Experience Ox-Bow 2022

2022

EXPERIENCE OX-BOW

OX-B OW S C H O O L O F A R T & A R T I S T S ’ R ES I D EN CY

OX- BOW TEAM ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Shannon R. Stratton Executive Director Kathryn Armstrong Development Director

MISSION & OVERVIEW Ox-Bow connects artists to: • A network of creative resources, people, and ideas • An energizing natural environment • A rich artistic history and vital future OX-BOW SCHOOL OF ART & ARTISTS’ RESIDENCY was established in 1910 and continues its mission of connecting artists to a network of creative resources, people, and ideas; an energizing natural environment; and a rich artistic history and vital future. Ox-Bow’s egalitarian and intimate environment encourages all artists, regardless of experience, to find, amplify, rediscover, and share their impulse to create. Faculty, Visiting Artists, Residents, staff, and students live together in a temporary intentional community on our campus in Saugatuck, Michigan, where they share meals, social time, and the exchange of ideas. We actively encourage our participants to engage across differences in age, regional location, race, and gender identity, learning what it means to be a community by participating in one.

Claire Arctander Campus Director Laura Eberstein Director of Finance & Administration Ashley Freeby Communications Director Nicholas Jirasek Culinary Director Maddie Reyna Interim Director of Academic Programs Michael Cuadrado Programs Manager Shanley Poole Administrative Assistant CA MPUS STAFF John Rossi Facilities Manager Aaron Cook Operations Manager

CONTACT US WEBSITE : www.ox-bow.org E-MAIL : ox-bow@saic.edu

Mac Akin Campus Manager

SAUGATUCK CAMPUS 3435 Rupprecht Way, Saugatuck, MI 49453 OX-BOW HOUSE & HEAD OFFICE 137 Center Street, Douglas, MI 49406 FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK @OXBOWSCHOOLOFART @RESTAURANTINTHEWOODS

PROUDLY AFFILIATED WITH THE SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, A MAJOR SPONSOR OF OX-BOW

*All images of faculty or visiting artists are courtesy of artists/faculty unless otherwise noted.

CATALOG DESIGN BY: ASHLEY M . FREEBY

Cover Photos: Clare Britt (x1) and Bradley Marshall (x5)

Devin Balara Metals Studio Manager Dove Drury Hornbuckle Ceramics Studio Manager Will Hutchinson Glass Studio Co-Manager Bobby Gonzales Print & New Media Studio Manager T.J. Mathieu Hospitality Manager Yashu Reddy Glass Studio Co-Manager Danielle Thurber-DeGroot Campus Wellness Counselor Aaron Whitfield Housekeeping Manager

A Note from Our Director . . .

Dear Neighbors, I’m writing this letter on March 1st and the clouds are clearing overhead to make way for a bright blue sky. I can’t think of a better metaphor for the summer ahead and my hope for a season that will once again be filled with artists and friends gathering together for fellowship in our studios and on our meadow.

This summer we are thrilled to open the doors of Ox-Bow House at 137 N Center Street in Douglas. Our new head office, home to our archives and an exhibition and retail venue, Ox-Bow House will be a work-in-progress, with its design a visible creative process with an emphasis on adaptive reuse. Stay tuned for a yearlong slate of programs on architecture and sustainability as we settle-in with our incoming resident-architect, Charlie Vinz.

We will officially open to the public June 10th with the exhibition Summer School of Painting, curated by Maddie Reyna, our current Director of Academic Programs, which honors our original name, and features artists from our 2022 faculty.

Alongside this exhibition, we have a summer of weekly programs planned, including lectures by the exhibiting artists and a series co-presented with the Library of the Great Lakes featuring speakers addressing environmental themes important to this region.

Back on campus, we have such a robust calendar of workshops planned for Art on the Meadow that it is hard to choose which ones to highlight! With everything from our popular writing and cooking workshops to photography, watercolor and bronze casting, there is sure to be something to rouse everyone’s artistic spirits. Curated by our Campus Director, Claire Arctander, the program was designed around rethinking the

Photo by: Jessica Labatte

creative process itself, by exploring new approaches to making while engaged with Ox’s natural surroundings. Her pick is Cathy Hsiao’s Indigo on the Meadow, where students will learn to source and cultivate indigo as well as extract and utilize the dye for vat and solar jar dyeing. (You can read more about it on page 20).

And lastly, we are all anticipating the return of Friday Night Open Studios starting in June, revamped and revitalized with great food and beverages, workshops, entertainment and our classic auction. Mark your calendars (and leave some wall space) for: June 17th, July 29th, August 26th and September 30th. And speaking of marking your calendars: Tickets are on sale now for the summer benefit! Join us for a special lagoon side patron dinner on July 8th or our new campus-wide benefit concert on July 9th programmed in collaboration with The Storehouse (Galien, MI) (page 36). You can have fun while supporting the arts at any and all of these events – your patronage supports a 112-year-old art school: our history and its preservation, our artists and our precious environment.

It is an action-packed summer ahead, so I hope very much to run into you, on the meadow, at an artist’s talk or over lunch some afternoon.

May the days be bright ahead, Yours,

Shannon R. Stratton Executive Director Ox-Bow School of Art

1

CALENDAR OF EVENTS ON CA MPUS

FRIDAY NIGHT OPEN STUDIOS

June 17th | July 29th | August 26th | September 30th 5:00-9:00pm EST We are excited to be welcoming back a full summer of classes in 2022 and with that, rebooting our Friday Night Open Studios! Join us this summer and fall for a campuswide event featuring studio visits, demos and workshops alongside great food, beverage, entertainment and our famed live auction. Stay tuned as we bring back the historic “clothesline” sale and launch our first community “open studio” with a fall art sale featuring artists from the greater community!

J U LY 8+ 9 T H 2022

FIELD OF VISION SUMMER BENEFIT DINNER & CONCERT July 8 + 9, 2022

Join us for our annual summer benefit on the Warnock Meadow. On Friday night we will serve up a traditional Filipino Kamayan feast and Saturday is our first benefit concert, curated by The Storehouse. Check-out the line-up on page 33.

OX-BOW GOES TO HELL October 28-30, 2022

Every year we invite our campus ghosts out for a fun family-friendly event that features sculptures, performances and haunted cabins and trails created by our “residence evil” guest-artists.

22

DOWNTOWN

SUMMER SCHOOL OF PAINTING RECEPTION Friday, June 10 at 7:30PM EST

Enticed by its idyllic light, painters have come to Ox-Bow School of Art for 112 years. To capture the unique and rapidly changing dance of the atmosphere, artists have employed a variety of techniques, both traditional and experimental. Whether made meadow-side with direct reference or abstractly in the studio while gleaning inspiration from the culture and nature, there is a signature spirituality in the paintings informed by the Ox-Bow landscape.

Ox-Bow is pleased to present Summer School of Painting, a survey of paintings made by faculty and visiting artists participating in our Summer 2022 for-credit program. In this exhibition, curated by Ox-Bow’s Interim Director of Academic Programs, Maddie Reyna, we invite you to sway with the rhythms in the work of Magalie Guérin, Richard Hull, and Laurel Sparks; be pushed toward new discoveries through the work of Gina Beavers and James English Leary; and play in the gentle tides rendered by Isa Rodrigues and Claire Ashley. Join us as we celebrate the legacy of painting at Ox-Bow, and welcome 2022’s roster of esteemed artists who are continuing a radical history of image and object making.

See page 9 to see a full listing of events at Ox-Bow House

Brandon Dill, Deecy Smith of designvox; Laurel Sparks, Sol, 2021, poured gesso, waterbased paint, ash, paper pulp, glitter, collage, pipe cleaner, woven canvas strips, 24 x 24 inches

CONTENTS 4

24

19

ART ON THE MEADOW

RENTALS

OX-NEWS

» Overview .. ..................... 10

» Cabin Rentals . . ............... 34

» Ox-Bow Heads to Town... 7

» Workshop Calendar. . ....... 12

» Private Classes & Studio Rentals................ 38

» Welcome to Ox-Bow House............... 8

» Cooking & Aesthetic Living.............. 14 » 1-Day Writing Workshops..................... 15 » 1-Day Art Workshops...... 16 » 2-Day Weekend Art Intensives................. 18 » 4-Day Art Workshops...... 19 » Saturday Series: Half Day Workshops. . ...... 25

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

» Summer Concert............ 33

» Rooted in Ox-Bow........... 5 » Brent Harris................... 21 » Penny Duff & Michael Slaboch............. 36 » Nicholas Jirasek............. 40 » E. Saffronia Downing.. ..... 44

» Family Saturday Series.... 26 » Meet the Faculty.. ........... 27

ALSO...

» AOM Registration Form.................................. 47 » Community Covid-19 Mitigation Guidelines....... 48

Julie Nauman-Mikulski; Clare Britt; Nick Murway

3

4

Credits

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

Rooted in Ox-Bow Operations Manager Aaron Cook shares his own history of life lived on Ox-Bow’s campus. by Shanley Poole

Aaron Cook first encountered Ox-Bow in the summer of 2011. What he remembers most about his initial visit was the way the summer light hit the campus. “The light was at its best . . . so warm and so inviting,” Aaron says. He initially came as a guest, visiting a friend who had landed a fellowship at Ox-Bow, but would eventually come to inhabit one of the most critical roles on Ox-Bow’s campus: Operations Manager. He describes his connection with the campus as “an instant thing.”

After exploring the campus and trails, and even attending a Friday night costume party, Aaron knew he’d be back someday. In the summer of 2015, he proved himself right when he returned as a volunteer. By that fall, he was an official employee of “the heart of Ox-Bow,” more commonly known as the kitchen.

Aaron acknowledges that it was the land and campus that initially drew him to Ox-Bow, but it’s the people that have kept him here. There is one person in particular to whom Aaron gives credit: John Rossi. When Aaron assumed the role of Operations Manager in 2016, he began working alongside John. As both a mentor and a friend, John has taught Aaron how to “hold the campus up.” John, who has been a part of Ox-Bow since the 1990s, works as the Facilities Manager—though Aaron proposed the more fitting title of Master of Infrastructure and Magic. I asked Aaron if he could share any particularly memorable occasions with John and he recalled the infamous flood of 2019, noting that this crisis—which could’ve closed the campus down for the summer—was averted because of John’s clever work. “He’s the brains and the master of Ox-Bow,” Aaron said. “He’s one of the reasons I keep coming back.”

Like many of Ox-Bow’s staff members, Aaron doesn’t work on campus year-round. Ox-Bow is a place that, in his words, stays “in tune with the seasons.” During the winter and early spring, campus life and programming slow down.

“Giving the natural landscape its credit is pretty

Opposite Page: Clare Britt

important,” Aaron says, elaborating that the pause allows seasonal staff to return to the campus with a renewed vibrancy year after year.

Another sense of renewal comes from the Tallmadge Woods, which Aaron fondly calls “the perfect escape from the perfect escape.” His job description includes maintaining the trails, but he has also spent a good amount of time walking the Crow’s Nest Trail for leisure. It’s clear that Aaron’s care for the natural landscape has only grown over

Ox-Bow is a place that stays ‘in tune with the seasons’. ...the pause allows seasonal staff to return to the campus with a renewed vibrancy year after year. the years. Shortly after the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) was discovered near campus, Aaron set out with a crew to inspect the trees surrounding Ox-Bow. Spotting HWA takes a meticulous eye because of its small size, but Aaron was vigilant and managed to spot the bugs on the underside of a hemlock branch. Once he found the first signs of infestation, the crew identified more throughout the area. This moment has led to fundraising efforts to combat the invasive species that preys upon the Tallmadge Woods’ dense growth of hemlock trees. Aaron notes that these efforts are a

5

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

crucial part of maintaining the spirit of Ox-Bow.

HELP US SAVE THE TREES!

Throughout his time on campus, Aaron has worked in facilities, housekeeping, and the kitchen.

These experiences have allowed him to intersect with almost every inch of the campus.

When asked if he had a favorite building on campus, he didn’t hesitate before answering, “The Rob.” As the campus’s maintenance shop, the Rob “is an amoeba of a place that is always changing and accepts anything.” Likewise, it is a place that’s always giving. A regular afternoon in the Rob for Aaron consists of offering advice and loaning tools to those who wander in.

In many ways, the Rob serves as a microcosm of the entire campus: “Outside of the physical attributes, which we can’t take much credit for,” Aaron says, it’s the chemistry between the guests and residents of Ox-Bow that really fuels the campus.

Over the course of meals, artist lectures, and volleyball games, the traditional barriers dissolve, allowing students, staff, and faculty to eat, learn, and play alongside one another. Simply put, there’s no other place like it. Aaron describes Ox-Bow as “its own community,” and anyone who spends enough time on campus knows that he is one of its key forces. Aaron goes beyond just tending to Ox-Bow’s facilities: he carries on its traditions and lifts up the community.

Say hi to Aaron (and his pup Juniper) if you see them on campus!

6

What is the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid?

Michigan is home to an estimated 170 million eastern hemlock trees which provide important habitat and protect against erosion along rivers and streams. The hemlock woolly adelgid sucks sap from hemlock needles, killing needles, shoots and branches. Infested hemlocks become less vigorous and may turn grayish-green. Left untreated, hemlock woolly adelgid can cause tree death in 4-10 years.

The Tallmadge Woods boasts a significant population of eastern hemlock, but sadly they have been impacted by the nationwide hemlock woolly adelgid infestation. Present in at least 20 states, this invasive species has been found in six Michigan counties.

What can be done & how can I help?

Timely treatment of hemlock trees in order to eradicate the hemlock woolly adelgid is both urgent and expensive. If you enjoy spending time in the Tallmadge Woods and on the Crow’s Nest Trail, please consider contributing to the HWA remediation fund started by OxBow School of Art. The Crow’s Nest trail runs along the perimeter of our campus and this fund will help with the treatment and maintence of the trail/forest. We value donations of any size to help keep our woods thriving.

Consider donating to the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Remediation Fund. Scan the QR code for the donation form.

Clare Britt and Maddie Reyna

OX-NEWS

own roots in the area. Since its construction in 1870, the building has lived many lives including time as Douglas’s first church, an athletic clubhouse, and Oddfellows hall. When the library settled into the building in 1981, a fair amount of changes were needed to make the former athletic clubhouse into a space fit for readers. One librarian shared that more than one patron had boasted that they used to play basketball where a collection of bookshelves now stood. The renovations completed under the library’s leadership included critical structural work, an addition to the south end of the building, as well as an elevator and exterior ramp.

