Art

An Arizona quiltmaker is exploring one of the most contentious issues in the U.S. today: immigration.

Her traveling exhibition, “Beyond the Border Wall: The Migrant Quilt Project,” will open next week in Grand Haven’s Loutit District Library. 

The Ann Arbor Art Fair is underway, and as usual, it is a huge event. This year's fair features around 1,000 artists, and will draw thousands more visitors to the city's downtown.

Stateside's Lester Graham braved the the crowds and the traffic to talk to some of the artists showcasing their work, and the people who came to see it all. 

The first ever Detroit Art Week is set to run July 20, 21, and 22. Organizers bill it as "a self-guided tour and celebration of contemporary art and culture in Detroit."

Amani Olu, the founder and executive director of Detroit Art Week, joined Stateside to tell us about the event.

Stateside loves to hear from listeners with ideas for stories and people we should cover. Here's a great tip we got from Stateside listener, George Bollinger: Crowns of Courage. 

The art of decorating the body with henna is truly ancient, going back over 5,000 years.

The intricate henna tattoos might be applied simply for their beauty, or they can symbolize passages in life. 

Detroit artist Paul Johnson has produced a lot of work that explores the female form — a curvy, tiny-waisted, large-and-drooping-eyed figure. 

A unique collection of Inuit art is being given to the University of Michigan Museum of Art. More than 200 stone sculptures and prints from the Inuit people on Baffin Island in Canada, just west of Greenland. The collection is valued at $2.5 million. There are additional funds to endow an Inuit art program. These gifts from from Phil and Kathy Power.

The story behind the collection is as interesting as the art itself. Phil Power gave Lester Graham a tour of the collection in this extended version of the interview.

Turning shame into pride.

That’s the idea behind an exhibit of black velvet paintings. It’s called “Black Velvet: A Rasquache Aesthetic,” and it’s happening at the Latino Cultural Center in Detroit's Mexicantown.

It's funny how the smallest details about someone we love can stay with us.

For example: a scent. Any whiff of Shalimar instantly makes host Cynthia Canty think of her great-Aunt Verne because it was her signature perfume.

For artist Carl Wilson, it's the memory of the chewing gum his mother always had in her purse — and that led to the title for his first solo museum exhibition.

For six years now, the Detroit Unity Temple has held a quilt exhibit in February. Many of the quilts – but not all – are tributes to African-American history. This year a quilt that’s getting a lot of attention is called “Strange Fruit."

You can help kids read books. And you can help as they draw pictures. But an app created in West Michigan blends the two together. It’s called Wimage, from the combination of “words” and “image.”

It’s being taken into classrooms where students are able to combine their imaginations with the app’s technology. And it’s also being used in art therapy, to help wounded veterans heal through art.

Two iconic Michigan artists are in the spotlight, thanks to an important exhibition at the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

The works of Jim Shaw and the late Mike Kelley are being displayed in an exhibition at the MSU Broad called "Michigan Stories: Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw." It is running through February 25th.

Soon, the entire park-like area we’re in will echo with the sound of pounding, metal against wood. It’s nearly a ringing or gong-like sound.

But first, Jeff Strand strips the bark from a black ash tree log. Then he takes out a knife and scores the end of it, a sort of pie wedge cut.

“So that the undergrowth rings have relief, so they’ll come up out of it as I’m crushing the growth rings. The ax is for crushing the fibers in between the growth rings and when you do that, they release,” Strand explains.

You create a special space for children with special needs: the Friendship Circle.

It’s a great success, but what do you offer those children when they grow up?

The Next Idea

Science Gallery has been described as a place where science and art collide. The result? Creative ways to tackle some of the world's biggest problems.

The first Science Gallery Lab is in Dublin. Now, Michigan State University is launching Science Gallery Lab Detroit.

“If we can feel sad for what happened to children in Poland, we can equally feel sad about what is happening to children in the Middle East.”

That’s the message that artist Wojtek Sawa and community space owner Alissa Shelton want to bring to the people of Hamtramck.

