Artist Exhibits

August 15, 2023 - September 15, 2023

Growing up in New York I found creative ideas while walking in the woods and climbing the nearby Catskill Mountains. The ideas were linked to the literature I was introduced to by my parents; poets like Carl Sandburg and naturalists like John Burrows.
In my studio, I provide a space for creativity as an alternative to the default gadgets and devices that we all live with. When children step into the century barn and look up at the rugged structure where hay was stored forty feet aloft, it is like a cathedral honoring our agricultural history.
Why stop there? I will take them back further to the time when the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwa peoples were the only ones here. Tribal art is as important as any. Whenever appropriate, I include some natural and social history in my art lessons. As Ralph Waldo Emerson taught; “ In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
Combining teaching and painting I have found my place in the neighborhood. I have found a balance between the solitude of painting and the community of teaching.

September 20, 2023 - October 27, 2023

i find creation ‘as is’ a beautiful romance - a divine dance in which not one manmade invention has ever surpassed in grace, attitude, color, design or sweetness of breath - everything depends on your open heARTspace - the only constant is the artist approach toward his ‘subject’ - if you are not conscious to all possibilities, you will not feel them - nature is not revealing to the unconscious or negligent
this gestural vocabulary is infused with energy & spirituality, withIN my heARTspace, through the contemplative Spirit - in the NOW - simultaneously personal & mythical, allowing the narrative in my language & inner visions to flow intimately,
& poetically with diverse brilliant abstract notations in my paintings as a way to explore the potential of both structure and meaning
figurative & anatomical understanding for me is affirmation_is clarity in my existence & awareness withIN my understanding & authenticity_the beauty of every human & their purpose in time & space, ALL in all, intently relational to the Divine withIN each of us, the infinite emerging into NOW!
mediums engaged are generally acrylic Polymer pigment & metallic, gloss Gel & gloss Varnish with conteStick & ebony Pencil - these medium disciplines navigated are withIN plein Aire abstractions & representational figurative & expressionist explorations of my awareness of the infinite emerging from our finiteness in abstraction -

November 6, 2023 - December 15, 2023

We invite any FHPS Staff to enter their artistic works into this unique annual exhibit. The exhibit will also include artwork by members of the community who have created pieces in Community classes or Open Painting at the Community Center.

January 10, 2024 - February 9, 2024

Susan M. Rose was a beloved art educator for both K-12 and high school over a period of 30 years. She had received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and a Master of Arts in education from Michigan State University, with post-graduate studies at Montana State University. Susan did not have any children of her own, but would often tell others that she’s “had thousands of children.” Teaching and art were her true passions, and her career at Forest Hills Public Schools allowed her to explore both every day.
Outside of the classroom, Susan could be found hiking, fishing, gardening, exploring and always studying the play of light and shadow on the land and how she might capture it’s illusiveness in her work. She was a member of the cloud appreciation society, a beloved aunt, sister, and friend. She and her husband Bill relocated to Victor, Idaho after retirement, where she was able to further pursue her love of plein air painting and surrounding herself in the mountains.
Susan M. Rose was predominantly a landscape painter whose surfaces are as rich with texture as the terrain she hikes out to. Her extensive travels throughout the United States gave her the opportunity to immerse herself in the American landscape, and her love for the outdoors drove the imagery of most of her paintings. Susan’s goal as an artist was to represent her powerful surroundings through a simpler lens. Whether it be the windblown sand dunes of Michigan’s west coast or the boundless Teton Mountain Range of Wyoming, she was interested in observing the energy of these places and echoing that two-dimensionally, not only thoughtfully but economically.
About her art, Susan had stated, “The act of creating brings balance to my life and allows me to enjoy the abundance of nature. The idea of translating three-dimensional work onto a two-dimensional surface is where the magic happens for me. The largest paintings I make look abstract but are made from memories of stored images. Sometimes I allow the power of those images to speak for themselves through color and texture. Other times I am more interested in putting recognizable images onto canvas and that is when I head outdoors and record my impressions of what I see. The result I am aiming for is an image that says something powerful but that is painted in the most economical way. This is probably where I feel the happiest and most challenged as an artist. To eliminate superfluous brushstrokes, making every stroke count and not having anything in the painting that is not absolutely essential to the composition is key.”
To accomplish this, Susan said, “when I look at something I want to paint, I often compose a haiku poem in my head because it has the same conciseness that I want to achieve in my work.” Using only essential and intentional brush strokes while in pursuit of this connection to the world around her, she was able to represent in her landscapes the illusiveness of light and shadow, a gentle sense of color, and the feeling of being the only one out there to see it.