Ox-Bow Heads to Town A look at the history and future of Ox-Bow’s new downtown location.

by Shanley Poole

True to Douglas and Saugatuck’s communal nature, many renovations were made through the support of other local organizations. The 1987 remodel was funded largely by the Saugatuck-Douglas Art Club. The Douglas Garden Club also came alongside the library in 1998 to create the Reader’s Garden behind the building. The garden still remains onsite, offering benches where passersby might still stop to enjoy the flowers and even crack open a book. Perhaps in the future, they might also be able to enjoy the occasional garden art installation. These For the past 112 years, Ox-Bow has called the Lagoon and Tallmadge woods home.

Now our historic school and residency program has decided to dip its toes in the city. Don’t worry, we’ll still have our place in the woods, but you’ll also be able to find us in downtown Douglas. This summer, we’ll be opening Ox-Bow House on Center Street in the former Saugatuck-Douglas Library.

Ox-Bow fell in love with the building and its rich history, which predates the school’s

Courtesy of the Saugatuck-Douglas Library and the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Center

additions, brought about by the library’s leadership and vision for the building, have preserved the legacy of the space and enhanced its value and accessibility to the public.

In time, Ox-Bow intends to follow the library’s example and pursue more renovations and restorations.

In 2020, after three decades in its former location, the library reached its capacity. In an effort to expand its collection and create more space for programming, the library moved across

7

OX-NEWS

the street to its current location, paving the way for a new chapter in the historic space.

Ox-Bow House will feature a retail and gallery space, administrative offices, and our rich archival collection. Our neighbors will include the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Center, the library in its new location, a variety of cafes and restaurants, and, of course, a number of art galleries. In joining Center Street, we hope to participate in some of the town’s long standing traditions, develop deeper connections with our neighbors, and add to the artistic legacy of downtown Douglas.

We look forward to seeing you at Ox-Bow House.

ART ON CENTER

Throughout the years, Saugatuck and Douglas have lived up to their reputation as the “The Art Coast of Michigan.” Center Street in particular hosts a variety of art galleries including Water Street, LebenArt, Palette, Mixed Media, Mr. Miller’s Art Emporium, and the Button Gallery. These galleries are known not only for their own independent histories, but also for a longstanding legacy of camaraderie. Nothing demonstrates this more than the Annual Fall Gallery Stroll, which will celebrate its 45th anniversary this October.

The collaborative event is known to feature over 20 galleries and a variety of artists. Every year it attracts both art appreciators and collectors from across the region.

In years past, Center Street’s Beery Park also occasionally hosted the annual Clotheslines Art Show. The event featured local artists from the Saugatuck Douglas Art Club (SDAC) and sales supported art scholarships at Saugatuck Public Schools. According to the SDAC, this tradition lasted over 70 years! As a nod to this long running tradition, OxBow looks forward to bringing more art to the streets (and maybe even clotheslines) of Douglas.

Much thanks to the SaugatuckDouglas Library and the SaugatuckDouglas Historical Center for sharing their archives, insights, photographs, and stories with us.

8

WELCOME TO OX-BOW HOUSE Ox-Bow House is a pilot project

by Ox-Bow School of Art, a 112year old, independent summer art school that has been welcoming artists from around the nation and beyond to West Michigan since its founding in 1910. Ox-Bow’s classes, workshops, residencies, and public programs are developed in-house by a professional staff of artists, curators, and educators.

With a vibrant community of nationally and internationally respected artists on their campus each year, Ox-Bow House seeks to extend this resource to the public through a diverse menu of programs throughout the year.

The name Ox-Bow House acknowledges the legacy of this historic building as a place for community and celebrates the idea

that our house will be a charming place to stimulate learning and exploration.

This accessible location will be a welcoming space for our community neighbors in western Michigan as well as summer visitors to Douglas and Saugatuck. We are planning a comfortable environment where guests can partake in refreshments while digging deep into meaningful and open conversations over the arts. “We are thrilled about joining the Center Street community in Douglas this summer with our newest initiative, Ox-Bow House,” Steve Meier, Board President says, “our extension here will help cultivate deeper connections between our artists and art-lovers through a range of opportunities to connect, converse, learn and

Laurel Sparks, Sol, 2021, poured gesso, waterbased paint, ash, paper pulp, glitter, collage, pipe cleaner, woven canvas strips, 24 x 24 inches

appreciate the ground-breaking work happening in artists’ studios today.”

Ox-Bow House will be home to an exhibition hall, space for programming, and a retail environment for curated art and design objects by alumni and artists from throughout the region and beyond.

Ox-Bow House will open its doors to the public on June 10th, 2022 with the exhibition Summer School of Painting, a summerlong exhibition of contemporary painting curated from Ox-Bow’s 2022 faculty by Maddie Reyna.

Alongside the exhibition, Ox-Bow House will feature a calendar of artist talks, performances, and other public programs throughout the summer, including a partnership with the Library of the Great Lakes, whose mission is to inspire and support exploration of the science, history, literature, arts, and cultures of the Great Lakes region.

Over 2022-2024, Chicago-based architect Charlie Vinz (Adaptive

Operations) will be in-residence at Ox-Bow House. Vinz is well known for his work with artists and cultural organizations on adaptive-reuse design, applying a sustainability lens to architecture. A suite of programs, including workshops, lectures, and a publication, will be programmed throughout 2022-2024 as Ox-Bow House takes shape. “Charlie is the perfect fit for Ox-Bow House,” Shannon Stratton, Executive Director stated, “he brings an impressive background working with and designing artistled community and project spaces like Theaster Gates’ Stony Island Arts Bank, Buddy at the Chicago Cultural Center and The Storehouse in Galien, Michigan. We are excited to fold him, his work, and his network into Ox-Bow’s education mission over the next two years as Ox-Bow House and its design evolves: look for design lectures, workshops and other programs that connect with West Michigan’s long history in American design.” Read more about Charlie on our website: www.ox-bow.org/oxbow-house

Ox-Bow House is located at 137 Center Street in Douglas, MI. Visit our website to learn more about events happening at Ox-Bow House!

COME TAKE A CLASS WITH US! Hard Lines: Drawing with Steel with Devin Balara & Abigail Lucien August 7 - 13, 2022 In the Ox-Bow metals studio with sculptors Devin Balara and Abigail Lucien, students will focus on steel fabrication and the translation of line on paper to line in space.

Learn more about our Academic Courses online at, www.ox-bow.org/ summer-courses

Bradley Marshall

2022 OX-BOW HOUSE EVENTS Ox-Bow House opening + Summer School of Painting Reception Friday, June 10 at 7:30 p.m. EST In the House with Laurel Sparks Tuesday, June 14 at 7:30 p.m. EST Allison Swan in conversation with Keith Taylor in collaboration with the Library of the Great Lakes Tuesday, June 21, 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST In the House with Ken Vandermark & John Yau Sunday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m. EST In the House with Richard Hull Wednesday, June 29 at 7:30 p.m. EST Rebecca Sive: Make Herstory Your Story Thursday, July 14, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Art on Center Saturday, July 16, 2022 In the House with Claire Ashley Wednesday, July 20 at 7:30 p.m. EST In the House with Gina Beavers Monday, August 8 at 7:30 p.m. EST Collecting Contemporary Art: A conversation between Evan Boris and Shannon Stratton Sunday, Sunday, August 14, 2:00-5:00p.m. EST Lynne Heasley in conversation with Keith Taylor in collaboration with the Library of the Great Lakes Thursday, August 18, 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST In the House with James English Leary Tuesday, August 23 at 7:30 p.m. EST FRIDAY NIGHT OPEN STUDIOS June 17th | July 29th August 26th | September 30th Stop by Ox-Bow House to catch the bus to campus!

9

ART ON THE MEADOW

SUMMER WORKSHOPS

ART ON THE MEADOW offers creative workshops that are affordable, multi-level, and intergenerational for our West Michigan neighbors and visitors. This year’s workshop offerings are designed to spark the creative process in new and exciting ways. Our summer 2022 schedule provides opportunities to expand your artistic horizons by focusing on writing and bookmaking; textile and fiber processes; and photography and printmaking—and by developing methods for artmaking that you can carry with you well beyond your workshop experience. Many of our workshops draw content and inspiration directly from Ox-Bow’s stunning natural environment. Come float and gaze and draft and scheme and craft and sculpt and grow and dream with us on the Meadow this summer!

WORKSHOP K EY

10

Cooking

Creative Process

Drawing & Painting

Family

Fibers & Textiles

Natural Environment

Photography

Printmaking

Sculpture

Writing & Bookmaking

opposite page: Bradley Marshall

REGI STE R ONLINE TODAY!

AO M WO R KS H O P S

11

AOM

202 2 ART ON THE ME ADOW WO RKS H O P CALENDAR

JUNE 07 // Introduction to Bronze Casting

Watercolor for the Fearful

with Brent Harris June 7-10, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

with David Baker June 21-24, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

11 // EARTH: Family Pottery with Kim Meyers Baas June 11, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Drawing & Painting Family Series Fibers & Textiles Natural Environment Photography Printmaking Sculpture Writing & Bookmaking 12

25 //

with Christine Ferris June 11, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

with Kim Meyers Baas June 25, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Introduction to Pewter Casting

From All Angles: Writing Your Personal History

SUN: Summer Solstice

Creative Process

with David Baker June 21-24, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

WATER: Views of Ox-Bow

18 //

Cooking

First, You Build a Sketchbook…

Epic Hors D’oeuvres

with Gabrielle Egnater June 11, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

K EY

21 //

with Kim Meyers Baas June 18, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Learning from Yourself (and Each Other): Creative Writing and Reflection with Marya Spont-Lemus June 18, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

with Jack Ridl June 25, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

Visualizing Dreams with Julie Nauman-Mikulski June 25, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

28 // Methods of Creativity with Calee Cecconi June 28-July 1, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Screen Printing & Collage: Generating Form with Bobby Gonzales June 28-July 1, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

Material Ecologies Lab: Indigo on the Meadow with Cathy Hsiao June 28-July 1, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

AO M WO R KS H O P S

JULY 02 // Ox-Bow Ecologies with Dianne Jedlicka July 2, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

05 // Expanded Relief Printmaking: The Multitude of Matrices with Cooper Holoweski July 5-8, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Temporary Arrangements: Making Art With People And Environments with M.T. Giddings July 5-8, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

AUGUST 19 //

02 //

Drawing as Meditation with Janet Trierweiler July 19-22, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

23 // Landscape Painting with James Brandess July 23, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Experimental Photo On-the-Go with Brian Fencl July 23, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

The Altered Book with JoAnne Laudolff July 23-24, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

12 // Renewed Ready-to-Wear with Gurtie Hansell July 12-15, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Cutting, Collage, Cut-Outs, & Cut-Ups with Tessa Paneth-Pollak & Lauren Russell July 12-15, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

26 // Art, Music, and Listening with Britni Bicknaver & Christopher M. Reeves July 26-29, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

30 // Landscape Painting

16 // Filipinx Food Fun! with Nicholas Jirasek July 16, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Landscape Painting with James Brandess July 16, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Sincerely Yours: The Creative Process in Correspondence with Anders Zanichkowsky July 16-17, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

with James Brandess July 30, 10:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.

Clay on the Meadow with Dove Drury Hornbuckle July 30, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

More Than One Way to Make a Book: Variations on the Accordion Fold with Honore Lee July 30-31, 10:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.

Coiling: Reflecting Abstract Forms in Nature with Alonzo Pantoja August 2-5, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

06 // Chili Clinic with Eric May August 6, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Landscape Painting with James Brandess August 6, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Clay on the Meadow with Dove Drury Hornbuckle August 6, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

13 // Landscape Painting with James Brandess August 13, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

The Camera as Drawing Machine with Barbarita Polster August 13-14, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. each day

Clay on the Meadow with Dove Drury Hornbuckle August 13, 2:005:00 p.m.

16 // Patchwork Quilting Techniques

Ebb & Flow: Lagoon Immersion

with Christalena Hughmanick August 16-19, 2:005:00 p.m.

with Kir Donovan August 6, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Hand Sewn Narratives

09 // Fluxus Findings with Barbarita Polster August 9-12, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Natural Dye Techniques with Christalena Hughmanick August 9-12, 2:005:00 p.m.

with Christine Haynes August 16-19, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

20 // Reconstructing a Tree with Matt Martin August 20, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Improvisational Visible Mending with Christine Haynes August 20-21, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. each day

13

AO M WO R KS H O P S

COOKING WORKSHOPS These workshops will conclude with a group lunch of your own making!

14

Epic Hors D’oeuvres

Filipinx Food Fun!

Chili Clinic

DATE : Saturday, June 11,

DATE: Saturday, July 16,

DATE : Saturday, August 6,

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Christine Ferris TUITION COST: $90 Learn fun techniques for making hors d’oeuvres that are as beautiful to look at as they are to eat. We will create rolled and skewered delicacies, contemplate cool ways to arrange a platter, and discuss how to create a balanced menu—considering textures, flavors, and preparations.

We will begin with discussion and then roll up our sleeves to make some treats together!

Participants will build their own customized platters, including selections such as grilled zucchini roulades with herbed chèvre; salads on a stick; crudités with dips; lox bruschetta; and beet and chèvre terrine.

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Nicholas Jirasek TUITION COST: $90 Filipinx food is sweeping the nation, with its bright, punchy flavors and complex balance of savory, sweet, and sour.

Learn from Ox-Bow’s Culinary Director, Jirasek, how to make a Filipinx feast, or kamayan, that is meant to be eaten with your hands! Great for parties and entertaining, kamayans are stunningly arranged displays of food, spanning the traditional to the contemporary. Participants will learn the rich history of Filipinx food’s journey to the Americas and how this cultural exchange created a beautiful cuisine that is constantly evolving. In making this collaborative feast, participants will learn to make delicacies like lumpia egg rolls, Filipinx adobo chicken, BBQ pork skewers, local vegetable pancit noodles, a bevy of condiments, and much more!

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Eric May TUITION COST: $90 Chilies are magic! How could such a small (and inexpensive!) fruit contain so much power to delight (and yes, burn) our taste buds?! Native to the Americas, chilies have traveled the globe, infusing cuisines with their potent pleasures.

