Artist in Residence: Leland, Michigan

I had the honor of spending the last week in Leland, Michigan, creating work for Two Fish Gallery, a fabulous store near historic Fishtown in the northern part of the state on Lake Michigan in Leelanau County. I’ve worked with Jennifer & Michael at Two Fish for many years, but it was such an incredible opportunity to go see this little lake town in person, explore, and create work on-site. I flew up to Traverse City on May 14th and spent the next 7 days hiking, needle felting, and sharing my love of this medium in a state I had never been to before. What an amazing week!

Fishtown is a very unique place, it’s famous for its “shanty” buildings right on beautiful Lake Michigan. These shanties and the famous tug boats, Joy and Janice Sue, have been featured heavily in my work for Two Fish Gallery in the past, but it was so special to finally see them in person. Fishtown also has a small marina, several beaches, a variety of little shops and boutiques, and some delicious restaurants. My favorite meal of the trip was the halibut at Riverside Inn, just down the street from Two Fish! I also enjoyed a cheese sub from the famous and highly recommended Cheese Shanty (even the guy at the rental car place recommended it when I told him I was heading to Leland).

During my time in Leland I did 2 in-person needle felting demos inside Two Fish Gallery, creating work for those interested in my process and answering questions while working in realtime. On Sunday May 18th, I got to teach 2 workshops at Dune Bird Winery to 44 students, most of who had never felted before. They did such a great job! Everyone was able to complete the 6” felted landscape featuring a scene inspired by the local dunes and beaches. The winery was a beautiful location for this event and I’m thankful for the space to teach the local crafty community.

I hiked every single day, sometimes in 80 degree sunshine, sometimes in 40 degree wind and rain, and my favorite treks were Empire Bluff Trail and Pyramid Point, in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The lake really is that blue, the sand dunes really are that bright, it’s almost too beautiful to be real and I even took small tufts of wool roving on my hikes to match them up to what I saw, to be sure my work was correctly reflecting the world around me. I loved hiking through cedar forests, seeing birch trees and a bald eagle. Hiking through the sand tunes was physically tough but worth it. There were several trails in Leelanau State Park near Grand Traverse Lighthouse that I also enjoyed, thanks to the rocky beach views.

There’s quite a few little towns within less than an hour’s drive from Leland, so I made time to explore them as well: Northport, Cedar, Port Oneida, Empire, Maple City, Glen Arbor, and my favorite, Sutton’s Bay, which is just 10 minutes east from Leland. If you visit Sutton’s Bay, I highly recommend eating at Martha’s Leelanau Table and shopping at Silver Slag and Stone. The artist behind the store uses unique rocks found the local beaches, particularly the Leland Bluestone and Petosky Stones. It was hard to choose just one!

I also spent time in Traverse City exploring the parks, trying some local cuisine, and shopping on Front Street. Although, as much as the downtown shopping area had to offer and I could have easily spent all day there (and eaten ALL the tacos at Mama Lu’s Taco Shop) I was really blown away by The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, which is a historic preservation project that has turned an old asylum into a mixed use property featuring shopping, restaurants, offices, and apartments. Plus, you can take a tour of the building and see the cool/creepy tunnel underneath!

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to travel to a new place, take a week to explore and create, teach others meet others, and get to know the owners of Two Fish a little bit better. Thank you again for hosting me and for this incredible opportunity, Jenn and Michael!

I hope you’ll enjoy this little recap video of my time in Leland. It’s such a beautiful place! All pieces are now available for your viewing and purchasing plesure exclusively at Two Fish.

NEW JEWELRY!

I’m excited to announce the addition of hand painted jewelry to the Once Again Sam website. Expanding on my palette knife painting series, I’ve added a new (and very bright) colorway called Great Lakes, inspired by the gorgeous turquoise and blue waters of Lake Michigan. Additionally, I have a limited series of painted landscape pendants avialbe online as well, featuring a scene from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Also, a huge thank you to SCAC for helping me get there:

This project is funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is also funded in part by a generous award from the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of The Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina.

Artist-in-Residence: Wildacres

I've been away from the studio for the past week for a good reason. I had the privilege of being one of the artists-in-residence at Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, NC and I enjoyed every minute of my time away. Here's a look at what I did, where I went, and of course, what I made. 

Unlike with past residencies, I had a project plan this time, and it helped me get into the swing of things right away. I knew in advance there were certain trails I wanted to hike, views I wanted to seek out, and even a few specific pieces I wanted to make. However, I was unprepared for the inspiration that found me during my week of exploration and reflection. Even though I created 25 pieces in 6 days, I ran out of time for all of the ideas that flooded my mind. It was exactly what I needed, I’d been feeling very stuck with my work lately, like I’m making the same things over and over (because that’s what sells, not because that’s what I want to make). This time alone, in a new surrounding, opened up my eyes.

