Nature Collages with South Haven Graphic Designer Christine Yun

Gather up your materials - look for different textures and colors. Try to pick things that will glue down flat. Leave these to dry thoroughly.

Find some card board that is sturdy and easy to cut.

Cut out 4" squares. Draw a half-inch border, and use an exacto blade to score into the cardboard. Erase the pencil lines.

Lay out your materials in a pattern that looks good.

Use a clear-drying glue to carefully glue down the materials. You may need to apply pressure for

1-2 minutes to get things anchored into the glue.

Keep going and have fun!

Noelle Malevitis: Artist Feature

Noelle Malevitis

Coloma, Michigan, South Haven Center for the Arts, Artist Member

Ceramicist, NHM Ceramics

Artist Bio

Having completed my first year with the South Haven Center for the Arts, I am grateful to be a part of a team that is so impactful in our community through the arts. Always a sculptor of anything I could find a sensory sensation with, I found clay in 2013 and have engaged the medium with passion and discovery ever since. Studying ceramics at Western Michigan University and obtaining a BFA, I deeply rooted my artistic aesthetics in the foundations of this art form. After graduating in 2016, I began instructing ceramics classes at the Krasl Art Center. In 2018, I joined the SHCA team and their mission to enrich our community through the arts. As a Southwest Michigan native and artist, it is important for me to support arts organizations through their missions and utilize their resources as I understand how much work and care goes into making this available to artists. Currently, I am working on growing my body of work under the artist name, NHM Ceramics. Follow me on Instagram @nhmceramics for process videos, posts of new work, and occasionally some live music and photos of my dog, Wilson.

Artist Statement

During my first years of exploration with this medium, I formed a close relationship with the practice of the Japanese art form, Wabi Sabi. A practice that refers to the more fragile or asymmetrical a humble object is the more it can be appreciated, Wabi. Describing the beauty of aging and the savoring of life through the passage of time, Sabi. Ceramics elated me because I understood the utilitarian aspect of forming a ball of clay into something delicate, unique, and visually stimulating all while knowing this piece was created with a lot of hard work, and to finish it in it’s complete form, there will be a lot of hard work to follow. This practice has shown me patience and acceptance within my work and myself. It has developed and evolved into my own self-discovery through clay, now I throw pots as a form of therapeutic relief from the everyday noise in my head. Absorbing inspiration from textures formed organically, I complete all my ceramic pieces with a textural aspect that enlightens the senses and leads to an introductory of exploration in ceramic objects.

Favorite art tool…

Other than my hands, which are the most worn, fragile and hardworking tools in my studio, I enjoy refining my clay pieces with a wet sponge. Cleaning up a ceramic object with a wet sponge before fired speaks volumes in craftsmanship to ceramic piece. After fired of course, clay turns to stone and any sharp little clay crumble that was not brushed off with the wet sponge prior is now sharp. I use a wet sponge in the first and last stages of completing a piece, I am unable to complete my work without this helpful tool.

My favorite unexpected art tool has to be my re-purposed and broken dental tools. I worked briefly in a dental office and was able to have my pick at any old dental tools to take home and work with in clay. Due to the sharpness of these tools, I use them primarily for carving into clay.

Photos descriptions

I have included photos of my favorite working sponge, my re-purposed dental tools, and some recent work. All work is thrown on the potter’s wheel then altered to add texture using carving tools or wax resists painted designs.

Facebook: @noellemalevitis

Instagram: @nhmceramics

Noelle Malevitis is a South Haven Center for the Arts Artist Member. As a benefit of this membership level, we are proud to be featuring Artists Members on our blog. If you are an artist member and want to be featured, email us at info@southhavenarts.org. Want to be an artist member? See more information here: https://www.southhavenarts.org/artist-membership

David Baker: Artist Feature

I self-identified as an artist as a child; still a puzzle, as I had absolutely no model for what an artist was. In college I was pulled toward art education. I would save the Universe by helping each child discover the artist hidden within themselves. While I now smile at that youthful Idealism, I also acknowledge that often, that is just what happened. I spent 44 years in classrooms from middle school to college. I now teach a bit at the Krasl Art Center, Ox-Bow School of Art, and I conduct private workshops. Other than that, I am in the studio. I serve on the board of the South Haven Center for the Arts, and help on the Exhibition Committee.

My three principle media are oil, watercolor, and charcoal. I also worked in black wax crayon for a decade. Stylistically, and more or less chronologically, I’ve done figurative works, color field painting, expressionism, and for the past 20 years or so, plein air and landscape painting. In the natural world I find metaphors for the human experience. My work is a kind of poetry; informed by nature and personal experience.

While tools won’t help one’s creative vision, a well designed tool makes working a joy. I am a paintbrush-nerd. One particular #8, round, Kolinsky sable watercolor brush is the best tool I have ever owned! I used to treat myself to a new one each year. And…the company went out of business five years ago. I’ve spent a chunk of money on quality brushes without finding one that quite measures up.

If you are interested in seeing more of my work, my website is: www.dbakerart.com, The site also includes two video pieces. I keep people informed about my current studio activity on Facebook, David Baker-Painter. I maintain a studio in the Box Factory in St. Joseph. And, I’m represented by Rising Phoenix Gallery in Michigan City, IN.

My newest watercolors are ready for the member show at the South Haven Art Center. I’ve begun a new body of work with the tentative title, Rivulet. Some of these pieces will be included in an invitational exhibit, Atmosphere, at Southwestern Michigan College in November

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David Baker is a South Haven Center for the Arts Artist Member. As a benefit of this membership level, we are proud to be featuring Artists Members on our blog. If you are an artist member and want to be featured, email us at info@southhavenarts.org. Want to be an artist member? See more information here: https://www.southhavenarts.org/artist-membership