We will harness the magical properties of the chili and learn how to use both fresh and dry chilies in spicy condiments like salsas, giardiniera, chili crisp, and harissa, culminating in an invigorating lunch.

Read an interview with Culinary Director Nicholas Jirasek PAG E 4 0

Clare Britt and Nick Murway

AO M WO R KS H O P S

WRITING WORKSHOPS These workshops include lunch at 1 p.m.

Learning from Yourself (& Each Other): Creative Writing & Reflection

From All Angles: Writing Your Personal History

DATE: Saturday, June 18, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

DATE: Saturday, June 25, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Marya Spont-Lemus

FACULTY: Jack Ridl

TUITION COST: $110

TUITION COST: $110

What has shaped who you are and what you notice?

What kinds of stories and characters are you most drawn to writing, and why? What values and influences are (or do you wish were) embedded in your work? This workshop will encourage participants to engage in creative self-study, drawing upon observations, experiences, and imaginings alike.

Activities will include guided reflections and multimodal writing (e.g., mapping, visual journaling), as well as facilitated opportunities to share and learn from each other. This workshop aims to illuminate and also rejuvenate, and for participants to depart with ideas about how they want to learn from themselves next. Open to writers working in any form or simply to anyone wishing to reflect.

This workshop will provide a variety of ways to get in touch with your own history: the people and events that had an impact on you. The memories can be as traumatic as experiencing a war, as poignant and lasting as baking cookies with your grandmother. As the poet Garrett Hongo said, “We think we remember, but we really, deeply remember when we start writing in ever expanding detail.”

Workshop time will be spent experimenting with various ways to use writing to explore your history.

All types of writing are welcome, and no previous experience is necessary.

Clare Britt

15

AO M WO R KS H O P S

1-DAY ART WORKSHOPS These workshops include lunch at 1 p.m.

Introduction to Pewter Casting DATE: Saturday, June 11,

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Gabrielle Egnater TUITION COST: $130 This workshop will cover the basics of silicone mold making and pewter casting. The first half of the day will be spent sculpting and finding objects to transform into pewter. With pewter casting, the final objects remain small, and texture becomes the focal point. We will focus on mark making in wax and finding textured objects or architectural features to pull molds from. Once we have a large texture library,

we will make one-part and twopart silicone molds. Each student will be able to pour their own molds, clean their own castings, and finish the day with 2–3 pewter cast objects.

Visualizing Dreams DATE: Saturday, June 25,

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Julie Nauman-Mikulski TUITION COST: $130 Dreams are evocative, elusive, and otherworldly. They challenge what we know about space and time, and they give us insight into our daily lives and our inner realities. In this workshop, we will refer to

Learn more about the Ox-Bow landscape through workshops focused on Our Natural Environment + read the interview with Operations Manager Aaron Cook on page 5 • Ox-Bow Ecologies • Ebb & Flow: Lagoon Immersion • Reconstructing a Tree • Material Ecologies Lab: Indigo on the Meadow • Coiling: Reflecting Abstract Forms in Nature

16

surrealist and other artworks that reflect dreams and dream states, as well as short texts on the study of dreams. Beginning with a dream you’ve written down, you will go through dream tending and other exercises that will provide new insights into the personal dream narrative, ultimately creating sketches, collages, and mixed-media work based on your dreams.

Ox-Bow Ecologies DATE : Saturday, July 2,

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Dianne Jedlicka TUITION COST: $120 Ox-Bow’s landscape, renowned for its natural beauty, contains remarkable landscape diversity.

We will explore our local ecology firsthand. First, we will hike through the deciduous forest to view the dunes and Lake Michigan while discussing the history of the river’s flow. We will learn about the formation of the lagoon, and the many species within it—including our beloved turtles! Then, we will have a short presentation on dune succession, followed by a canoe ride to walk the dunes. Wear comfortable clothes and sturdy walking shoes that can get wet.

Binoculars are welcome, as there are many bird species to be pointed out. We will end with a hands-on creative activity focusing on recycling and the environment.

Experimental Photo On the Go DATE : Saturday, July 23,

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Brian Fencl TUITION COST: $120 Students will use their own smartphones or tablets and apps available for iOS or Android devices in surprising ways to create unexpected

Brandon Dill

AO M WO R KS H O P S

images, engage in creative problem solving, and strengthen composition and design skills.

This workshop is perfect for anyone with a smart device and the hunger to try new imagemaking techniques! No previous photography experience is required. A tripod with a smartphone holder is helpful, but not necessary.

Ebb & Flow: Lagoon Immersion DATE : Saturday, August 6,

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Kir Donovan TUITION COST: $130 Don’t forget your swimsuit!

This workshop will focus on creative process and meditative practice. We will spend most of our time with and in OxBow’s lagoon in periods of play and meditation (whether floating, swimming, or wading), followed by experimental drawing sessions. There will be space for technical instruction, but the workshop will center on restorative practice and expansive approaches to making and drawing.

Participants of all skill levels and abilities are welcome. Bring a towel, your sunscreen, your swimsuit, and yourself!

Reconstructing a Tree DATE : Saturday, August 20,

10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Matt Martin TUITION COST: $120 This workshop will engage trees on Ox-Bow’s campus as subject and inspiration for a series of drawings and other works on paper. Taking Bruno Munari’s book Drawing a Tree as a jumping-off point, workshop participants will engage in drawing processes that dissect and then re-form a tree.

Drawings will isolate the formal qualities of each component of a tree; then, processes of cutting, folding, crumpling, and wrapping will re-form the tree in an imaginative way.

Julie Nauman-Mikulski, Witch Tree, Manido Giizhiigans, Little Spirit Cedar, 18” x 24”, 2011, Digital archival print of mixed media collage Gabrielle Egnater, Action shot of taking the pewter crucible out of the furnace, 2021

17

AO M WO R KS H O P S

2-DAY ART WORKSHOPS

These workshops include lunch at 1 p.m. each day.

Sincerely Yours: The Creative Process in Correspondence

More Than One Way to Make a Book: Variations on the Accordion Fold

DATES: Saturday, July 16–Sunday,

DATES: Saturday, July 30–Sunday,

July 17, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Anders Zanichkowsky TUITION COST: $205 When was the last time you had a lovely conversation with a work of art? Interviewed a stranger?

Surprised yourself when you answered a question? Think about something you enjoyed making during the pandemic: a birthday cake, a snowman, a watercolor painting . . . What might you reveal to yourself if you wrote about it in a letter?

In this workshop, we will use the personal address to help us think through our creativity.

We will conduct experiments in unusual writing formats, personal correspondence, and the art of unconventional dialogue.

We will turn those reflections into works on paper through cyanotype, monotype, and other printmaking processes. Then, we will send our findings out into the world (via the US Postal Service) to extend the connections that nurture our curiosity.

July 31, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Honore Lee TUITION COST: $205 In this two-session workshop, students will be introduced to the artist’s book as a creative process through techniques and individual explorations of the accordion book structure.

Students will learn to construct a basic accordion structure, as well as a range of variations on the form, as a foundation for creating their own one-of-akind artist’s book. This workshop is appropriate for artists wanting an introduction to artist’s books, as well as for those interested in artistic expression through the book form. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation as students develop strategies to integrate form and content.

The Altered Book DATES: Saturday, July 23–Sunday,

July 24, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: JoAnne Laudolff TUITION COST: $205 This workshop will incorporate multiple mixed-media explorations into an altered book, which can serve as a journal, a sketchbook, or a work of art in itself. Each student will embellish a found book with various handmade papers, paints, and media. The papers themselves will also be altered, using solvents, gloss medium, and paints. Composition and color theory will be considered, along with individual concepts.

18

The Camera as Drawing Machine DATES: Saturday, August 13–

Sunday, August 14, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Barbarita Polster TUITION COST: $205 Students will be asked to think of the camera as a mode of

drawing, using the etymological meaning of “photo-graphy”— “drawing with light”—as a jumping-off point. We will use easily acquired materials, like window screens, aluminum foil, and prisms, alongside materials found in the immediate vicinity, to create experimental photographs. Students will be introduced to techniques from experimental photography and cinema (cine-magic) to inspire their own explorations.

Each student will leave with 2–3 composed formal images ready to share.

Improvisational Visible Mending DATES: Saturday, August 20–

Sunday, August 21, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Christine Haynes TUITION COST: $205 Enjoy the slow and meditative process of mending garments and other fiber-based items.

In this workshop, you will learn hand-stitching, embroidery techniques, and Japanese sashiko and boro techniques.

We will then use those skills, along with fabric patches, to create patterns and textures that will repair, honor, and extend the life of your clothing.

We will also explore and gather inspiration from historical and modern mending approaches, which you can use in your own practice and apply to items brought from home.

AO M WO R KS H O P S

4 -DAY ART WORKSHOPS

These workshops do not include lunch. A 4-day lunch plan is available for an additional $60.

Please select this option when registering if you wish to join us for lunch at 1 p.m.

Introduction to Bronze Casting DATES: Tuesday, June 7–Friday,

June 10, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Brent Harris TUITION COST: $235 We will explore the basics of sculpting through lost-wax bronze casting. Students will work directly in wax to create a small, sculptural work of art. The works will be invested and burned out in a furnace to make ready to cast in molten bronze. We will

work as a group to help set up the foundry, melt the bronze, and pour the works. Through handson processes and instructor-led demonstrations, students will learn the finishing techniques and patinas that will bring their bronze sculptures to life.

Watercolor for the Fearful DATES: Tuesday, June 21–Friday,

June 24, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: David Baker TUITION COST: $185 Would you like to paint with watercolor, but feel reluctant to jump in? Perhaps you have heard other artists talk about how difficult it is. Perhaps you work in another medium, but don’t think you’ll be able to control this one—after all, you have to work backward! And how does one correct mistakes?

Learn the theory and practice of transparent watercolor.

Develop control of the basic techniques that allow you to realize your creative vision.

(above) David Baker, Found#19, watercolor, 11x15; (opposite page) Christine Haynes, Visible Mending, 2022, Jeans, shashiko thread, Variable

First, You Build a Sketchbook . . .

DATES: Tuesday, June 21–Friday,

June 24, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: David Baker TUITION COST: $205 First, you will learn how to make your own 32-page sketchbook from quality papers. Next, you will create a unique cover.

With the aid of your favorite sketching media, you will spend the rest of the week exploring Ox-Bow’s campus, filling your sketchbook with inspired observational drawings!

Materials for the book itself will be provided.

Methods of Creativity DATES: Tuesday, June 28–Friday,

July 1, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Calee Cecconi TUITION COST: $185 Do you have trouble coming up with ideas? Or when you have a great idea, do you find somebody else has already made it? Is your work starting

19

AO M WO R KS H O P S

to look a bit homogenous? This workshop will guide you through several alternative methods of ideation to help break you out of your creative rut—methods that you can continue to apply to your creative process in the future! Although this workshop is based in visual art and design processes, writers, musicians, and creative people of all stripes are encouraged to join in.

Screenprinting & Collage: Generating Form DATES: Tuesday, June 28–Friday,

July 1, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Bobby Gonzales TUITION COST: $205 This class will focus on the creative possibilities of combining screenprinting and collage. Students will learn how to create handmade stencils for screenprinting, and be guided through the printing process from start to finish. With the screenprint as a starting point, students will explore pattern, symmetry, color, form, and surface as we create original collages from our prints on paper. Those wishing to explore a more graphic sensibility in their work are great candidates for this workshop.

Material Ecologies Lab: Indigo on the Meadow DATES: Tuesday, June 28–Friday,

July 1, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Cathy Hsiao TUITION COST: $205 We will explore the life cycle of indigo blue from seed to dye, focusing on the diasporic history of indigo, from the global south to the plantations of colonial America. Learn to source indigo seeds from ethical local growers and start those seeds indoors.

Plant a small plot of indigo outdoors on Ox-Bow’s campus.

Then, learn to extract color from indigo plants, utilizing the natural dye techniques of vat dyeing and solar jar dyeing. We will honor the innovations inherent in traditional craft knowledges, and apply

20

them to an expanded field of ecology that includes connecting the local environments of our kitchens and studios with other, wider geographies.

Expanded Relief Printmaking: The Multitude of Matrices DATES: Tuesday, July 5–Friday,

July 8, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Cooper Holoweski TUITION COST: $205 Relief printmaking is most often associated with wood and linoleum block printing, but there are many other ways to make relief prints. We are surrounded by an expansive array of possible print matrices every day! This workshop empowers students to use nearly any material to create a relief print through techniques of texture rubbing, relief collagraph, masking, and others. We will discuss the unique, indexical relationship between matrix and print, and focus on how to use texture to create and convey meaning. While we will use the printmaking studio, handprinting methods will also be

covered to equip participants for printing independent of access to a press.

Temporary Arrangements: Making Art with People & Environments DATES: Tuesday, July 5–Friday,

July 8, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: M.T. Giddings TUITION COST: $195 Participants in this workshop will exercise their resourcefulness and creativity by making process-oriented found object compositions and installations, borrowing strategies from contemporary art and cultural history. The tent will be our collaborative studio, housing skill-shares, a wide variety of tools, and our growing collection of materials and objects. Each participant will create an accordion-fold artist’s book documenting their experience through drawing, writing, and photography. The workshop culminates in a collaborative, ephemeral installation for OxBow’s campus that is large-scale and site-specific.

workshops continue on page 22

M E E T MEET O U ROUR C O COMMUNITY MMUNITY

Brent Harris Local Artist & Faculty

Tell us about yourself—where did you grow up, and how did you end up in Kalamazoo?

I grew up in Belleville, Michigan, a rural community on the east side of the state, past the exurbs of Detroit. My family was the first of color to settle there at the turn of the last century. Because of that, my family was close-knit, and we spent much of our time in nature, gardening and building. I came to Kalamazoo to study at Western [Michigan University]. I studied psychology for several years before switching gears and transitioning into the sculpture program. At the time, the department was focused primarily on metal fabrication and casting. The materiality and work ethic felt familiar to me: aligning my creative spirit with the industrial familiarity of the Midwest.

Briefly describe your practice.

My work is an exploration into the essential nature of connection using process and depth psychology.

