Four Michigan artists, Janet Baugher of Owosso, Linda Beeman of Ovid, Jane Cloutier of Mason and Cindy Evans of Williamston, are displaying and selling their artwork at the Shiawassee Arts Center September 20 through November 5. The reception to meet the artists is Friday, September 23, 6-8pm. Sponsors of the show are Dana & Patricia Cluckey, Gilbert's True Value Hardware, Wells Fargo Advisors, the Schluckebier/Hood Investment Team, and Young Buick-Cadillac-Chevrolet-GMC.
Janet Baugher is a photographer at heart who loves to print her photos on rice paper and incorporate them into her encaustic work. Encaustic painting with hot beeswax gives her the opportunity to create a lasting work of art that includes so many of the found objects that have inspired her over the years. In addition to representational painting from images in her photos, she also combines natural organic elements with the components found in mechanical objects for mixed media work. Her jewelry expresses her love of aged and distressed metals, interesting stones, mix of textures and the merging of common and unconventional materials. She received a BA in Interior Design from Baker College and studied for an MA in American Culture at the University of Michigan. Baugher's current work, "Water's Edge", explores the magic and mystery that she sees at the point where water and land meet. She states, "I am continually inspired by the beauty I see in our environment and the wonderful organic shapes found in nature."
Linda Beeman is, she states without apology, a Michigan artist. She works exclusively in printmaking and especially Moku Hanga or Japanese woodblock prints. Moku is the Japanese word for wood and hanga means print. Separate wood blocks are carved for each color. Prints may take two to twelve or more separate carved blocks. She uses rice paste and watercolor paint with colors painted onto the woodblock with brushes, then transferred to the paper using a handheld burnisher called a baren. She explains, "It is an extremely physical, yet non-toxic method of creating prints. This medium gives me subtleties of color and tone unavailable in other mediums . . . and is especially suited to our Michigan landscapes and lakescapes. My prints have a peaceful quietness about them." Beeman has a degree in Art History from the University of Kansas and studied at the Dundas Valley School of Art in Ontario.
Paper fascinates Jane Cloutier. She started making paper sculptures in the mid-nineties after seeing work by different paper artists. She explains, "The textures are so varied, from rough bark paper to translucent laces and shining metallics . . . colors ranging from cool and subtle to vividly intense." The strength and fragility of the papers both limit her designs and inspire them. She attempts to use something she has feelings about --- a landscape, fairy tale or tree --- and start turning it into shapes. Seeing the subject of a picture dissolve into lines and spaces and textures creates a sort of double vision that fascinates her. Cloutier has taken book and box making classes in addition to bookbinding workshops and she has taught classes in paper sculpture in Lansing and Ann Arbor.
Cindy Evans' exhibit entitled "Remembering Yellowstone" reflects the colors and textures of rocks and trees using the natural beauty of the National Park for inspiration. She states, "My paintings are my reaction to what I see and experience and they tell my story. I try to fit the technique, color choice and design elements to the piece, relating all the components to enhance the mood and message." She wants to involve her viewers through watercolor because the washes offer many possibilities for putting paint to paper and acrylic, ink and collage because they offer textural qualities and subtle details. "My motivation to paint is that love of how water and color moves on paper, the challenge to bring what happens to a successful conclusion and to bring attention to the beauty in nature, scripture and the art of storytelling."
The Shiawassee Arts Center is located at 206 Curwood Castle Drive in Owosso and is open Tuesday through Sunday, 1-5pm. The Arts Center features the artwork of local and statewide artists in eight galleries including the Frieseke Gallery and a specialty Gift Shop. The public is welcome and there is no admission charge. The Shiawassee Arts Council, celebrating its 39th anniversary in 2011, is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to encourage participation and appreciation of the arts. For more information about the exhibit call the Arts Center at 989.723.8354 or visit www.shiawasseearts.org.