Dana Falconberry is an artist and musician living in Michigan and Texas. She grew up dancing classical ballet and modern dance in Dearborn, Michigan before attending Hendrix College in Arkansas. In college she studied songwriting, which prompted her move to Austin in 2005. After touring, recording, and leading a band for over a decade, she now finds herself focused on visual art. Dana worked for six years as a lead stitcher/designer at Fort Lonesome, a custom chainstitch embroidery company based in Austin.

She is now focusing on her own art, including linoleum block prints, watercolor paintings, and large chainstitched pieces. Her work draws on the natural world, often including supernatural elements playing with the concepts of time and the effects of humankind on natural landscapes, and aims to help conserve our natural lands while we still can.

Dana Falconberry hopes to engage the audience on multiple levels by using many different formats for her work. She is particularly interested in representing the mystical and powerful nature of the Ghost Pipe.

"No matter the form my art takes, I am wholly captivated by the natural world. Landscapes and the flora and fauna existing within them are my endless subjects. I enjoy letting my imagination run in this context, sometimes exploring the supernatural elements just beyond our grasp. These days I have been working in the linocut printmaking, watercolor/gouache, and chainstitching forms, using mostly black and white to showcase fine details and color to express an ethereal quality. My goal as an artist is to take the human into worlds they may not otherwise encounter, and to show them what they may not see themselves in these worlds. In this way I hope to strengthen the connection between humans and nature, and in so doing, inspire conservation."

Royce was born to parents who understood the important role that art plays in society and how crucial exposure and participation in it is to the development of a young person.

He was raised in the western suburbs of Chicago with access to museums and concert halls of every variety. He graduated from the American Academy of Art in Chicago which gave him the foundations to build a life in the arts.' 

Royce moved to Traverse City thirty years ago, a decision which he indicates set his art on a wonderful trajectory. Royce sees each artistic endeavor he has embarked on as a rich experience that has shaped the artist he is today. Living in such an incredibly beautiful place the landscape has, of course, become an overwhelming source of inspiration to him. His background and interest in figurative work, mixed with what he has gained from painting local surroundings on location, has allowed him to find new answers daily.
 
Royces love for teaching and for art has allowed him to travel far and wide. His art career has made it possible to work in many of the countries of Western Europe and Israel, presenting classes, workshops, and retreats.

Royce was named the 2020 Ann Hall Artist and, due to Covid-19, will continue to teach and exhibit throughout 2021.

Born and raised on Earthwork Farm in rural Northern Michigan, Seth Bernard was brought up in the folk and farmstead culture with an enriching integrative experience of the arts, agriculture, and community. In 2001, Seth founded Earthwork Music, a renowned Michigan-based collective of successful independent musicians who focus their efforts on environmental advocacy, social justice, creative empowerment and community building.

Seth Bernard has traveled the world and blanketed the US as a magnetic performer and uplifting cultural worker and is equally at home fronting a large electrified ensemble as he is holding a crowd with nothing but an acoustic guitar. Seth has served as the Director of the Musical Ambassador Program for On the Ground where he helped cultivate partnerships and cultural exchanges between communities in southern Mexico, Ethiopia and eastern Congo and communities in Michigan with a focus on solidarity and creative collaboration.

Seth "Eggs" Bernard is a NMEAC Environmentalist of the Year Award winner for Arts Education and has worked with SEEDS and On Stage for Kids bringing nature-based experiential creative empowerment to young people across the Great Lakes region and beyond. In early 2018, Bernard launched the Clean Water Campaign for Michigan, a social movement using storytelling and music to amplify the groundswell of support for water issues.

Seth is a prolific songwriter and recording artist with 12 solo albums and a dozen more collaborative projects in his catalogue. He's won 8 Jammie awards as a recording artist and producer, and has been a longtime iconic leader and steward of Michigan's music community. His newest work, "Eggtones", is a four album series released over the last 2 years to critical acclaim.

Megan Hildebrandt received her BFA from the Stamps School of Art & Design in 2006, and her MFA in Studio Art from the University of South Florida in 2012. Hildebrandt has exhibited nationally and internationally, including: The Painting Center, New American Paintings, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Craft, Arlington Arts Center, Detroit Contemporary, HEREarts Center, Latitude 53, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, the LIVESTRONG Foundation, and the Michigan Institute of Contemporary Art.

An artist, educator, cancer survivor and arts-in-health advocate, Hildebrandt currently lives and works in Interlochen, Michigan where she teaches Painting, Digital Media and Outreach at Interlochen Fine Arts Boarding Academy.