I believe every person, animal, element, nation, or culture has a story to tell of itself. I’m fascinated by the conversations between artist, material, and intention. In that conversation of creation and exploration we learn more about the essential nature of ourselves. When I work I listen to the material I’m interacting with, what its needs are, and how that is reflected back to my intention. When done with listening, the final resulting art piece is not only a synthesis of these interactions, but also the psyche speaking through the unconscious.

Being an artist also made me a better paramedic.

I found the prehospital setting encouraged me to think of creative solutions to complex situations. In this I also realized that being an artist is much more valuable to me than the work I produced. Although art school taught craft and a degree of intellectual rigor, I didn’t choose to pursue what I felt to be such a narrow window of what defines an artist. That focus made me feel that unless I was creating a commodifiable object or new work for its own sake, I wasn’t of value.

Making the transition out of art school into the “real world” was scary at first. So much of my identity was tied to being an artist, and if I wasn’t creating at the pace I was before due to lack of inspiration, outside obligations, work, you know . . . life, then who was I? The Alchemist Sculpture Foundry is located in Kalamazoo; what are the significant impacts or benefits of having a foundry (or arts organizations in general) in this region?

The Alchemist closed its doors for good four years ago. We were a valuable asset to local and regional

How did you first get involved with Ox-Bow? I’ve heard great things about Ox-Bow for years but never had the opportunity to visit, until recently when a friend recommended me to run a foundry workshop. I’m grateful they decided to take a chance on me, as I’ve incorporated aspects of nature immersion into my work and teaching.

You mention in your bio that you put art on the back burner. Do you have any words for young artists who are contemplating the same thing or who might be experiencing the pull to finally make art a full-time endeavor? Did being a paramedic influence your art practice?

Yes, being a paramedic influenced my art practice.

It made me more aware of the breadth of human experience. It made me consider the struggles we go through and the way our life’s stories are expressed through the body. As a figure sculptor, it gave me a deeper perspective of the human form and its vulnerability. (above) courtesy of Brent Harris; (opposite page) Cathy Hsiao, Study in Natural Dyes and Limestone-Based Materials, cement, hydrostone, indigo leaves, indigo crystals, iron powder, lac Insect extract, graphite, 4 in. x 4 in., 2021 - ongoing

21

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

4 -Day Art Workshops continued....

Renewed Ready-to-Wear DATES: Tuesday, July 12–Friday,

artists at the time, but the art community evolved. Fewer young artists were interested in the process, and the successful ones were aging out, and there were fewer craftspeople learning the trade. It’s a different time, and people are less interested in investing in a process that is so labor and material intensive.

Fortunately, Kalamazoo has a dynamic arts community, and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts has kept a metals program running for years. After landing there and taking over as Head of their Sculpture Department, I have been able to continue teaching the art of bronze casting to new generations. The labor-intensive aspects of the process lead to a strong sense of teamwork and individual accomplishment.

I can’t stress enough the importance of regional arts organizations. Access to affordable arts experiences not only helps support budding creatives; it allows a network for working artists to work within—supporting themselves and each other through a form of creative mutual aid.

You are bringing the visual arts to the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home this summer. Could you speak about how that project came to be and why arts education is important?

I took over that project last year when the previous arts educator retired. My aim is to continue the values of aesthetic education, which I feel is a necessary way to connect them to the arts and encourage them to speak their stories. None of these kids have escaped trauma, and that trauma is often exacerbated by the carcel system. The arts are an opportunity to not only express their inner world, but sculpture teaches teamwork, dimensional comprehension, responsibility, and trade skills.

Do you have a website or social media handles that you’d like us to publish?

Out of respect for my emotional health I have been in a steady retreat from social media. And although it’s in my career’s best interest, my website has languished. I can, however, be found enthusiastically by email: brentharrissculpture@gmail.com.

22

July 15, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Gurtie Hansell TUITION COST: $205 What we wear shows the world so much of who we are. For many, fashion acts as ornamentation, or even armor. Unfortunately, the fashion industry—and fast fashion in particular—is destroying Mother Earth. The clothing and materials we need to adorn ourselves already exist in the world. With a little creativity, we can reinvent and revitalize our looks (and a bit of ourselves).

We will explore ways of sourcing “upcycled” and “deadstock” materials. We will hold our own clothing swap to pool materials for creating and renewing ecofriendly wearables, then enhance those found garments with inks, dyes, stitches, and appliqués— learning new painting, sewing, and printmaking techniques along the way. The experience will culminate in a fashion show collectively produced by the group on the final day.

Let’s frolic!

Cutting, Collage, Cut-Outs & Cut-Ups DATES: Tuesday, July 12–Friday,

July 15, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Tessa Paneth-Pollak & Lauren Russell TUITION COST: $185 This workshop, led by an art historian and a poet, will explore cutting as a technique of shaping, composing, and editing in both visual art and writing practices. It will introduce participants to the history of cutting as an artistic process through specific historical examples. In conversation with these examples, we will perform daily experiments with distinct subtractive and separative

courtesy of Brent Harris

AO M WO R KS H O P S

procedures, resulting in several text- and found image–based collage works. We will use these hands-on experiences as bases for daily discussion and visual analysis of their differing implications for creative work.

enjoy calming, observational, and imaginative drawing. Learn to use tone and color to create serene and joyful moods with water-soluble materials on watercolor paper.

Drawing as Meditation

DATES: Tuesday, July 26–Friday,

DATES: Tuesday, July 19–Friday,

July 22, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Janet Trierweiler TUITION COST: $195 This workshop provides students with a chance to practice drawing techniques that slow down the artmaking process, resulting in a peaceful and healing experience. Use intuition and inspiration from Ox-Bow’s landscape to connect to natural, creative forces. Through meditative practices, we will engage all of our senses to

Bradley Marshall

Art, Music & Listening July 29, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Britni Bicknaver & Christopher M. Reeves TUITION COST: $185 In the mid-20th century, experimental artists and adventurous musicians worked to reimagine how music was composed, played, and listened to. This workshop picks up on these ideas through informal lectures and hands-on activities that engage Ox-Bow’s pristine natural environment. Topics include making visual and

text-based musical scores, using musical instruments in nonconventional ways, and experimental listening practices.

No previous musical experience is required, and all musical instruments will be provided.

Coiling: Reflecting Abstract Forms in Nature DATES: Tuesday, August 2–Friday,

August 5, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Alonzo Pantoja TUITION COST: $205 Abstract forms in nature are abundant, poetic, and inspiring.

Workshop participants will learn basic fiber coiling techniques to create abstract sculptures and/or functional vessels that address the forms, colors, and textures found in OxBow’s natural environment.

Participants will learn how to

23

AO M WO R KS H O P S

start a coil, wrap yarn, join coiling material, and finish off the work. Each participant will interpret and approach the idea of abstract forms on their terms.

This workshop will emphasize exploration, experimentation, and observation.

Fluxus Findings

DATES: Tuesday, August 9–Friday,

August 12, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Barbarita Polster TUITION COST: $195 Students will learn to see the world playfully, with new eyes.

Borrowing from the approaches of the 1960s avant-garde, we will experiment with drawings, found materials, homemade instruments, games, and performances in order to generate new methods of approaching situations in everyday life. Much of the time will be spent outdoors, as projects will take cues from the Ox-Bow campus itself.

Students will leave with various written projects, drawings, and documentation of performances.

Natural Dye Techniques DATES: Tuesday, August 9–Friday,

August 12, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Christalena Hughmanick TUITION COST: $195 We will dye fabric with materials found on the Ox-Bow campus.

We will forage locally from the surrounding natural environment and collect food by-products from the kitchen to make shared dye baths for submersion dyeing. Basic resist techniques of wrapping, binding, and stitching will be used to create patterns on fabric, and conversation will focus on sustainability and material recycling in textile processes.

Patchwork Quilting Techniques DATES: Tuesday, August 16–Friday,

August 19, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Christalena Hughmanick TUITION COST: $195 This workshop will take an analog approach to quilting, using fabric piecing and appliqué by hand-stitching.

We will look at the inherent meanings and material histories of found fabrics. Fabric can be brought into the class or created in the “Natural Dye Techniques” workshop that Christalena will lead on August 9–12 (enroll separately!). We will look at the history of quilts as objects that record and collect biographical information about the life and surroundings of their makers. For context, we will look at how patterns associated with different groups living in the US have become signifiers of culture, geography, and identity.

No prior sewing experience is necessary, and all skill levels are welcome.

Hand-Sewn Narratives Dates: Tuesday, August 16– Friday, August 19, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

Faculty: Christine Haynes Tuition Cost: $195 Students will learn how to create a hand-sewn quilt top embellished with a narrative, inspired by the story of their choosing. We will learn about both historical and modern quilt designs, gather inspiration from our own personal histories, and then design our own individual quilt tops.

The stories on your quilt can depict a linear narrative, an abstract representation, a pictorial illustration, or simply a celebration of meaningful fabrics. Using needle-turn appliqué, fabric collage, embroidery embellishment, and hand-sewn seams, each student will learn the joy of meditative hand sewing.

Consider taking Natural Dye Techiques with Patchwork Quilting Techniques to transform your experience. You will create dyed textiles to use in your quilts!

24

Christine Haynes, Alber’s Garden, 2022, Fabric, embroidery floss, thread,32” x 32”

AO M WO R KS H O P S

SATURDAY SERIES: HALF DAY WORKSHOPS

These workshops include lunch at 1 p.m. each day. Participants may sign up for one, two, or all workshops in each series! Please note that you must enroll in each session separately.

SATURDAY SERIES: Landscape Painting with James Brandess SATURDAY SERIES: Clay on the Meadow with Dove Drury Hornbuckle

DATES : Saturdays: July 16, July 23, July 30, August 6,

August 13, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: James Brandess TUITION COST: $75 per session In these multi-level oil painting workshops, participants will paint outdoors amid the historic Ox-Bow landscape. Instruction will focus on recognizing and then painting what we actually see. Through this process of learning to see, we will create paintings that have veracity and strength.

The workshop will include discussion of the tools and materials needed to set up and paint in any landscape you choose. Sign up for one, two, or all five sessions of this three-hour morning painting workshop on the Meadow alongside the lagoon.

DATES: Saturdays: July 30, August 6, August 13, 2–5 p.m.

FACULTY: Dove Drury Hornbuckle TUITION COST: $100 per session

These sessions will provide an introduction to handbuilding in clay and coil-based techniques.

We will focus on forming vessels and using underglazes for decorative flair. All materials and basic tools will be provided. Work will be kiln-fired at Ox-Bow, and participants will be responsible for picking up their work at a later, agreed-upon date.

Sign up for one, two, or all three sessions!

Deecy Smith of designvox and Bradley Marshall; opposite page: courtesy

25

AO M WO R KS H O P S

FAMILY SATURDAY SERIES: EARTH + SUN + WATER with Kim Meyers Baas We invite families to participate in a unique creative experience, reveling in Ox-Bow’s natural environment through exciting art explorations. Families of all shapes and sizes will collaborate in the creative process, using materials like clay, cyanotype, and watercolor as a team and side-by-side. Stoke curiosity and build selfconfidence through creative thinking and artmaking in the great outdoors.

The family series is open to participants aged 5 and up with at least one adult enrollee per family. This is a full participation experience that allows family members of different generations to bond, learn, and experience the magic of Ox-Bow. The family series is part of the Saturday series and includes lunch. You must enroll in each workshop separately.

26

EARTH: Family Pottery

SUN: Summer Solstice

WATER: Views of Ox-Bow

DATE : Saturday, June 11,

DATE : Saturday, June 18,

DATE: Saturday, June 25,

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Kim Meyers Baas TUITION COST: $110 per family Families will explore handbuilding techniques, underglazing, and other basic ceramics skills to create clay pieces based on our resident animal wildlife and Ox-Bow folklore. This workshop is the perfect fit for the family of artists who want to get messy and investigate the ceramic medium. Work will be kiln-fired at Ox-Bow, and participants will be responsible for picking up their work at a later, agreedupon date.

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Kim Meyers Baas TUITION COST: $110 per family Celebrate the longest day of the year—Summer Solstice.

Capturing the light and shadows of the season, families will create artworks powered by the sun using cyanotype and other photographic and printmaking processes.

Practice the creative process by observing, questioning, and basking in the sun.

10 a.m.–1 p.m.

FACULTY: Kim Meyers Baas TUITION COST: $110 per family Ox-Bow’s campus provides hundreds of beautiful views for painting the landscape.

Families will explore views of the lagoon, meadow, and woods while painting en plein air with watercolor. Experiment with techniques such as washes, color mixing, mark making, and creating textures inspired by the natural environment.

*2–4 people per family; each family group must include one adult or teen aged 13+

AO M WO R KS H O P S

MEET THE

FACULTY

DAVID BAKER is a visual artist who specializes in poetic landscape painting, much of it done en plein air. His studio pieces are often reinterpretations of paintings done outdoors.

His principal media are watercolor, oil, and charcoal. Baker is a lifelong artist/teacher.

He recently retired as Art Professor Emeritus from Southwestern Michigan College. He earned his MFA from Indiana State University. Over the years, he has mounted more than four dozen solo exhibitions. He has taught at Ox-Bow School of Art since 2000 and at Krasl Art Center since 2016. He serves on the board of the South Haven Center for the Arts. He is represented by the Rising Phoenix Gallery, Michigan City, Indiana.

BRITNI BICKNAVER is an artist, educator, history buff, and seventh-generation Cincinnatian. A member of the storied Publico Gallery, she received a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Traditionally trained in sculpture and drawing, Bicknaver also works in the medium of sound, creating pieces that range from audio tours to soundtracks for found objects. Her work is fueled by concepts such as history, memory, arcane information, and the revelation of inner worlds.

JAMES BRANDESS makes oil paintings that are informed by both observed and intuitive knowledge of a subject. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he maintains a studio and gallery in Saugatuck.

CALEE CECCONI (she/ they) is a DIY academic, designer, multimedia artist, and aspiring bass player. Originally from rural Eastern Iowa, she works and plays in the fields they love most: art and design—the blurred line between those worlds is where she thrives. Cecconi maintains an active art and design practice and is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and an adjunct instructor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. They teach advanced web and interactive design classes emphasizing creative play, code as a design medium, design thinking, and design for good. Cecconi’s creative interests include code as an artistic medium; design and mental health; queer and femme voices in art, design, and music; the intersection of digital and physical production methods; and surface and repeat pattern design. She has won more than 25 awards for her work.

