For more information visit https://www.theresagray.com/the-art-of-connection

The Skin I'm In is an exhibition on living life as yourself and all the identities that come with it and how you see yourself and how the world sees you.  This is a moment to creatively share your stories as a person with a disability, a man with a wonderful smile, a war vet, a Black woman, a Person of Color. This exhibit is a place to tell how you feel in your skin as a member of the LGBTQ community, as an Asian man, a Muslim grandmother. How you express yourself as an Indigenous person, a person with red hair and freckles or a Black Man in today’s America. Whatever skin you are in, who you are matters. Your story matters.

For the past 18 years, Donna has dedicated her skills as a designer and project manager to develop marketing and promotional strategies for urban libraries and non-profits. She has been a graphic/web designer for Detroit Public Library and Houston Public Library systems and brand manager for Houston Public Library.

Donna attended Western Michigan University in the College of Engineering and also attended the College for Creative Studies as a Graphic Communications major. She is the founder of DMJStudio, her creative studio devoted to developing art projects and events that close gaps between community and cultural institutions through public art, exhibits, film, and social collaborations. Much of her artwork and projects are available to view at www.dmjstudio.com

Her body of work includes Colorful Women, a collection of abstract paintings, illustrations, video, and installations narrating stories of women and her hometown of Detroit. She has created and curated several projects and installations. These include the Door of Opportunity project, a collection of doors transformed into art by local artists, Posters on Politics (an international exhibition of posters on global politics), and Women Work, (a platform of women exhibits, projects and programs that focus on the narratives of women). She continues to work in the neighborhoods of Detroit developing story projects and exhibitions, such as Middle Detroit, a collection of stories about Detroit’s middle class as well as In Pursuit of Hope, stories about the Detroit 1967 Rebellion. 

Entry requirements
This call is open to all artists 18 years of age or older in the following states: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. All work must be the original work of the artist and completed in the last three years. We reserve the right to decline any work that is substantially different from the submitted images, does not meet size limitations, or is not professionally presented.

Size limits: 2D - 72”high x 55” wide maximum 3D- must fit through standard doorway, max. 50lbs. No installations or ceiling hung work

Please contact Kerry Hagy with questions at info@southhavenarts.org

South Haven Center for the Arts 600 Phoenix St, South Haven, MI 49090 Phone: (269) 637-1041 Hours: Wed, Fri, Sat 11AM – 4:00PM (ET), Thurs: 11AM – 6:00PM www.southhavenarts.org
info@southhavenarts.org

WHEN YOU BUY SOMETHING FROM AN ARTIST
YOU’RE BUYING MORE THAN AN OBJECT
YOU’RE BUYING HUNDREDS
OF HOURS OF ERRORS AND EXPERIMENTATION
AND MOMENTS OF PURE JOY
YOU’RE NOT BUYING JUST ONE THING
YOU ARE BUYING A PIECE OF A HEART
A PIECE OF A SOUL
A SMALL PIECE
OF SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE

Author Joy Plett

Oil painter Dawn Stafford is offering an intimate workshop, limited to 8 students, to take place outdoors in her beautiful backyard garden and rural hill top at the Peachbelt Studio. She will guides painters through demonstrations in palette theory, composition, abstraction, and support their own personal interpretation. Painters will choose what they study and work independently. A pre-selected palette of pure pigment oil paints and environmentally friendly solvent are included. Drawing skills are very helpful. All levels welcome.
For details visit
https://www.peachbeltstudio.com/blog/summer-workshops-at-the-peachbelt-studio

Knitters, Crocheters, Weavers, Stitchers, Fiber People of all types! The good old Douglas UCC knitting crew invites you all to join us at their masked, outdoor, bring-your-own-chair-and-refreshments-and-projects meetups on Wednesday afternoons at the Retreat House backyard, beginning April 21 at 1pm! If you wish to receive reminders of those meetups and alerts when the weather looks too difficult to meet, join this group's mailing list by emailing Julie at julie@douglasucc.org