Holly Wren Spaulding is a poet, editor, and teaching artist based in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, though she maintains deep ties with the Leelanau Peninsula, where she lived until recently. In 2012 she left academia and now runs Poetry Forge, a community-based incubator for writers and their work, and mentors emerging writers through her apprenticeship program and in online courses that engage writers in conversations about craft and creative process, while urging them toward the completion of significant bodies of work. Holly also teaches creative writing for Interlochen College of Creative Arts and other arts organizations.

Her passion – helping others engage their art and thrive amidst the many social, technological, and existential pressures of our time is most deeply felt in her live workshops and private sessions with artists, and which will be a component of the 2017 residency. Spaulding says that she regards the role of the artist in our time as “fundamentally radical in the sense that we are almost always living and working at the margins, which informs our world view, and our sense of what matters.” She says “I am here to speak of things not often spoken of, and I'm interested in remembering and revivifying aspects of the human experience which must not be allowed to disappear despite pressures to conform, or to consume as a way of life, or dedicate one's life-force primarily to the pursuit of profit. Artists know that there is more to life, so I'm asking myself and those I work with: What else do you think about, or feel, or care about?”

Holly has received numerous awards, residencies and fellowships, as well as two Pushcart nominations for her writing. She has been published widely as an independent journalist, book reviewer, essayist, and poet in places like The New York Times, The Nation, The Ecologist, Michigan Quarterly Review, Witness, Talking River, Alternet, Z Magazine, Corpwatch.org, and even locally, with Dunes Review. Holly has published two chapbooks, The Grass Impossibly (Michigan Writers Cooperative Press, 2008), selected by Fleda Brown for that year's poetry prize, and Pilgrim (Alice Greene & Co., 2014). She also contributed to the book We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism (Verso, 2003); The Michigan Poet: 2005-2010, and other anthologies. Holly studied creative writing at Trinity College, Ireland (M.Phil), University of Michigan (BA), and at Interlochen Arts Academy.

To learn more about Holly Wren Spaulding visit hollywrenspaulding.com

Joan Richmond, a graduate of the Art Academy of Cincinnati, also holds an MFA from the University of Notre Dame. She taught painting for ten years at Northwestern Michigan College and continues to instruct at drawing and painting workshops.

Focusing on, but not limited to, landscape images, Richmond uses gouache and other media. She works both in open air and in her studio, Studio 1S, in Traverse City. Northwest Michigan provides a rich source of visual inspiration. She has also painted along the west coast of Ireland, the North Channel in Canada and the city of Rome, Italy.

Richmond believes that direct observation of nature is an essential process for the artist. Critical seeing informs the artist's visual and emotional responses that help form the image no matter how illusionistic or abstract. Major influences on her development include the work of Cezanne, Corot, Matisse, Morandi, Fairfield Porter and Louisa Matthiasdottir.

Richmond exhibits regionally and is represented in a number of corporate collections throughout the Midwest. She has received numerous awards at the Glen Arbor Art Association “Paint Outs,” was an Artist in Residence at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in the fall of 2014 and a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome the spring of 2015.

Visit her website at joanrichmondart.com for more information and to see a gallery of images.

Landscape artist Gene Rantz has been selected as 2015 Artist in Residence for the Old Art Building's Summer Program, becoming the ninth regional artist to achieve that designation. At the age of fifty, Rantz broke free from a commercial art business in Southern Michigan to fulfill a pledge made to himself to become a fine arts painter. The journey began by packing a few worldly possessions aboard the Summer Breeze, his beloved sailboat, and permanently leaving his home port of South Haven to sail north, eventually anchoring in Northport Bay at the tip of the beautiful Leelanau peninsula. You might say, he had run away from home.

Now, thirty years later, even more fascinated by the beauty of the surrounding landscape, he is still discovering the subtle secrets of painting... composition and color... capturing the magic of the land. Rantz's greatest inspiration and influence for his work has come from visiting museums and researching the great painters of the past. Nothing stirs the heart of a painter more than standing in front of an original by the masters; to see the thick colors of a Rembrandt portrait, the brushwork of Sargent, or the dabs of sunlight in a Manet canvas, is a revelation. His advice to any would-be painter is to study the best; even if it means setting unattainable standards. Rantz mostly paints in Leelanau County but he also maintains a studio on the Nature Coast of Florida and he occasionally does painting trips to Alaska and the Western USA. His paintings are in numerous private collections around the country and he does several large commissions each year.

Last fall (2013) Richard Kooyman began an artistic project he calls “ArtCamp”. ArtCamp has become Kooyman's attempt to explore a deep aesthetic/natural environment relationship and to record the effect that this environment has had on his work. “The ArtCamp Paintings” is the first public exhibition of paintings from the project. Viewers will experience a large selection of paintings, representing all four of Michigan's distinct seasons, originating from the artist's two-acre wooded ArtCamp.