KIR DONOVAN (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York and Chicago. They work from the body—expressing the body’s terms, pulse, and electricity through music, tattooing, sculpture, drawing, performance, and dance. Their practice is a means of imbuing their days with timbre, of survival and connection.

They seek to expand their mental framework, pushing to understand the power of their body, and where that power can be felt and expressed most immediately and directly. They hold a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

GABRIELLE EGNATER (she/ her) is an artist and educator working with metal casting and fabrication in New York.

She has exhibited at venues including the Metal Museum, Memphis; the Evanston Art Center, Illinois; and the Roger Brown Study Collection, Chicago. Egnater received her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is an MFA candidate in the Sculpture/Dimensional Studies program at Alfred University. Her previous educator positions include Metalshop and Foundry Technician at the College for Creative Studies, Classroom Coordinator at Cranbrook Art Museum, and Sculpture Instructor of Record at Alfred University.

27

BRIAN FENCL centers creative play in his artistic practice and teaching. He believes in experimentation with media and new approaches to image making as ways to inform traditional working methods and expand on our understanding of our own process. Fencl earned an MFA in Drawing from the New York Academy of Art and a BFA in Illustration from ArtCenter College of Design. He is currently a Professor of Art at West Liberty University, in West Virginia, where he teaches courses in drawing, illustration, and painting.

His core mission is a devotion to possibilities.

CHRISTINE FERRIS has worked in restaurants in California, Chicago, and Michigan, in every position from dishwasher to head chef. She has collaborated on projects with Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, and Randall Grahm. Ferris moved back to Michigan in 1992 and worked for local restaurants while determining what path she wanted to take. In 2008, she opened a commercial kitchen in Holland to focus on catering. She loved the challenge of creating beautiful meals for lakeshore events but longed for a more spontaneous style of cooking, one that was dictated by the

28

available produce. In 2013, she founded the Farmhouse Deli in Douglas, with a focus on made-from-scratch, local, healthy food. “It has been challenging and humbling to witness the growth and popularity of the deli,” says Ferris. “We look forward to continuing to strive for better and more sustainable industry practices as well as honing our skills and offerings.”

M.T. GIDDINGS (he/they) is a visual artist, educator, and arts worker. For over 20 years, he has instigated intergenerational artistic collaborations in his communities. In his personal practice, Giddings uses multiple identities to frame idiosyncratic explorations that repurpose found material into visual or aural collage. Current projects include building a Wunderkammer that tells the history of confetti (as M.T. Giddings), a comic book journey through philately and mail art (as Mather Seerlo), and a performative lecture on the true legacy of the artist Robert Indiana (as M.T. Robert Indiana). He is currently the Executive Director for Elsewhere, a living museum, international artist residency, and collaborative learning laboratory in Greensboro, North Carolina.

BOBBY GONZALES (he/ him) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Saugatuck.

Gonzales’s practice utilizes intuitive play in a variety of media—painting, drawing, collage, photography, print, and performance—to access states of deep communication with the self and challenge common notions of space, time, and identity. The main goal of his work is to manifest spaces of self-knowledge and psychic wellness, which can then be transferred to the viewer.

Gonzales’s work has been exhibited and published by Roots & Culture, Chicago; the Wassaic Project, New York; the Chicago Artists Coalition; the Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin; the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design; Columbia University, New York; Galerie Zürcher, New York; and Vox Populi, Philadelphia.

He received his BFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently the Print and New Media Studio Manager at Ox-Bow.

GURTIE HANSELL is an interdisciplinary artist and entrepreneur living and working out of their attic apartment in Chicago.

Their work centers around fashion, printmaking, graphic design, and wearables, exploring

themes of pageantry, protest, and pleasure. Since 2015, they have run a small genderqueer clothing line called Kangmankey, which subverts the notion that gender-neutral clothing is all coded masculine in some way, and instead puts all genders front and center for exploration and play.

Hansell is a co-founder of MotherTwin Productions, a set and costume design duo collaborating with musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, and actors.

The duo takes a scrappy, do-it-yourself, climateconscious approach to their work, prioritizing found, “upcycled” and “deadstock” materials whenever possible. They were a “Residence in Evil” at the inaugural “Oxbow Goes to Hell” Spooky Trail in 2021.

They also co-created the costumes for Full Bush, a Kate Bush tribute show performed at Constellation and Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago.

BRENT HARRIS creates his work in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he resides with his two children.

He received his BFA from Western Michigan University in 1994.

Immediately afterward, feeling the need to do more for his community, he put his art career on the back burner and worked as a paramedic for seven years. In that time, he became a field trainer for new medics and continued sculpting from the front seat of an ambulance.

In 2003, he bought the

AO M WO R KS H O P S

bronze casting foundry where he once served as a mentor: the Alchemist Sculpture Foundry, in Kalamazoo, which has since created large-scale works of national importance.

Harris has had shows in galleries and public spaces throughout the Midwest.

His sculptures can be seen in collections in New York, Chicago, and London.

Currently, he is Head of the Sculpture Department at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, where he teaches and develops new programming.

He also enjoys working in the public schools as a teaching artist for Education for the Arts. Beginning this summer, he will bring the visual arts to the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home.

CHRISTINE HAYNES is a sewing author, teacher, and pattern designer. She grew up in Saugatuck, where the arts were part of her daily life. Sewing, which she learned at an early age from her mother, grew from a personal hobby to become her main artistic outlet.

After graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Haynes moved to Los Angeles and sold her designs as ready-to-wear garments. When Random House approached her to write her first book, she turned her focus to teaching others to experience the joy of making clothing for themselves, through her patterns, books, and workshops. After 15 years in Los Angeles, followed by four in New York, Haynes is again living in West

Michigan, teaching and designing from her vintage bungalow in Grand Haven.

COOPER HOLOWESKI is an artist working in print, video, and sculpture. His work explores the intersection of spirituality and consumerism through everyday objects and materials. Holoweski has an MFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design and has held residencies at Taller 99, Santiago, Chile; Titanik, Turku, Finland; the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; and the Clocktower Gallery and Lower East Side Printshop, New York. His prints have been described as “striking”

by Paul Coldwell in Art in Print, and his video work has been praised by Sarah Schmerler of Art in America as “magical” and “infinitely watchable.” In spring 2017, Art in Print awarded him the Prix de Print. Holoweski is currently the Artist-inResidence and Co-Head of the Print Media department at Cranbrook Academy of Art.

DOVE DRURY HORNBUCKLE (they/them) is an artist, teacher, and studio manager. Their work was exhibited at Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago, in 2021 and in a solo presentation at Roots & Culture, Chicago, in 2020. Past awards include a teaching fellowship from the Vermont

Studio Center in 2020 and the LeRoy Neiman Foundation Fellowship from Ox-Bow in 2018.

Hornbuckle has taught as an adjunct professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Hope College, as a workshop instructor as part of Art on the Meadow at Ox-Bow, and as a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Ceramics Department.

They have served as the Ceramics Studio Manager at Ox-Bow since 2019.

CATHY HSIAO is a multidisciplinary artist and educator who grew up between the United States, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. She explores how vernacular ecologies are deeply embedded within the decorative traditions of people of color, particularly her own East Asian diaspora and its politics.

She combines traditional indigo and other natural dye knowledge with the architectural materials cement, hydrostone, and plaster to create flat and low-relief sculptural casts evoking the look of ceramics and painting.

She has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and has exhibited at venues including the Chicago Cultural Center, DePaul Art Museum, and Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago.

Hsiao is a 2014–2017 SAIC New Artists Society Merit Fellow, a 2018–2019 BOLT Resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition,

a 2019 Newcity Breakout Artist, a 2020 Graham Foundation grantee, and a 2022 Fountainhead Artist-in-Residence in Climate and Environmental Sustainability.

CHRISTALENA HUGHMANICK’s practice engages with the relationships between craft and labor, and the scaled production systems that have generated these histories.

She takes a theoretical approach related to cultural anthropological studies, enacted through fieldwork that captures vernacular knowledge production systems that may disappear.

Recent work has been reviewed by Lori Waxman for the Quarantine Times and by Hall W. Rockefeller for Less Than Half. Her paper “Freedom Quilt: Collective Patchwork in Post-Communist Hungary” was presented at the Textile Society of America’s 17th Annual Symposium and will be published in the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles in 2023. She has exhibited internationally and has been an Artist-inResidence at the American Academy in Rome; SÍM Residency, Reykjavík; the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest; and Wedge Projects, Chicago. Her work has been supported by awards from the Fulbright Foundation, US State Department, and Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, among others.

She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

29

AO M WO R KS H O P S

DR. DIANNE JEDLICKA teaches numerous biology courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in subjects including animal behavior, evolutionary mammalogy, ecology (natural history), and human anatomy and physiology. Her primary research has been at the community level of organization, focusing on the feeding strategies and predation of tree and ground squirrels based on their functional morphology.

Observational data collected on nocturnal foraging of the eastern cottontail rabbit was published recently.

All of these animals are found throughout the OxBow region and offer Dr. Jedlicka’s students ample opportunity for scientific observations. Dr. Jedlicka has also presented and published articles on new teaching methods and labs in the college classroom.

NICHOLAS JIRASEK was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. He began his food and beverage career as a short-order cook in a local diner. His passion and close association to the arts guided him to develop Guerrilla Smiles Food Art: a catering company of sorts, which for over a decade collaborated with artists, nonprofits, and arts organizations to create meaningful offerings. He

30

also acted as personal chef and caterer to artist Tony Fitzpatrick and as opening chef for Theaster Gates’s first foray into the restaurant industry, and he oversaw the kitchen and managed the operations at Gaslight Coffee Roasters. In 2018, he opened Old Habits at Ludlow Liquors. In 2019, he opened Young American and garnered accolades from publications including Time Out, which called him “undoubtedly one of the city’s most exciting chefs.”

This energy and excitement is coming to Saugatuck as Jirasek joins the team on the hallowed grounds of Ox-Bow’s “restaurant in the woods.”

JOANNE LAUDOLFF is a Saugatuck-based artist who has been teaching Japanese papermaking, printmaking, oil and cold wax, and mixed-media workshops for over 20 years. She holds a BA from Columbia College Chicago, where she studied at the Center for Book and Paper Arts, and an MA in Studio Arts from Northern Illinois University.

Laudolff also studied with Rebecca Crowell and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Anchor Graphics in Chicago, and Ox-Bow. She has taught at various venues, including the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois; Water Street Studios, Batavia, Illinois; and the Nature Printing Society, Boston. She has exhibited in numerous shows, and her work is in many private collections.

HONORE LEE was raised in Michigan, and she studied painting, mixed-media art, and art history at Western Michigan University. She received her MA in 1994.

As a certified Aesthetic Education Teaching Artist through Lincoln Center Education, she has worked with the Education for the Arts in partnership with Lincoln Center trained educators to integrate arts programming in schools throughout Kalamazoo County. In 2021, Lee moved back to her hometown along the shores of Lake Michigan, where she continues her studio practice and works as an adjunct professor at Muskegon Community College. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Humanities and Art at Kalamazoo Valley Community College since 2009. Lee has received numerous grants throughout her career as both an educator and an artist, and has shown her work in numerous solo and group invitational and juried exhibitions. She has won many awards for her mixed-media work, which is included in public and private collections throughout the United States. Currently, she is working on collaborative and solo projects as a member of both Southwest Michigan Printmakers and Photosynthesis, a collective of artists throughout the United States.

MATT MARTIN is an artist and writer whose humorous and poetic work utilizes abnormal material processes as a way to critically examine space, structure, and the fluid and excessive ways in which objects and ourselves relate. His work, based in installation, sculpture, and text, relies on the conflation of actual and fictitious realities, with recent projects investigating the ongoing history of space exploration and space debris, the material desire of paintings to become trees, and museum heists.

Martin received his BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University and his MFA from the University of Wisconsin– Madison. He currently works for the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University.

ERIC MAY is a Chicagolandbased parent, chef, and artist. He cooked for Ox-Bow for 15 years, running the kitchen for 11 of those. May is the founder and Director of Roots & Culture, a nonprofit contemporary art center in Chicago’s Noble Square neighborhood. The recipient of an MFA from Northwestern University, he has exhibited work and hosted events at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Hyde Park Art Center, the DePaul Art

Museum, and Threewalls, Chicago; and the Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri.

KIM MEYERS BAAS holds a BA in Fine Arts from Loyola University Chicago, as well as a teaching certificate and an MA in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

She is an arts educator who has worked in public and private settings in Chicago, in Michigan, and at the Mexico-Texas border since 1992. Currently, she teaches art and design at East Kentwood High School, in Michigan.

JULIE NAUMAN-MIKULSKI received her first diary on her 12th birthday, and she cites this gift as the beginning of a lifelong fascination with observation, personal narratives, identity, and dreaming. Alongside diarykeeping, she developed a multimedia visual counterpart in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, embroidery, and sewing. Eventually, her artistic practice evolved into mixed-media collages, many based on her dreams.

Nauman-Mikulski worked for 16 years as a museum graphic designer. Currently, she maintains a small graphic design business alongside teaching design and art appreciation at

Columbia College Chicago and City Colleges of Chicago. She has exhibited her collages in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Her book, Secrets inside Shadows, is part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. Her work with dreams led her to the International Association for the Study of Dreams, where she was invited to be the Visual Art Co-Chair of the Conference Exhibition Committee.

TESSA PANETH-POLLAK is an art historian, curator, writer, feminist, and activist living in Williamston, Michigan. Her research focuses on prewar European modernism and abstraction, especially cutting and collage. She is at work on a book titled Definite Means: The Modernist Cut-Out, on the cut-outs of Rodin, Arp, and Matisse. Most recently, she was the Director of the LookOut Gallery and other exhibition spaces at Michigan State University’s Residential College in the Arts and Humanities.

ALONZO PANTOJA is a queer, brown artist and educator who navigates spaces by making handweavings that address queerness, orientation,

and impermanence. He earned his MFA in Fiber and Installation from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)and his BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

He has participated in a range of solo and group shows, at venues including Nefarious Contemporary, Aspen Hill, Maryland; Fluffy Crimes, Chicago; Yours Truly, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; the Nemeth Art Center, Park Rapids, Minnesota; Textile Center, Minneapolis; Circa Gallery, Minneapolis; and Normal Residential Purposes, Minneapolis. Pantoja has been featured in Tence Magazine, Hyperallergic, the Coastal Post, VASiSTAS, and Design & Living Magazine. A past recipient of a fully funded residency to Ox-Bow and a partially funded fellowship to Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, he was also nominated for the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture.

He lives in Minneapolis, where he teaches at Augsburg University, MCAD, and Textile Center.

BARBARITA POLSTER is an artist, writer, and current faculty at both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and North Park University. She has had solo exhibitions at venues including Critical Practices, New York; Glass Box, Seattle; and William Busta Gallery, Cleveland. Group exhibitions include shows

at Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago; Field Projects and A.I.R. Gallery, New York; and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Polster has published in Flatland, Critics’ Union, and Shifter, among others. Residencies include the Studios at Mass MoCA (2019), supported by an Illinois Arts Council Agency IAS Professional Development Grant and a City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Individual Artists Program Grant.

She was named the moCa Cleveland Nesnadny + Schwartz Visiting Curator by João Ribas, the Steven D. Lavine Executive Director of REDCAT. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

CHRISTOPHER M. REEVES is an art historian, artist, and creative researcher who received his PhD in Art History from the University of Illinois Chicago in the spring of 2021. In 2020, he co- edited and authored The World’s Worst: A Guide to the Portsmouth Sinfonia (Soberscove Press). He is currently working on his next book, Playing Music Badly in Public: Brian Eno and the Limits of the Non-Musician. His writings, curatorial practices, and artwork have been exhibited across the United States and Europe.

31

AO M WO R KS H O P S

JACK RIDL is the Poet Laureate of Douglas, Michigan (population 1,100). In April 2019, he released Saint Peter and the Goldfinch (Wayne State University Press).

His Practicing to Walk Like a Heron (Wayne State University Press, 2013) was awarded the Foreword INDIES gold award for poetry. His collection Broken Symmetry (Wayne State University Press, 2006) was co-recipient of the Society of Midland Authors award for best book of poetry. His Losing Season (CavanKerry Press, 2009) was named the best sports book of the year by the Institute for International Sport. In 2001, then Poet Laureate Billy Collins selected his Against Elegies for the Center for Book Arts Chapbook Award. Every Thursday following the 2016 election, Ridl sent out a commentary and poem.

The students at Hope College named him both Outstanding Professor and their Favorite Professor, and in 1996, the Carnegie/CASE Foundation named him Michigan Professor of the Year. More than 90 of Ridl’s students are published, several of whom have received national honors for their first books.

LAUREN RUSSELL is a poet and writer in hybrid forms.

She is the author of Descent

32

(Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2020) and What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta Press, 2017). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and residencies from the Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College, the Millay Colony for the Arts, and City of Asylum/ Passa Porta. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, among others. She was Assistant Director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2020. In fall 2020, she joined the faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) and Director of the RCAH Center for Poetry.

MARYA SPONT-LEMUS (she/her) writes fiction and personal narratives, critically remakes objects, and educates/facilitates/ collaborates, often in public spaces. Questions guiding her work include: How does experience impact interpretation? How do personal choices, structural forces, and chance occurrences interact to create our lives and those of our characters? What kinds of experiences can effect transformations? Across her connected practices,

Spont-Lemus believes that greater understanding of one’s own life, as well as the lives of others, can raise consciousness and plant a seed toward social change. She has a BA in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago and an MA in Art Education (community track) from the University of Texas at Austin. She credits the deep, supportive relationships developed through informal writers’ groups as giving her the confidence to invest in and share her own work.

JANET TRIERWEILER creates gestural abstract and figurative paintings. Her focus is on the sensual nature of improvisation and the healing aspect of beauty. An interest in the full spectrum of human experience, from primal instincts to highest consciousness, led her to studies of Eastern art and healing, and she became a Reiki Master through the Usui System of Natural Healing and a Certified Feng Shui Designer through the New York Institute of Art and Design. Trierweiler says that the acceptance of paradox has been one of the most healing lessons of her life. Her process reflects this attitude: it is both fluid and structural, organic and geometric, improvisatory and intentional. She takes pleasure in the joyful surprises found in the process of creativity, which she relates to a favorite line from a Rumi poem: “Who comes to the spring

thirsty, and finds the moon reflected in it.” The recipient of a BFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Trierweiler teaches drawing and painting as a faculty member of the Evanston Art Center and North Shore Art League. She also teaches online and leads workshops at various venues across the country. Collectors of her work include Northwestern University, the Illinois Institute of Art, Frank Thomas, and Fifield Companies.

ANDERS ZANICHKOWSKY is an artist and writer living in Chicago, where he is the owner and weaver of Burial Blankets, handwoven shrouds for green burial.

His practice includes printmaking, papermaking, neon, video, performance, weaving, and poetry. He often uses text and always uses the personal address: an “I” speaking to a “you.”

His work about grief and desire has been described as queer abstraction and queer futurism, inviting us to celebrate and mourn the lives of people who cannot or will not leave the margins of society. Zanichkowsky received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin– Madison and his BA from Hampshire College. In 2016, he sailed with the Arctic Circle Artist Residency in Svalbard, and in 2021, he contributed to Pause.

Fervour. Reflections on a Pandemic, a volume of the Journal of Visual Culture, as a member of the Death Class writing collective.

SUMMER CONCERT TO BENEFIT OX-BOW SCHOOL OF ART

X

:0 -9 00 2:

W MEAD O O -B W

O

SATURDAY JULY

0P

M

$100 GENERAL ADMISSION; $175 VIP 3435 RUPPRECHT WAY | SAUGATUCK

BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BIL LY JOAN SHEL L EY BITCHIN BAJAS PERFORM ‘SWITCHED ON RA’ MARISA ANDERSON DAMON LOCKS & ROB MAZUREK ROSALI • BILL MACK AY CORBETT VS. DEMPSEY DJ SET

CURATED BY THE STOREHOUSE

W W W.OX- B OW.O R G

E X P E R I E N C E O X- B O W: C A B I N R E N TA L S

Cabin Rentals

We are pleased to offer limited private rentals of our historic cabins once again in 2022. Our cabins provide space to rest and relax or to dig into research and writing projects without distraction. To unwind, take a swim or canoe ride in the lagoon or hike the Crow’s Nest Trail.

Experience the Ox-Bow life in a more intimate way than ever before!

All cabins are equipped with a bathroom (toilet and sink) and a mini-fridge. The West also features a full kitchenette (see cabin description for details) and lagoon views. Three meals a day, prepared and served by our stellar kitchen staff, will be included with your cabin rental. You are welcome to use our beloved shower house, the Wet, during your stay.

For full Ox-Bow immersion, enroll in an Art on the Meadow Workshop (see pg. 10) or book a Private Class or Studio Rental (see pg. 36)!

CABIN RENTALS DATES: 2022: May 13-26, July 3-14, and September 11-25

CABIN RENTAL RATES Base price for the Hoyt, Mason,

Base price for the West:

Scanlon & Tallmadge:

$275/night for the first guest;

$225/night for first guest;

$75/night for each additional guest

$75/night for each additional guest LEARN MORE AND SUBMIT A RESERVATION REQUEST AT WWW.OX-BOW.ORG/RENTALS

34

Deecy Smith of designvox

HOY T

The charming Hoyt, built in the 1930s, features a cozy

screened-in porch; two bedrooms, each with a full bed; and a living room. Affectionately referred to as the “Hoyt-y Toity” by some, the cabin features drywall and comfy touches that make it feel a bit less rustic than our other offerings. The Hoyt’s porch looks out onto the Meadow and other cabins.

MASON

The Mason is one of Ox-Bow’s larger cabins, with a gable

roof and vaulted ceilings over a large, open living room and two private bedrooms. Tucked into the edge of the Tallmadge Woods, the Mason was built by landscape painters Alice Kolb Mason and Michael Mason in 1925. They truly considered the Mason a home and entertained family there every summer until the 1960s, when they gave the cabin to Ox-Bow. Now you can enjoy the fireplace, built-in features, and forest views. With one full and two twin beds, the Mason comfortably sleeps four people.

SCANLON

The Scanlon was built in the 1920s by John and Zaidee

Scanlon, a painter and an opera singer, respectively. A prime example of the classic Michigan cottage style of architecture, the Scanlon is bigger than many of our cabins and features a vaulted ceiling, fireplace, and daybed in its generous living room. The Scanlon is a great spot for a family or small group, with a full-size master bedroom downstairs as well as an upstairs loft with two twin beds.

TA LLMA DGE

Designed and built in 1923 by prominent Chicago

architect and Ox-Bow patron Thomas Eddy Tallmadge, this cabin is a gorgeous example of the Prairie style. The design touches throughout, from the fireplace to the window seats to the hand-painted living room ceiling, are a history or architecture buff’s dream come to life.

The Tallmadge features two bedrooms, one with a full bed and one with two twins.

WEST

Although it’s called the West, this may be the North Star in the

constellation of Ox-Bow’s cabins. The West owes its unique modularity and perfect lagoon-side location to Wisconsinite Charles Cameron West, a submarine builder. He shipped construction cabins across the lake to Ox-Bow at the close of World War II and combined them to form the West. In addition to a covered deck and a kitchenette with a sink, mini-fridge, microwave, and electric kettle, the West features one full bedroom and a living room with a futon, as well as a writer’s desk with a spectacular view.

Clare Britt

35

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

could make of a life out in the countryside, we knew from the outset that we wanted to create a multipurpose space capable of accommodating a wide range of activities. With this in mind as we designed our home, we made half of the house a large open room that we call The Storehouse.

Penny Duff & Michael Slaboch

from The Storehouse in Galien, MI Tell us about The Storehouse!

The Storehouse is a platform focused on intimate, casual gatherings. The premise is simple: invite people over, ask them to bring a dish and a bottle to share and cash for the artists, and infuse the space with community, art, and a sense of ease.

We find that house concerts are a perfect vehicle for these goals.

We started the project in the summer of 2014, when we purchased a wasted acre of land in Galien, Michigan. As we embarked on a multi-year project to restore this patch of land and see what we

36

Since New Year’s Day 2017, we’ve hosted cultural events at our home and elsewhere within the community in collaboration with institutional partners and local businesses. Featuring concerts with musicians from around the world, multidisciplinary art exhibitions, epic community meals, and conversations with some of our favorite thinkers and makers, our Storehouse-curated events create a space for exploration and new connections in our little corner of the world.

You are collaborating with Ox-Bow for the first time this year as curator of our new Summer Benefit concert. Why do you think it’s important or valuable for local or regional businesses to be in partnership?

Many years ago, we read an interview with Rebecca Solnit in which she stated: “I still think the revolution is to make the world safe for poetry, meandering, for the frail and vulnerable, the rare and obscure, the impractical and local and small . . .” And though this was likely just some offhand comment by Solnit, it really resonated with us and the worldview that has guided many decisions about how we live our life. Whenever possible we work hard to prioritize operating at this very small, local level in everything that we do, and that has taken us in some very unexpected directions.

There are so many talented, super-passionate people in Southwest Michigan working every day to develop their crafts, and there is a tremendous enthusiasm for collaboration. Just as with the slow/local food movement, we are very inspired by the different ways that collaborations between local businesses, organizations, and individuals can convey new things about the

Jamie Kelter Davis

nature of our community today as well as start to create different visions for its future. By fostering partnerships with other small operations in our region, we can create our own alternate reality that has very little in common with the broader corporate sphere that dominates other parts of the country. It’s very empowering and enlightening to be a part of this communal process.

Another reason that local and regional partnerships are so vital to Southwest Michigan is that we can dream a little bit bigger when we combine forces, and this amplifies community investment in projects.

When you are open to it, there are so many ways that people can participate in co-creating events or projects. For example, we recently hosted a concert with the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra that absolutely would not have been possible without a series of community partnerships. From a local inn that donated ballroom space for the event and free lodging for the musicians to local nonprofits who provided direct financial support to the band, local restaurants who donated food, countless friends who loaned us instruments and gear, and a friend who ran out to get pizza for everyone after the show, it was a community endeavor through and through.

It’s cliché to say “it takes a village,” but sometimes it does! And oftentimes we all benefit because of it. This type of distributed responsibility can actually lead to a greater enjoyment and sense of community pride than if we were to focus on figuring out how to do everything on our own.

And, honestly, that’s the type of world we want to live within. Ox-Bow is an inspiring model of this collaborative ethos, with over 100 years of experience in developing creative projects and regional partnerships. The Ox-Bow community has been doing this work for so long, and we are incredibly honored to learn from and alongside them as we work together to create a one-of-akind concert this summer.

What is your vision or inspiration for this summer’s concert at Ox-Bow? What are you most excited about?

Since 2011, we’ve been producing musical gatherings in nontraditional settings, and we have come to find that there is something so charged about the experience for both the artists and audience alike in these circumstances. Everyone is a little bit “offkilter” in their expectations of what the event will be, and that seems to open up this incredible space for different, unexpected things to happen.

When we first thought about collaborating with Ox-Bow for this summer’s concert, we were so inspired by the beauty and idiosyncratic nature of

the campus itself. There are all of these nooks and crannies throughout the campus, and we couldn’t help but imagine all of the different ways that artists and audience members might intersect with each other throughout the day. We value scenarios like this, where there is an element of surprise or chance, but the overall vibe is mellow.

That idea is at the heart of our vision for the concert: that it will be a joyful, rambling summer day where people can partake in all of the truly unique things that make Ox-Bow so special while commingling with friends and strangers. We are very excited to anchor the day by curating a series of performances by many of the musicians that have been integral to the development of The Storehouse over the years. We are also thrilled to present artists who we’ve been hoping to host in our series but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to do so!

What’s your favorite toast?

Without a doubt, our favorite toast is the epic avocado toast at Sqirl in Los Angeles. The toast itself is a very thick slice of sesame country boule (buttered on both sides because . . . why not?!) that is served with paper-thin slices of avocado, a rich garlic crème fraîche sauce, pickled coriander carrot slivers, and topped with za’atar spice blend.

It’s a whole to-do, very over-the-top, immensely delicious, and we love it.