Happy 164th birthday to the man who is the personification of the "tortured artist."

Vincent Van Gogh was born on this day in 1853.

University of Michigan medical historian and PBS contributor Dr. Howard Markel joined Stateside to talk about some of the mysteries that still remain about this iconic artist. He started with the famous story of Van Gogh cutting off his own ear. 

Remember the 2008 Olympics in China? The stadium, nicknamed the “bird's nest," was one of the most iconic visuals from the games. It was designed by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

Weiwei's work, titled "Natural State," is on exhibit at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids.

"Mystic River," "Shutter Island," and coming in December, “Live By Night” are just some of the major Hollywood films based on stories by Dennis Lehane.

After building a career as one of America’s most popular and most respected crime novelists, Lehane began writing widely acclaimed historical fiction. But he’s also built a parallel career in the worlds of television and film, including time as a writer for HBO’s “The Wire” and writing the screenplay for one of James Gandolfini’s final films, “The Drop.”

As the Grand Rapids Artprize competition continues to grow and evolve, Stateside’s Lester Graham sat down with the very first winner of the competition, painter Ran Ortner.

It's been a noisy couple of weeks with the political conventions. Speeches. Shouting. Protestors. In fact, it's been a loud, noisy, campaign season that's left our country angry and fractured.

However, a lot of voices and viewpoints haven't been heard, and a contemporary art project called "The Truth Booth" is giving people the opportunity to be heard.

People from the Adrian area and local historians know the story of the “wreck on the Wabash.” But outside of those circles, the train crash that took place in 1901 isn’t especially well-known.

There are many tragic elements to this story and for a thorough sense of what took place, you can read historian Laurie Perkins’ book, “Wreck on the Wabash” (written under the name Laurie C. Dickens).

To many of us, darkness and light are just something you affect by flicking a light switch or snuffing a candle.

But for University of Michigan architecture assistant Catie Newell, light is a condition and a "material."

Let's say you're an artist.

You've spent years capturing the beauty of your home state.

And now, a new adventure calls to you: hit the road with your paints, brushes and easel, and capture a landscape from all 50 states.

Do you talk yourself out of this immense undertaking? Or give in to that siren call?

Saugatuck artist Anne Corlett chose to answer that call of adventure.

After three years, 29,604 miles of driving and 164 days away from home, she's done it.

Adult coloring books are everywhere and they're filled with images of just about anything. There are adult coloring books that feature owls, butterflies, secret gardens, dream doodles, lighthouses, mandalas, kaleidoscopes and fantastic cities.

Adult coloring clubs are also popping up throughout the state. They’re often affiliated with a local library. The basic idea is that for an hour or two adults can drop in and spend some time coloring, using coloring books and markers and pencils that the library provides.

If you’re traveling in Metro Detroit on I-96 you might see something a little out of the ordinary near the Milford Road exit: an orange man.

The orange silhouette of a broad-shouldered man wearing a 1950s-style fedora can be seen on buildings throughout Metro Detroit and in more than 60 locations across the state of Michigan, thanks to the Man In The City Project spearheaded by artist John Sauvé.

Carey Gustafson spent hours in her bedroom as a kid, sketching images of rock stars and actors and her favorite pop culture characters. She especially loved drawing Pac-Man and The Monkees and E.T. and Rick Springfield.

Gustafson says back then, she did not have a well-developed sense of identity. But she did have a good sense of humor. Plus she loved rock-n-roll and pop culture, and found plenty of inspiration in music and books and art.

Michigan-raised artist Brenda Goodman is happy. That’s because she’s finally getting steady recognition from the art world, after years of rejection. This year Goodman won a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The 72-year-old thinks part of the reason she’s becoming more well-known is because people are sharing her artwork on social media sites, which helps her reach new audiences.

Goodman was born and raised in Detroit and was part of the Cass Corridor art movement in the 1970s. These days, Goodman lives in upstate New York.