At some point in my artistic career I had to ask myself why make a painting of the Michigan shoreline rather than a field of cows? Why make a painting of a sunset? I make paintings of things that have an effect on my life. Iconic images of Michigan, the glare of sunlight through the trees, an arrangement of color. These are things that I notice are important and that I think are worthy of other people taking note of.

How I paint them, what makes them look the way they do is because of my love of what oil paint does. Oil paint is expressive. It offers surprises. It's wonderfully messy, yet sophisticated and refined. It is poetical by its very nature. I try to make paintings that show that.

Richard Kooyman received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Grand Valley University and was awarded a Collage of Art and Design Fellowship to attend Ohio State University where he earned a Masters Degree in Fine Arts (1982). He was awarded a Michigan Council for the Arts grant, the Michigan Governors Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Kooyman has lectured on the subject of art to art organizations, given numerous workshops along with being a visiting artist at various educational institutions, most recently the University of Minnesota in Mankato, MN. In 2013 Richard Kooyman was nominated for consideration for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Artists Grant in Painting.

An English and pre-med major at Smith College, Sallie enrolled in an art history and a drawing class her senior year which led her to study at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. With a degree in Graphic Design, she became an art director at J. Walter Thompson in Chicago for five years. Stanley has exhibited her work throughout the Chicago area and many venues in Leelanau over the past twenty years. She currently lives in Winnetka, Illinois.

Having summered in northern Michigan for most of her life, Sallie has been entranced by the mysterious beauty and light of the Leelanau peninsula from a very young age. This luminous beginning, coupled with the viewing of a Winslow Homer exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago at age seventeen, led her to an endless fascination with watercolor landscape painting both in Michigan and in subsequent plein air travels. There is an energy and joy that come from painting in the landscape—a celebration of life itself.

Drawn to the work of artists Fairfield Porter, Edward Hopper, David Hockney, Nell Blaine and Richard Diebenkorn, she has been exploring large, painterly figures in the landscape, a quest to capture the gesture of a moment in time. Through cerebral, yet intuitive brushstrokes, arresting compositions and heightened color harmonies, she keeps her paintings fresh and “alive”.

The most consistent creative endeavor in my life has been drawing. It defined me starting in kindergarten and ultimately led to a career in illustration and fine art, with sidebars as a public art collaborator, and muralist. After half a century the process is still a mystery, but for the first time in my life the different creative areas of my brain are at peace. A typical month can involve painting a mural with high school students, carving and printing a series of wood engravings, exhibiting mixed media paintings in a gallery, and illustrating a book.

Glenn Wolff grew up in Traverse City, Michigan. He studied Printmaking at Northwestern Michigan College, and received his BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His career began in New York as an illustrator for such clients as the New York Times, the Village Voice, the Central Park Conservancy, and the New York Zoological Society. In 1987 he returned to Northern Michigan concentrating on fine art and book illustration. The list of authors he has worked with include Stephanie Mills, John Gierach, and Robert Sullivan, but he is best known for his illustrations in the books of Jerry Dennis, starting with 1992's It's Raining Frogs and Fishes, and most recently The Windward Shore.

Glenn's mixed media fine art has been shown throughout the US and Canada, and is included in numerous private and public collections including The Dennos Museum Center, The Kellogg Foundation, and the International Crane Foundation. He has also been a frequent artist-in-residence for environmental organizations such as The Great Lakes Bioneers, Wings of Wonder, The Watershed Suite Project, and The North American Prairie Conference.

https://www.glennwolff.com/about

Dewey Blocksma, whose sculptures are hard to describe but are instantly recognizable, will be the Old Art Building’s sixth annual Ann Hall Artist in Residence for summer, 2011.

He has been called a folk artist and a creator of “outsider” art but however it is defined, Blocksma’s art is always provocative in sum and amusing in its parts. His materials are household objects, builder’s tools, children’s toys and pieces of Americana. Sally Viskochil, owner of Omena’s Tamarack Craftsmen Gallery and home to many of Blocksma’s creations, puts it succinctly in a 2004 Traverse Magazine article: “Dewey does what he does... and the world either gets it or doesn’t get it.”

Blocksma spent several years of his childhood in Lahore, Pakistan, which set him on a non-traditional learning path before his family moved back to the United States and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Following in his father’s footsteps, he became a doctor and traveled through Africa and Europe before returning to the U.S. He began working as an emergency room physician in small towns across lower Michigan.

To relieve the pressures of emergency room trauma, he began crafting toy-like figures from everyday objects until his part-time obsession overtook his professional life. He left the medical world in 1979 at age 36 to pursue life as a full-time artist and moved from the Grand Rapids area to northern Michigan.