Follow The Storehouse on instagram @thestorehousemi

COME TAKE A CLASS WITH US! Plurals, Parallels, and Other Ways of Saying Things Twice with Erica N. Cardwell, August 7 - 13 Join Brooklyn based writer, critic, and educator, Erica N. Cardwell for this intensive writing course which explores generative idea making and voice building strategies for conceptual, story-based writing.

Learn more about our Academic Courses online at, www.ox-bow.org/summer-courses

E X P E R I E N C E O X- B O W: S T U D I O R E N TA L S

Private Classes & Studio Rentals Looking to customize your Ox-Bow studio experience? We are glad to offer independent studio rentals and private instruction on a limited basis! Tailor-make your experience in our Ceramics, Glass, Metals, or Print Studio. Whether you are an experienced practitioner or a first-timer, we can meet your facility needs. Work with us to design a small private class for you and your crew, or plan some solo work time in one of our specialized shops.

What does a private class look like? Private classes can be groups of 2–6 adults learning introductory or advanced making techniques! Classes can be as short as three hours or as long as three days, depending on the scope of your schedule and what you wish to accomplish.

EXAMPLES OF A PRIVATE CLASS o F irst-Time Glassblowing Get acquainted with life in the hot shop! Learn to gather, roll, and blow molten glass. Create a paperweight and even a drinking glass. o Advanced Glassblowing Techniques Our studio staff can help take your glasswork to the next level!

Learn to work larger, create footed vessels, or explore the use of color.

o W eld in Our Metals Studio Learn to use a MIG welder and walk away from class with a finished (and even functional!) steel sculpture. o Printmaking Intensive Pick a print process to delve into! Learn the ins and outs of lithography, monotype, screenprinting, or even textile dyeing.

o B asic Ceramics Immersion Learn a variety of handbuilding techniques to create art objects and vessels. o C eramics Studio Glaze Lab Provide your own greenware and explore glazing methods.

Studio curious? Contact our Campus Director, Claire Arctander (carcta@ox-bow.org), who will work with you to plan your perfect private class experience.

38

STUDIO RENTAL BREAKDOWN BASE DAY RATE: $75 per person This level includes an orientation to the shop by our Studio Manager, as well as limited access to the Studio Manager to ask shop-specific questions. It is appropriate for artists who are experienced in the medium and looking to work independently, not learn new processes.

MENTORSHIP-LEVEL DAY RATE:

$200 per person This level includes the support of one technician, who can provide hands-on guidance to an artist with some basic previous experience. The technician can provide instruction on processes as predetermined in conversation prior to rental.

PRICING FOR PRIVATE STUDIO RENTAL IN GLASS: $450 /day for hot

shop access This level includes an orientation to the shop by our Studio Manager, as well as the support of one glass studio assistant. It is appropriate for artists who are experienced in the medium and looking to work independently, not learn new processes.

To learn more about our Studio, Cancelation, Companion/Guest and Covid-19 Policies turn to page 48

ABOUT OUR STUDIOS CERAMICS Our Krehbiel Ceramics Studio features ample space and equipment for handbuilding and wheel-throwing as well as a stocked glaze lab. Use of these facilities and our electric kilns is included in your daily studio rate, along with up to 50 pounds of clay. Additional clay and use of our gas-fired car kiln are available for an additional fee.

PRINT The print studio, located on the first floor of our Works on Paper building, houses lithography, collagraphy, etching, screenprinting, woodcut, and

Brandon Dill (x1); Bobby Gonzales (x1)

letterpress facilities. Your daily lab fee for print studio access includes ink, emulsions, and newsprint. Plan to bring your own paper or, alternatively, consult with us about your paper needs.

METALS The Padnos Metals Studio is a spacious open-air facility, housing equipment for welding, jewelry making, and other metal fabrication. Woodworking, mold making, and additional 3D processes are also at home in this space. We can assist in ordering the materials you need ahead of time (not included in your daily

lab fee) so you are ready to work upon arrival.

GLASS Primarily an open-air glassblowing facility, the Burke Glass Studio also features a coldworking annex for glass bead making and cast glasswork. Daily access to our hot shop includes full studio access, use of a toploading annealer, 50 pounds of clear glass, and use of our tools. Cold shop access includes the use of our sandblaster (220 grit), as well as tools for plaster/ silica mold making, casting, and flameworking.

39 39

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

Nicholas Jirasek Culinary Director

Briefly introduce yourself, for those who aren’t familiar with you.

I am Nicholas Arnold Oloroso Jirasek, the Culinary Director here at Ox-Bow. I usually go by my last name, Jirasek, which, much to my parents’ chagrin, I pronounce “like the park,” or “like the quintet.” Born and raised on the western border of Chicago in Oak Park, I have a very nontraditional career path that has led me to a lifelong journey in teaching and exploring the intersection of food and art.

From operating as Director of Food and Beverage on the 94th floor of the John Hancock Center to opening my own niche, art-centric catering company, Guerrilla Smiles; from consulting on full-service cultural center Los Del Patio in Panama City, Panama, to being a personal chef to artist Tony Fitzpatrick; from being on the cover

40

Nick Murway

of Chicago Reader with the viral creation “Goth Bread” to opening Theaster Gates’s first foray into the restaurant business, Currency Exchange Café; from reimagining how a Goop-lauded coffee shop makes great food accessible to a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood to evolving sustainable labor models in the midst of a pandemic as Culinary Director of a Logan Square restaurant group, my approach has stayed the same: build community from a place of love.

It’s how we build our foundation as not just a ‘restaurant in the woods,’ but a great connector of producers, makers, and consumers in the region.

The Culinary Director position is new to Ox-Bow, and you have been in this role for about a year now; could you describe what the vision/ philosophy is for the kitchen?

“Be beyond the kitchen.”

In the paraphrased words of beloved Ox-Bow Board Member Bill Padnos: “Ox-Bow has been making good food since its inception, but it has been making really great food for the last twenty to twenty-five years.”

It is a tremendous undertaking to make three delicious, home-cooked meals every day for our ever-changing populace here on campus. As one of my colleagues put it, “we plan, stage, and execute a mini-event every time we serve food.”

I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here that all the great chefs, cooks, and artists before me painstakingly built in providing signature service that earned Ox-Bow’s kitchen the moniker “the restaurant in the woods.” I want to empower this iteration of the kitchen to have a conversation through food and service that beckons back to the life-changing experience that every person who has walked on these hallowed grounds has felt, and think about how we build a broader conversation that invites even more folks to have a

seat at the table with a voice that is heard.

Rethink how we value and structure our efforts to serve our community from the inside out.

Historical and weighty position titles like “Chef” and “Dish Lizard” have been discarded to more accurately reflect the holistic approach of care I desire for us to have as Ox-Bow’s “Hospitality Managers” and “Hospitality Teammates.” How does the way we structure our labor affect the process of us creating and caring for ourselves and for others?

Refocus the way we source and purchase our supplies and ingredients.

All it takes is a stroll down the grocery aisle to see just how high the price of food has become. That same inflation at the checkout counter is oftentimes magnified at the wholesale level. Big-box grocers are able to absorb cost increases on things like flour and milk and defer it elsewhere to avoid sticker shock for shoppers. Like all things Ox-Bow, we have to roll up our sleeves and think creatively to evolve with the environment. By diversifying the small purveyors we source local product from, and negotiating with the big distributors where we get staple goods, we are able to not only get more bang for our buck, but also enter into the ecosystem as a partner with our purveyors. How can we be better representatives of our time and place, better stewards for our land and people?

Embrace our artistry.

The act of preparing, cooking, and serving food is oftentimes limited to a rigorous craft. Even more so, the conversation of where food and art intersect is often prohibitively reserved for fine dining. I want to challenge our cooking to always be in conversation with our surroundings, with our visiting artists, with our emotions, with the Glass Studio, with the Ox-Flock, with that song we are playing on repeat, with the toast bar, with that painting I can’t stop thinking about. Collaborating with our cohorts on campus, popping up at our friends’ restaurants, inviting our neighbors over for a barbecue: the opportunity is endless, and it is our conversation to open. By responding to the things we experience in a comestible way, we are inviting others, just as the smell of sizzling onions and garlic in a pan whets our appetite and unleashes our memory. How do we make food that represents OxBow from a personal level that also identifies with all those that have been and will be?

What brought you to Ox-Bow’s kitchen, aka “the restaurant in the woods”?

For someone who doesn’t believe in destiny (aside from Princess Nokia), it is hard for me not to just say destiny. That of course means that I saw a re-shared job post on Instagram for a Culinary Director at Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’

41

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

Residency in the midst of a global pandemic. I had to read the position description thrice because I thought it had been specifically written for me.

I have essentially spent my entire life building a reputation and a community in my beloved Chicago. Opportunities provided themselves through years of hard work and a community of professionals eager to build exciting food and beverage concepts, together, for a growing and changing urban populace.

I hadn’t written a résumé in a decade, much less a cover letter. At that time, I spent my days fervently pivoting food concepts to keep restaurants afloat and workers safe yet gainfully employed. I spent my nights trying to gather all my thoughts and life’s experience into writing something I hoped would express to my now colleagues how much all of my life has led me to Ox-Bow. From my cover letter: The clear challenges of the past year have further prompted creatives to examine our ways of being, our methods of knowing, our place in time, and even likely questioning our very existence in the face of this global pandemic and social injustice.

The overriding truth that has remained constant in this unprecedented time, and throughout my life as an artist and professional Culinary Director is clear: we are nothing without community. I am here not only to share the finite lessons of cooking I have learned on my journey through food, but more so to connect the infinite language of sharing food together as people. My goal with Ox-Bow is to continue to build a broader community of learning through food, and with this cultural exchange create a larger discourse in which all have a seat

42

at the table with a mind and body full, and a voice that is heard.

As Culinary Director, you have been collaborating with local businesses and guest chefs. Could you speak about why this is important to you, Ox-Bow, and the region?

Back in 2010, two of my best friends and I opened up a DIY gallery in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village.

I was feeling unattached to the service of folks at my then corporate job at the John Hancock Center. Taking note of how folks always gathered around the cheese platter and Two-Buck Chuck at art openings, I wanted to take the opportunity to utilize the food and beverage offerings to be in the conversation. The idea was simple: respond to the process, the aesthetics or thematics of the art in a comestible way. If it was black-and-white photography, make black and white food. If the artist was drawing upon their childhood, make the Mie Goreng they ate every day. If the photographer took obscured photos of Americana, make deconstructed Big Mac spring rolls. Having a wealth of artists here at Ox-Bow, their ideas, their process, their energy should be as much of a catalyst for the food we make as the dietary needs of our campus and the seasonal produce we can procure.

Partnering with local brands, farms, and restaurants is integral for us as members of the West Michigan food and beverage ecosystem. It’s how we build our foundation as not just a “restaurant in the woods,” but a great connector of producers, makers, and consumers in the region. As much as Ox-Bow is known for its artistic prowess, we have the ability and opportunity to affect and interact with our culinary peers. The relationship is reciprocal: food and art, art and food.

Nick Murway (x2)

The Ox-Bow kitchen has a long history of traditions—cookies for lunch, giant bowls of guacamole. Are there new traditions you plan to introduce to our community?

I would love for Ox-Bow’s kitchen to be known for its hospitality, its diversity, our collaborations, for its intention in care and service. I’d love it if it wasn’t one thing that anyone could quite put their finger on; a seemingly imperceptible feeling of comfort and enjoyment.

That being said, I love snacks. The toast bar has offered all-day-and-night DIY sustenance to our community for a long time. What happens if we add a popcorn machine to the toast bar? What happens when we provide coconut-crusted shrimp at the midnight of a “Shrimp Meltdown” party or Goth Bread at “Goth Prom”?

How do your Chicago roots blend into the West Michigan food and beverage industry?

Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, . . .

These are the words of Carl Sandburg in his love poem to Chicago back in 1914. In 2022, these same, poignant words are perhaps better descriptors of the Midwest at large. Our hogs butchered on BlueStar highway; our tools forged in Warren; our wheat sown in Caledonia, freighted from Holland.

I want to blend Chicago’s great diversity, its “stinky onion,” its Malörted history, the pulse of its Alinea’d progress with the Saugatuck sensibility, freshground Petoskey perseverance, and a heaping tablespoon of #PureMichigan.

Is there anything you are excited about for 2022?

I’m very excited about our tuck shop/convenience store on campus. Not all of our participants on campus have cars or easy transportation into town to purchase basic toiletries, drinks, snacks, or other necessary comforts. Not only will we be able to provide this service to our community through our tuck shop, but also highlight local artisanal makers of things like handmade bar soap, art zines, beeswax candles, plant-based dyes, and shots of fresh-roasted, single-origin espresso.

Favorite toast?

A duo of sprouted Ezekiel bread with a generous spread of butter and Marmite/sunflower butter with a little sprinkle of sea salt.

If you happen to be on campus, stop by the kitchen to say ‘hello’ to our Culinary Director, Nicholas Jirasek (he goes

by Jirasek).

NEWS

THE RESIDENT ARTIST by Virtue Cider Our neighbors are special to us. Ox-Bow School of Art was established in 1910 and is situated in Saugatuck, Michigan, just up the road from Virtue Farm. It continues its mission of connecting artists to a network of creative resources, people, and ideas. The campus is an energizing natural environment with a rich artistic history.

We’re supporting Ox-Bow with a cider called The Resident Artist. The Resident Artist pays homage to Ox-Bow’s residency program that encourages artists from all walks of life to exchange ideas, share meals, and make art together. Twentyfive percent of all bottle sales will directly benefit Ox-Bow School of Art. The Resident Artist is a hard cider made like wine with Michigan apples and cherries and is 7.9% ABV (alcohol by volume). From the first sip, intense cherry, red apple, and dried fruit hits your palate.

Credits Nick Murway; Courtesy of Virtue Cider

Scan the QR code to purchase The Resident Artist

43

MEET OUR COMMUNITY

E. Saffronia Downing Artist, Faculty & Ox-Bow Fellow

Tell us about yourself—where did you grow up, and where do you currently reside?

I grew up on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. I’ve lived pretty nomadically since 2016— bouncing between residencies, Chicago, Baltimore, and the Hudson Valley. Right now I live in a small postindustrial town in central Maine, where I am participating in a fellowship at the Lunder Institute for American Art. Briefly describe your practice.

I’m curious about relationships between materiality, craft, industry, and the natural world.

