environment of a bog.