Blocksma’s work drew considerable attention when he was commissioned by Traverse City to create a public sculpture. The result was the controversial “River Guardian” on the Cass Street bridge over the Boardman River, which brought equal amounts of praise and complaining.

Charles Murphy grew up in southern Minnesota and remembers always wanting to be a painter. His grandfather, who was fluent with a pencil, served as his earliest inspiration.

Graduating from Minnesota State University with his BFA in Studio Art, he set off for Cape Cod to immerse himself in a community of artisits. After his first taste of apinting and exhibiting on the East Coast, he settled in the Grand Traverse Bay area of northern Michigan where he again found himself in a large community of artists. For several years, Murphy exhibited in art fairs around the state, garnering award and a large audience of collectors. With additional assistance from galleries and dealers who represented him, his work found its way into many large corporate collections such as Kraft, General Motors, Prudential, Mead Corporation, International Harvestor, Us Gypsum and Joh Hancock.

While his career as a painter took form he supplemented his income through another of his interests, woodworking. Murphy spent a number of years designing furniture and cabinet making for shops in the Grand Traverse region. Seeking greater fulfillment from his painting, he set the woodworking aside and began teaching painting classes and workshops at regional art centers. Expanding on this experience he has undertaken more travel for his own painting as well as the opportunity to teach in a variety of environments. These pursuits have taken him around the US , France, Spain, Italy, Nova Scotia, Hawaii and the Caribbean.

A couple of excursions into illustration have resulted in two books. The first book, the award-winning “Reach for the Moon” was a collaboration with a young learning disabled writer. The second bood, a children's book titled “Smokey the Raccoon” published by PF Publishing. In 2002 Charles was flatter to have his work selected for publication in Artists' Magazine's 2002 limited edition calendar. The calendar features 13 artists juried from a field of 13,000.

Charles Murphy currently teaches painting programs at the Grand Traverse Art Center in Traverse City, Michigan. His works are in the 143rd Annual International Traveling Exhibition of the American Watercolor Society.

Melanie Parke has a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, with a National Leadership Award. She is the recipient of several professional residencies, including Yosemite and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Parks. Her paintings are exhibited nationally.

A native of Traverse City, Michigan, Bob Purvis graduated from Traverse City High School in 1965 and from Northwestern Michigan College in 1968. He worked in his family's steel fabrication business until 1976 when, after the business was sold, he struck off on his own. After several years of repair work, he was asked to be more creative at the behest of clients interested in more unconventional work. From that experience to present, he has tried to use his creativity to the fullest extend possible.

In 1982, Bob and his wife Suzanne moved to Suttons Bay. In the ensuing years his career has evolved to include architectural ironwork, furniture design, and sculpture. It has also increasingly included interaction with art departments and their students in public and private schools throughout the Grand Traverse Region. Current sculptural work can be seen at the entrance to Center Point and the wall sconces inside the State Theatre in Traverse City.

A native of Leelanau County, Michigan, Frederick T. Petroskey was born near the small village of Lake Leelanau. Fred graduated from Western Michigan University in 1962, having majored in Art and Political Science and began the Art Program at Delton-Kellogg Schools near Kalamazoo, MI before moving to Boston, MA in 1967.

During the next seventeen years Fred taught at the DeCordova Museum of Art, judged art shows and lectured. In 1984, Fred returned to Leelanau County, taught at Northwestern Michigan College and restored a 19^th century farmhouse which became his studio and where he continues to receive portrait commissions from around the country.

Well-known area artist David Grath was chosen as the LCCC's first Artist-in-Residence. One of Leelanau County's most highly respected artists, Grath has created rich landscapes of the area's land and shorelines for more than fifty years. He has taught art at universities and conducted workshops throughout the state, and has work in many private and public collections, as well as images on several book and record album covers.

Grath says that in his oil paintings he seeks to show the mystery inherent in the interplay of the light, the shadow, and the depth of his vision. Likening the light in our area to that of southern France or Italy, Grath states, “Because the peninsula runs north-south, the light and the way it reflects and refracts off the trees and the water and the land is unique.”

The new Artist-in-Residence was introduced to the public at a reception and art show for the Tuesday painting group known as the Leelanau Artists at the Old Art Building. At that time it was announced that he would conduct four workshops designed to give attendees the opportunity to work and paint with the artist. These workshops were held June 22, July 9, July 20, and August 16 of 2006.

A lecture was held on August 4, amidst a large selection of Grath's artwork which had been set up for the annual David Grath Fine Art Exhibit. At this time the artist focused on the special qualities of painting in Leelanau County, including his own personal history of painting.