Blue Star Barns in Saugatuck will be holding curated markets at  this summer. For an idea of what last years markets looked like, there are many pictures on both our Instagram and Facebook pages “Blue Star Barns”.
Many questions can be answered by reviewing the vendor application pdf (below) or feel free to contact
Joe & Amy Aernouts of the Blue Star Barns
3483 Blue Star Hwy, Saugatuck, MI 49453
bluestarbarns@gmail.com
Amy: 616.836.4886
Joe: 616.836.4566

If you’re looking for a way to grow your clientele & connections but not ready for a storefront, you’ve found your place. Contact bluestarbarns@gmail.com or (616) 836-4886

March 23, 2021 from 7 to 8 PM 

• Contact Phone (269)857-8241
  

Kim Zahnow, a professional photographer whose specialties include portraiture, will offer a live Zoom webinar where she will be showing some of her work, offering helpful tips through discussion and Q&A. Bring your questions and expect to accomplish great things!
To sign up, send your name and contact information to info@sdlibrary.org. Click on the Zoom link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81191779322?pwd=UG9UbzV2TU4yWkxOMzhvMHJMdDJTQT09 
This class is offered as part of our upcoming community exhibit, Unmasked, which will feature cell phone portraits. If you want to participate in the exhibit, but don’t feel confident in your photography skill level, join us for this free class.
The session will be recorded for later viewing, and will be posted on the Library’s website.
In partnership with the new Saugatuck-Douglas-Fennville Arts Initiative and made possible by a grant from West Shore Aware

Scroll down to view the new courses! Visit https://winslowartcenter.com/online-course-catalog-winter-spring-2021/ or click the button below.

Join fellow artists at Ox-Bow for our upcoming Spring Saturday Series art workshops!
Ox-Bow is offering 3-session workshops in Collage/2D, Screenprinting, and Mosaic. Each workshop will meet on March 20, March 27 and April 3. They will be held indoors, in our studios, with all COVID mitigation protocols in place.
Find all details and registration info here: https://www.ox-bow.org/spring-aom
Please reach out to carcta@ox-bow.org with any questions. 

Did you ever come across the soothing paint-along art shows of Bob Ross? Maybe you'd like to try painting along, but lack the supplies to make it happen? This program by the Saugatuck-Douglas District Library [SDDL] is for you!

Here's how it will work according to Hannah Mason of the SDDL:
"On Saturday, March 6, you'll pick up your paint-along kit from the Library during our open hours, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. The kit will include an 8" by 10" canvas, all the paint colors you need (acrylics, not oils), and a couple of brushes. There is a suggested fee of $5 to cover materials.
At home you'll need to set up a place where you can both paint and watch a screen, and gather some simple supplies such as water and rags.
At 3 p.m. the same day you'll be invited to join a Zoom meeting in which we'll watch an episode of Bob Ross's show, and paint along with him to create "Snowy Solitude". If the timing is not convenient you can also find the show on YouTube and paint along at another time - we suggest you not wait too long, though, as the paints are liable to dry out.
We expect the program to take about an hour, and look forward to having you join us to create your own little 'masterpiece' (results may vary)!
Please call 269-857-8241 during open hours (see website) by Thursday, March 4, to reserve your spot. Supplies are limited and registration will close when all our kits are spoken for."

Click the button below to visit Royce Deans' website.

Check out these classes for artists of all ages.

The book titles are arranged in chronological order starting in March, 2021.

MARCH – “I Always Loved You” by Robin Oliveira – Beautifully written with period details featuring Mary Cassatt and her complex relationship with Edgar Degas. Mary was famous for her paintings of intimate bonds between mother and child. Included are Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet.  Cassett was a dear friend of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa’s artistic sister and the basis for the Amy character in Little Women.  Born 1926, Allegheny, Pa. died 1926. She went to Paris alone in 1866 to study and pursue her art.  In 1877 her parents and sister Lydia joined her and they lived together in an apartment. In 1893 she was invited to show in Chicago by Bertha Palmer creating a large mural for the Women’s Building at the Chicago World’s Colombian Exhibition.