February 14, 2024 - March 14, 2024

The Mayfield Fiber Arts group started as an art quilting group at Lakeshore Sewing Center in Wyoming, MI. The group was created around 20 years ago to give art quilters a separate identity and an opportunity to create works that were different from traditional quilting. Over the years, the group expanded and moved to several different locations, including one member’s pottery studio which became the source of the name Mayfield. As with many organizations, membership dwindled during COVID, when meetings had to be conducted over Zoom or outdoors at a park.

Our focus is on fiber art and our members make a wide variety of art. We use all types of fiber and other materials in our art utilizing a wide variety of techniques including quilting (both traditional and art quilting involving piecing, applique and collage), felting, chemical dyeing, printing, painting, beading, needle-sculpting, embroidery (both machine free-motion and hand stitched embroidery), shibori and indigo dyeing, and knitting.

We make two and three-dimensional pieces, including quilts, framed art, soft sculptures, dolls, jewelry, clothing, and vessels. Our pieces often hang on a wall but are also free-standing, hung from the ceiling, and even worn by the artist. Our members include artists who regularly sell their work, artists who exhibit their work and have won awards, and artists who just love to create and make art that they share with their family, friends, and the group members.

Currently, the group has 16 active members and meets on the last Thursday of the month (January through October) starting at 1 pm at the Ada branch of the Kent District Library system. Our meetings focus on sharing our artwork with each other, including details and tips on how pieces were inspired and created. We have no dues and membership is open to everyone interested in exploring the world of fiber art.

List of active members, July 2023
Barb Bryson
Lin Culver
Joan Duggan
Kathy Forzley
Sharon Galligan
Jennifer Gould
Marilyn Greenlee
Susan Hansma
Elaine Hengen
Linda Ippel
Cyndi Len
Kim McDermott
Eileen Urbanski
Dianne VanderMeer
Julia Voake
Linda Walburn

March 20, 2024 - April 19, 2024

Selected artwork from FH students will be on display throughout the Fine Arts Center. This is a community favorite. You'll be amazed by the talent our students have.

May 2, 2024 - May 10, 2024

The Master Thesis Exhibitions feature the fully-developed work of those students who have completed their graduate studies. These students have spent their time at KCAD broadening both their technical abilities and their understanding of their respective disciplines, and this exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the process, methodology, and passion that went into the compilation of their final thesis projects.

May 15, 2024 - June 28, 2024

A group of artists began meeting via ZOOM after the beginning of the Pandemic in 2020. The original intent of the group was to find a way to communicate as artists while avoiding the risks of face-to-face social interaction. Each week they shared art and conversation. Continuing over three years, these dynamic critiques enriched the work created by the artists and resulted in a diverse collection of new works.
Consistent throughout their work is a love of the earth and the beauty they each find in the energy, patterns and textures that nature provides. This unifying theme reveals the many ways this group of artists interprets the world they see with their unique artistic expressions.
We wish to engage the view with an opportunity to experience nature and the world that surrounds us through nine different lenses.

Easels Nine

Kathleen Kalinowski
Judith Tummino
Barbara Schilling
Elaine Dalcher
Debra Reid Jenkins
Lynn Anderson
Susan Ellison
Joy Richmond
Karen Michmerhuizen