Lately, much of my practice has centered around foraging clay from wild deposits. I make site-specific ceramic sculpture and installation. Foraging clay allows me to develop embodied knowledge of place.

You were a Fellow at Ox-Bow, but were you involved with Ox-Bow previously? If so, how did you first get involved? If not, how did you come to know about Ox-Bow? There was a buzz about Ox-Bow when I was an undergrad at Hampshire College. It seemed exciting to make art in a small community, in such proximity to the land and water. During my MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, it became a real dream of mine to spend a summer at Ox-Bow. I was inspired by the dune ecosystem of Ox-Bow’s campus and the clay cliffs nearby. I applied three times, and was happily accepted to the Ox-Bow Fellowship in 2020.

44

Bradley Marshall

IN OUR HEARTS Could you speak about your experience as a Fellow?

I was in the 2020 cohort that was disrupted due to COVID, so my experience was a little different than Ox-Bow Fellowships of the past. Still, the atmosphere at Ox-Bow cultivated a peaceful, friend-filled, and productive time. Every day I woke up, grabbed coffee, and headed to work in the Ceramics Studio.

I loved the dance parties in the woods. Exploring the rocks and clay at nearby beaches were some of my favorite moments.

How did the local environment or landscape act as a teaching tool in your 2021 Art on the Meadow workshop?

I appreciated the opportunity to teach directly with the landscape through my Art on the Meadow workshop. My students foraged clay from a nearby beach.

Foraging fosters close observation of the natural world. We homed in on chunks of gray clay situated along Lake Michigan’s shoreline.

Through my workshop, we cultivated attentiveness toward the local environment.

Is foraging clay common in your teaching practice, and how does it influence your students in their making and/or understanding of the medium?

I like to teach wild-clay workshops to cultivate a holistic approach to ceramic making.

The intensive process of foraging clay offers an opportunity to experience one’s body and labor in relation to land and environment. One student in my class commented that foraging clay made them reevaluate how much physical work and earthen material it takes to create one ceramic pot. In an era of mass production and consumption, hand processes particularly are poignant.

Norman Deam On January 8 of this year, we lost a dear friend of Ox-Bow, Norman Deam. In the company of the family he so treasured, Norm passed peacefully at the age of 89 in San Luis Obispo, California.

His family writes that he will be remembered for his “free spirit, intellect, and will.” Throughout much of Ox-Bow’s history, Norm enchanted our campus, becoming a part of its legacy and spirit. He sparked traditions, cared for the lands, and wove himself into the threads of Ox-Bow.

Learn more about E. Saffronia Downing at www. e-saffronia.net/

Norm spent childhood summers at his family’s decommissioned lighthouse in Saugatuck, a tradition he carried into his adulthood and passed on to two more generations of Deams. His father, Arthur Deam, served as Ox-Bow’s Executive Director in 1976 and as President of the Board for over 15 years, forming deep family ties to Ox-Bow. Norm continued to foster a relationship with our campus long after his father’s retirement. He and his wife, Connie, took glassblowing and

COME TAKE A CLASS WITH US! Wet Plate Photography with Jaclyn Silverman, August 7 - 13

painting classes on campus for a number of years and passionately collected art by young artists.

With their lighthouse just a

Chicago-based photographer and educator, Jaclyn Silverman brings this historic and time-honored wet-plate collodion process to Ox-Bow. Students will learn to make glass plate images and explore the fundamentals of large format view camera photography.

canoe ride away, the Deams’

Learn more about our Academic Courses online at, www.ox-bow.org/summer-courses

volleyball on the Meadow and

neighborliness blossomed into a unique kinship with Ox-Bow. Norm often paddled over on summer nights with his children to play invited faculty and staff to his place for cocktail parties.

Brandon Dill; Bradley Marshall

45

E XPERI ENC E OX-BOW

DID YOU KNOW...

Scattered all over the grounds, cabins, and Crow’s Nest trail you can find an assortment of shapes, styles, and weathered handpainted signs — just another element of Ox-Bow’s charm. All of the signs have been made by various staff members throughout the years.

46

Deecy Smith of designvox

ART

REGI STR ATION FOR M

ON THE

Mail-in Registration begins April 1, 2022

MEADOW

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION (please print clearly) FIRST NAME __ _____________________________________ LAST NAME ________________________________________________ BIRTHDAY _______________________________ GENDER PRONOUNS _________________________________________________ HOME NUMBER____________________________________ ALTERNATE________________________________________________ EMAIL ADDRESS______________________________________________________________________________________________ STREET ADDRESS_ _ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ADDRESS LINE 2_______________________________________________________________________________________________ CITY______________________________________________ STATE______________ ZIP___________________________________ EMERGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION Name _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Relationship _________________________________________ Phone_________________________________________________ WORKSHOP REGISTRATION

SPRING

SUMMER

WORKSHOP TITLE/S

DATES

TUITION

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TUITION TOTAL_____________ LUNCH MEAL PLAN I would like to purchase ____________ meal plans. x $60_ _ _________________________ TOTAL______________________ TOTAL AMOUNT DUE (total tuition + total meal plan):__________________________________________ * F ULL PAYMENT DUE AT TIME OF REGISTRATION. Your registration will not be processed without payment information

PAYMENT METHOD ________ Check or Money Order Enclosed ________ Check or Money Order #_____________________________ ________ Credit Card/ Card #__________________________________ Exp. Date_________________ CVV_______________ Billing Address_____________________________________________________________________________________

Registration received without payment, or course information cannot be processed and will be returned.

I give Ox-Bow the permission to provide medical care, hospital or clinic treatment or to administer minor medicine provided through Ox-Bow to myself/ my minor or ward. I hereby waive liability against Ox-Bow for such care provided or transportation to such location as deemed necessary by Ox-Bow. I give Ox-Bow permission to photograph and publish photographs of myself/ my child participating in instructional and/ or social activities at Ox-Bow, which permission shall remain in effect until revoked, in writing, by myself to the Ox-Bow staff. Revocation of permission must be submitted in writing to the Ox-Bow campus 3435 Rupprecht Way, PO Box 216 Saugatuck, MI.

SIGNATURE__________________________________________________________ DATE_________________________________ Mail this form to: Ox-Bow School of Art ATTN: Claire Arctander PO Box 216 Saugatuck, MI 49453

Registration Online registration is available at www.ox-bow.org/art-on-themeadow-workshops

Questions?

Email Claire Arctander at carcta@ox-bow.org

47

POLICIES TO NOTE

COMPANION/GUEST POLICY No companions, children, guests, or visitors are permitted during your stay. All residential housing and studio facilities are limited to artists enrolled in courses.

We may be able to assist participants in finding accommodations for individual family circumstances, but these arrangements will be made on a caseby-case basis and must be determined in advance of your course or residency.

There is no guarantee that alternate accommodations can be established.

STUDIO POLICIES Each studio has specific policies in place to ensure the safety of students and equipment. Additionally, these policies ensure that all participants receive a quality education with equal access to faculty and equipment. All studiospecific policies will be explained on the first day of classes. Any student found in violation of these policies will be asked to leave the course without refund. These same policies are applied to any work conducted in the Ox-Bow landscape or on the Ox-Bow grounds. Because Ox-Bow is a community, we ask that all students respect the rights of their classmates and fellow community members by following our policies.

COMMUNITY COVID-19 MITIGATION GUIDELINES

As we are all in community together, it is everyone’s responsibility to assist in ensuring that we remain free of COVID-19.

All of our COVID guidelines and processes are motivated by CDC recommendations.

In order to mitigate the risks and spread of COVID-19, we have implemented new safety measures on campus. We ask that all community members follow the guidelines and best practices below.

Safety Measures for Residential Participants (overnight guests) • Effective September 15, 2021, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency will require every participant who stays overnight on campus to submit proof of full and current vaccination, unless they cannot do so due to a religious or medical reason or other authorized exception. This requirement pertains to everyone staying overnight on campus, including staff, students, faculty, artists-in-residence and other guests.

Vaccination must be current and upto-date (either the initial vaccination or booster administered within the past 12 months).

• We will also maintain our mitigation standard that all of our fullyvaccinated overnight guests on campus get a COVID test 72 hours prior to arrival, and submit proof of a negative result to the Campus Director before traveling to campus.

• You will receive a questionnaireto be filled out 48 hours prior to arrival on campus, confirming that you have

48

not been exposed to COVID-19 and are not currently experiencing any symptoms.

Best Practices when Traveling to Ox-Bow Please note that all students are responsible for arranging their own travel to and from campus.

• Drive, using a personal or rented vehicle if possible. Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, and Budget all have locations in Holland, Michigan, an approximately 20-minute drive from campus. Check with the individual agency to see if they accept vehicle drop-offs. OxBow will coordinate pickup from the rental drop-off point for residential students only.

• If using public transportation, use Amtrak. Ox-Bow will coordinate pickup from the train station for residential students only. Wear cloth face coverings/masks while traveling.

GENERAL COMMUNITY GUIDELINES • Cloth face coverings/masks are required indoors and encouraged at all times. Specifically, you are required to wear a cloth face covering/mask in the following situations: » Whenever you are inside a building. » When engaging in programming. » When working in the studios (both indoor and open air).

• Mask recommendations are dynamic and based on current, regional transmission of COVID-19. We retain the right to update or change our guidelines at our discretion.

• Practice proper handwashing.

• Socially distance, staying at least 6 feet apart from others, whenever possible.

• Properly cover your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing.

SPACES • We have implemented separate work spaces in studios, limited tool and equipment sharing, and heightened sanitation of high-traffic areas.

• Only Ox-Bow faculty, staff, and students in a given workshop/ class will enter designated studios/ classrooms.

• Whenever possible, workshops and events will take place in sheltered outdoor/open-air spaces for maximum ventilation.

• We will ensure that windows and doors with screens remain open as much as possible, keep fans running, and maximize airflow and ventilation.

• In the warmer months, open-air tents on the Meadow facilitate outdoor gatherings.

DINING • When the dining room is open for meal retrieval, markings on the floor will direct the flow of traffic. Please space out 6’ apart when waiting in line and retrieving food.

• Meals will be served in a sociallydistanced manner.

• U se provided hand sanitizer before retrieving food.

• Grab-and-go snacks will be available for residential participants between meals.

• Participants must bus their own used dishes back to the dish pit.

• We will dine in diffused, demarcated, and primarily outdoor seating areas.

• Food service practices will evolve as necessary.

CLEANING • Housekeeping staff use antiviral cleaning agents for all cleaning purposes.

• Housekeeping staff clean and disinfect public bathrooms and other high-traffic areas twice daily.

• DIY cleaning kits will be available in common areas of all dorms, in all cabins, and in all studios.

Housekeeping staff will replenish these kits as necessary. All community members will be expected to pitch in to keep themselves and their spaces clean.

• All public bathrooms are equipped with paper towel dispensers.

• Hand sanitizer dispensers are available in high-traffic areas.

IN CASE OF ILLNESS • All community members will be asked to familiarize themselves with COVID symptoms; we will make this information available through orientations, as well as postings on our website and on campus. We will also provide printouts with detailed information about local medical facilities.

• If you are experiencing symptoms, tell core staff immediately.

• Staff will take the temperature of any student demonstrating potential COVID symptoms.

• Any participants with COVID-like symptoms (cough and fever) will be asked to leave campus and seek medical care at the Campus Director’s discretion. Any participants testing positive for COVID-19 will be asked to isolate and to exit campus as soon as possible. Ox-Bow cannot provide quarantine space for participants who test positive for COVID-19.

• If a confirmed case of COVID or COVID-like symptoms are exhibited by anyone currently on campus, Ox-Bow reserves the right to actions, including immediate closure of our campus and/or providing COVID testing to staff and participants. In the case of any closures, we will assist in making arrangements to have participants leave campus.

• Ox-Bow will work with the required outside health departments for contact tracing.

• Ox-Bow’s staff cannot provide medical care or transportation to a care facility.

OUR PROGRAMMING SUPPORTERS

THE BOARD OX-BOW BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ox-Bow’s Board of Directors contribute their time, expertise, and resources to ensure that future generations of artists will benefit from Ox-Bow’s rich tradition and outstanding programming. We are grateful for their dedication and support.

Steven C. Meier President Janet R. Cunningham Secretary & Treasurer Scott Alfree Evan Boris Rhonda Brown Delina Collier Chris Craft Dawn Gavin Lucy Minturn Governance Chair William Padnos Keith P. Walker EMERITUS BOARD Ox-Bow’s Emeritus Board confers special honors and distinction upon former

EFROYMSON FAMILY FUND This project was funded in part by a grant from the Efroymson Family Fund. The Efroymson Family Fund, a donor- advised fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, continues a long legacy of charitable commitment by the Efroymson family in central Indiana. The Efroymson Family Fund was established in 1998

by Dan and Lori Efroymson to promote the visibility of communities and to date has awarded more than $88 million in grants in central Indiana and beyond. We are grateful to the Efroymson Family Fund for their support of our Visiting Artists Program. For more information about the Efroymson Family Fund, visit: efroymsonfamilyfund.org JOHN M. HARTIGAN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FOR PAINTERS John M. Hartigan was a life-long Chicagoan, an artist, a patron of the arts, and a dedicated family man. A gifted lawyer and an engaged community member, John was always interested in civic affairs, sitting on a number of Boards. Over the years he took courses at the School of the Art Institute, as well as Summer courses at Ox-Bow. John loved both the camaraderie and the artistic synergy of the campus. The Hartigan Endowment will be used to support the on-going education of artist in residence whose medium is acrylic and/or oil. This award is available to applicants for both the Summer and Fall Residency cycles.

back cover; Bradley Marshall

members of Ox-Bow’s Board of Directors and Auxiliary Board who have exhibited noteworthy dedication and commitment to Ox-Bow. This a lifetime appointment that celebrates Ox-Bow’s important legacy.

Roger Arbury David Balas Patty Birkholz Barbara Whitney Carr Patricia Dewey Hank Feeley Arthur Frederick Lawrence Gammons Margaret McDermott Carol Sarosik Elizabeth Rupprecht President Emeritus Todd E. Warnock President Emeritus Jana Wright Jim Zanzi

49

3435 Rupprecht Way, P.O. Box 216 Saugatuck, MI 49453

WWW.OX-BOW.ORG