APRIL – “The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American Artists" by Gary Monroe.  Not a novel.  There were 26 African American landscape artists in Florida in the Fort Pierce area. They sold their work door to door and along the highways from 1950s through 1980s.  They used the same colors and their subject matter was very much the same. The style is very distinctive. They also painted in various stays in prison. You may want to explore them on the internet or see if the library has books on this culture.

MAY – “The Last Painting of Sara de Vos” by Dominic Smith is the story of a Dutch female artist who lost her young daughter and in grief she secretly begins painting a dark landscape of a girl watching ice skaters from the edge of the woods.  Females were not to be artists and the approximately twenty of the Golden Age in the Netherlands had to sign men’s names to their work. The painting's inheritor in the 1950s Manhattan has a forgery painted.  In 1631 Sara becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke in Holland.
Other titles include “Girl in Hyacinth Blue” by Susan Vreeland, and “Girl with the Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier. These titles are about Dutch Painters in the 1600s Netherlands.  Two are about Johannes Vermeer who lived and worked in Delft in early 1600s. 

JUNE  – “Renoir’s Dancers: The Secret of Suzanne Valadon” by Catherine Hewitt.  Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) was a model for Renoir and other artists of the period including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  He was her lover for two years until she attempted suicide in 1888. She was an accomplished painter.  See the painting entitled “Renoir’s Dancer” and you will see Suzanne. She was the first woman painter admitted to the Societe Nationale des Beau-Arts, also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.  In the 1890s she befriended Edgar Degas who purchased her work and encouraged her she remained one of his closest friends until his death.

JULY  – “Luncheon at the Boating Party” by Suzanne Vreeland.
Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party painting includes 14 people around the outdoor table in the summer along the Seine. The story is about each one and how difficult it was to get them together to pose many times for the painting. They met on Sundays for two months. It is 1880 and Auguste Renior and the author paint their lives, loves, losses, and triumphs so vividly that “the painting literally comes alive.”(Boston Globe)
                                   
AUGUST  – Now the top selling female artist in the world.  Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) is a Japanese contemporary artist who works in sculpture and installation.  She is active in painting, performance, film, fashion, fiction and other arts.  Her work is based in conceptual art. She is obsessed with repetitions. In childhood she made drawings of pumpkins and her art today is based on that shape. There are approximately 25 books featuring  her work and her hallucinations since childhood enhance her work. Reading about her on the internet will take you hours; there is so much. She is a marketing genius.

SEPTEMBER – “Strapless” by Deborah Davis is the amazing story of the portrait of Madame X by John Singer Sargent. She was a young socialite by the name of Virginie Amelle Avegno Gautreau and the portrait was created 1883-1884. The scandal resulting from the presentation at the Paris Salon in 1884 amounted to a temporary setback for his career in France. She is posing in a black satin dress with jeweled straps that reveals and hides at the same time.

OCTOBER – “Marriage of Opposites” by Alice Hoffman is the story of Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro, born 1830 on the island of St. Thomas. His mother was from a French-Jewish family from St. Thomas. The father, Portuguese Jewish, was a merchant who came to the island from France to deal with the hardware store.  His father sent him to boarding school in France at age 12. Pissarro is considered the father of the French Impressionism. An incredibly intense and excellent book, “Depths of Glory” by Irving Stone would be a read for someone focused on France and the Impressionist.

NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER SURPRISE!   You might enjoy “Lust for Life” by Irving Stone.

Please RSVP for Zoom Link at: https://www.rhythmix.org/events/demystifying-the-journey/

Here are some courses fellow SDAC members have taken and enjoyed:

From Michael Rippey and Jerry Fresia liked this good for beginners painting workshop:  https://www.fresia.com/painting-workshops/online-painting-course/

From Julie Ridl recommends Sketch Book School: https://sketchbookskool.com/about/
 
Michael Rippey recommends checking out these two painters who have given him inspiration:
John Traynor, https://www.johnctraynor.com/
Jackie Gouveia, https://www.jgouveia.com/index.html