Sherri Willett: Artist Feature

Sherri Willett Mixed Media Artist

South Haven, Michigan

Contact: sherri@willettfamily.org

Artist Bio I got involved with South Haven Center for the arts in 2017. I met some great gals who love to meet once a week and create art together. They invited me to come along and I am so glad I did. I began volunteering at the S.H.C.A. right away. As I began to finish art pieces, I had the amazing opportunity to put a few in the members only showing. What a great experience! As I learn more about the impact of art I am inspired to support this great effort in our community.

Artist Statement I have always been a crafter, sewer, knitter and crocheter. I have had a total of two mini art classes in the past. I got inspired to paint after a powerful prayer experience in 2016, where I painted this incredible scene onto the canvas before me. A desire began deep in my soul to put more of these images from my prayer times onto canvas. Between the encouragement from my friends to try new mediums, I discovered I like them all! So, I create using every medium I have and my active prayer life as inspiration.

Favorite Art Tool I would have to say, Liquitex matt medium. I can prepare any surface I want to create on. It’s a glue and a sealer....I go through a lot of it.

These photos are my first pieces to hang at the members only showing. The first is a chapel at GilChrist retreat center, where I have spent a lot of time in prayer. The second picture is myself kneeling in prayer and a montage of meaningful pieces surrounding me.

To view more of Sherri's work, visit the online member exhibition, Setting Stones.

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Sherri Willett 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

Jackie Baker: Artist Feature

I started making jewelry in 1996 and haven’t stopped. It was very relaxing at first to just play with my beads. When I accumulated too many, I started selling my creations. My jewelry is one-of-a-kind necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. Materials I use are semiprecious stones, Venetian glass, Swarovski crystals, flame work, and metal. I use quality findings of sterling silver and 14K gold filled to finish my work.

My latest items since moving to the Lake Michigan shore are Beach Finds—jewelry made out of beach glass, fossils, rocks, and Crinoids. These have been big sellers. I make earrings, necklaces, and bracelets with them.

Enameled jewelry is another area I specialized in. The enamel is a vitreous glass powder which I fuse to copper. It is fired in a kiln at 1500* for about two minutes. Multiple layers of enamel powder are added for color and design effects. I also use decals which are permanently affixed to the enamel. Another effect is Millifiori glass, which means “a million flowers,” and it is also melted into the enamel on the copper.

I have studied jewelry making with Curry Butzbaugh, Jessica Bohus, Neil Kraus, and Veleta Vancza. My daughter Arianne and I own Dragons Fly Beads. My work can be seen at The Box Factory, Water Street Glassworks, and Dragonsflybeads on Facebook. I also teach enameling and jewelry making at Water Street Glassworks in Benton Harbor. I show at Art Fairs throughout west Michigan and northern Indiana, including the South Haven Art Fair in July.

I have a new piece ready for the Setting Stones exhibit at the South Haven Art Center. It is a 26” necklace made entirely of Lake Michigan beach stones.

Jacqueline Baker

Dragonsfly Beads

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Jackie 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

Art Center Goes Virtual

The world has quickly gone more virtual than ever and the South Haven Center for the Arts is no exception.

The old building has gone temporarily dark, and for the first time in 71 years, the SHCA Annual Member show, “Setting Stones,” is exhibited on a bright and optimistic screen to keep art alive and well in South Haven during these extraordinary times.

“The mission of the South Haven Center for the Arts—enriching the community through the arts—is just as, if not more, important than ever,” said Executive Director Kerry Hagy. “The art center is dreaming into the future; imagining and innovating to adapt the organization and ground ourselves in our mission and work to meet the challenge.”

“Setting Stones” places a special focus on the fine art and talent of its members. The art center will share this thought-provoking body of work on the website and Facebook page through May 16, 2020.

The exhibition features an eclectic and wondrous collection of creative interpretations of stone stemming from the brainstorming of the SHCA Exhibition Committee. They began by thinking of stones as monuments: Stonehenge, the 300th anniversary of Plymouth Rock, shrines; and moved on to other idioms: walls and boundaries, set in stone, rolling stone, stone cold, written in stone.

Each piece is accompanied by the artist’s personal statement describing the motivation behind their work and how it relates to the theme. Members fully embraced this year’s theme, and the art center is pleased and excited to share this compelling work with the community. This year’s exhibition contains more than 40 pieces created by existing members, as well artwork from many new members.

Apropos to the times is Claire Elaine Hamlin’s piece “Let the Joy Out.” “When you deny your “negative” emotions and put up walls, you end up holding your joy inside too. Unfortunately, our walls are quite literal now, but they can't keep us from sharing our joy.”

Chicago artist and South Haven native Anne Farley-Gaines on her piece: “On April 15, 2019, I woke up to the news that one of my favorite historical landmarks, Notre Dame Cathedral, was on fire. Stunned, I ran immediately upstairs to my flat file and grabbed the watercolor sketch I had begun on location in 2003 when I was visiting Paris with my students from the Academy in Chicago. I was compelled to complete the sketch immediately to immortalize it the way it had been since it was built in 1345. This jewel of Gothic architecture was constructed from limestone from the Paris basin. Contemplating what it must have taken the stone masons to transform this limestone into brick, to set the bricks one upon the other, and formulate the flying buttresses and gargoyles from stone is daunting.”

As is today’s world.

Stone stands the test of time indeed, as will the South Haven Center for the Arts.

Work is available for sale and the SHCA encourages visitors to support the South Haven Center for the Arts and the artists through art purchases.

Join the art center on this new virtual adventure.

Written by Nancy Albright

Preview of Exhibition below from left to right: Geode Lighthouse by Leslie Elrod, Point Betsie Beach by Drake Olmstead, and Cupidity by Kimberly Wood

This exhibition is possible by the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs.