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ANN ARBOR
Artist turns Ann Arbor garage into backyard gallery, music
venue
Published: Aug 06, 2021, 4:05 p m
ANN ARBOR, MI -- The four-car garage in Charles Hooper’s backyard had no heating and no finishing touches when he began using it as an art studio.
Several years and eight weeks of renovations later, it’s now a workspace, music venue and art gallery open to the public. Art hangs on the walls and instruments, including a piano and an organ, are tucked in the back room.
Grey Box Gallery, still smelling of new construction, opened its doors on July 17 at 7395 Warren Road.
The commute, Hooper said,“can’t really be beat.”
“It’s like 34 steps from the house,” he said.
Hooper began renovating the space in early 2020 after using it for several years as a makeshift art studio. It originally was a space to store his instruments after the music room in his home began to fill.
“I kept getting instruments and the room kept getting smaller,” Hooper said.
In addition to painting, Hooper plays piano, organ, harp, bassoon, and trombone, as well as sings. Hooper, a Detroit-born artist who moved to Georgia when he was young, returned to Michigan seven years ago with his partner and fellow artist, Rob Stephenson.
Like his other skills, Hooper began cultivating his painting in high school, creating and selling paintings then.
“When you ’ re in school, you ’ re trying to follow all the rules,” he said.“As I grew up, traditional stuff just wasn’t for me. I slipped into more modern.”
Although he also does landscapes, Hooper’s main vein is modern art, a blend of colors and textures. Hooper said he draws inspiration from music and nature, adding that music and painting are similar in that they each rely on layers and different aspects working together.
He has named three pieces after sonatas, putting them together through similar paint textures and palettes. He titled another piece — the largest in the gallery — “Symphony,” something Hooper said is a nod to symphonies themselves being large and colorful.
Other inspirations include the flower garden outside the studio, the ocean and his world travels.
Although he mostly works in acrylic and water colors, Hooper said he also recently bought a set of oil paints.
“I just haven’t got the nerve to go for it yet,” he said.
One of the more difficult aspects to his style is knowing when to stop.
“I feel like they’re not done if there’s white on it,” Hooper said.
Once the coronavirus pandemic “gets under control,” Hooper said he plans to host recitals in the space. For now, Grey Box Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Visitors can also make an appointment to view the gallery.
“Basically, this is a live space for people to come and see the art in person, ” Hooper said.
Find Grey Box Gallery online on Facebook and Etsy or call 734-408-1226.
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Meet Zak Pashak, the Detroiter who just bet big on the Lions to win the Super Bowl
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