I truly enjoyed staying in the remote cabin, surrounded by mountain laurel and pine trees (and deafening cicadas at night!). No AC, no TV, not much internet connection, and I even used a pot holder to block the clock on the stove all week, because I didn’t want to know what time of day it was. I ate when I was hungry, slept when I was tired, hiked all morning, created all afternoon, and went joy riding every evening. Time flew by, but it also stood still.

Wildacres Retreat is a magical place, if you ever have the opportunity to visit (either with a group to the conference center or on your own as an artist-in-residence). The location is off the Blueridge Parkway in Little Switzerland, NC and it’s hidden in the woods, with a beautiful mountain view and a friendly atmosphere that encourages creativity and the betterment of humanity.

In addition to thoroughly exploring the Wildacres property, which boasts miles and miles of trails, I also ventured out each day in a different direction to see what I could see. I checked out nearby towns including Spruce Pine, Little Switzerland, Marion, Old Fort, and Chimney Rock. I hiked multiple trails each day (outside of the Wildacres property) and those took me to mountain tops, dense forests, and waterfalls. Some of my favorite spots include the top of Hawksbill Mountain (pictured above) where I was completely alone at the top of the world, letting the wind whirl around me. I loved my hike to Yellow Fork Falls (pictured below), racing the radar one morning, where I not only got there in record time because I was moving so darn fast to beat the rain, I also managed to not get my Mini Cooper stuck on what was very much an off-roading experience that in hindsight was probably a bad idea. We made it out alive!

Other favorite moments:

• Driving all the way to the top of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, only to be surrounded by dense fog (or were they clouds?) and not minding one bit. I’m sure the view is great on a clear day, but I loved that somber moody feel and plan to felt a piece inspired by what I saw / what I didn’t see.

• Getting rained in one afternoon. The remnants of Storm Debby made their way to the North Carolina Highlands midweek and pounded the cabin roof for hours. I loved it. It gave me an excuse to take a break from hiking, take a nap, and do a little painting, something I never seem to make time for.

• Cruising the ever-curving Blueridge Parkway and happily breaking for more fully grown bucks than I’ve ever seen in my life alive, not mounted on a wall, and at least 30 wild turkeys, including a swarm of baby “turklets,” as I like to call them. Everybody saw bears except me.

• Having the last dinner on campus with the other two artist-in-residence Emma van Halsema, a talented plein air painter who works in animation, and Kathy Schwille, author of What Luck, This Life. We shared a bottle of wine, we shared about how impactful the week had been, and it was just wonderful connecting with these two women, even though we had mostly spent the week in solitude.

• Watching the sun set every night from a different overlook on the parkway. The sky never looks the same. The mountains never look the same.

Artist residencies have become a big part of my life. To date I’ve been honored to do 8 residencies, and each time, that gift of space to explore and create changes me. Sometimes it’s a mental change - I learn to relax, I dream again, I get inspired. Sometimes it’s a skill change - I get really good at felting gradients, or I attempt to paint something way more detailed that I would normally attempt. And sometimes it’s a physical change - I take on a hike that’s probably beyond my abilities, but I enjoy it, even the soreness the next day, because I earned it. I never know what’s in store as artist-in-residence, or who I’ll meet, but I arrive with an open mind, a need for time away from my design job, my commission list, my never-ending to-do’s around the house. I’m so grateful to Wildacres Retreat for this gift of time and space. I will never forget the experience.

I hope you will enjoy this video recap of my week in the woods, and enjoy browsing the full Blueridge collection on my website.

Snowscapes

Inspired by snowy scenes once again this winter, this small series of needle felted landscapes was a joy to make, even though we have yet to see our first snowflakes here in South Carolina. When (if) we do, believe me, it’ll be a disaster!

The new series of snowscapes ranges from 3x3 to 8x8, so they’re the perfect small size to squeeze into your gallery wall. Or, if you change your artwork out seasonally, they make a great addition for the winter months. From white pastures to icy rivers and snow covered trees, this limited series is made with dyed wool fiber was created with a longing for a cozy snow day here in the south.

Shop the collection on the website and use coupon code SNOWDAY for 10% off now through the end of February.

Tufted landscapes (and the struggle behind them)

It's been well over 6 months since I picked up my tufting guns, but I'm so glad I did this summer. While this particular fiber art medium is still very new to me, I'm starting to get the hang of it and slowly developing my own style. 3 sets of tufted diptychs are ready to ship & hang in your home, and here's a time-lapse video showing a peek at the process. 

While learning to work in any new medium or figure out the nuances of using a new tool can take time (and lot of trial and error), it’s what keeps me going. I need to learn new things, always. Tufting seemed like the next logical step for me once I started expanding on my needle felting work and doing mixed media fiber art a few years back, but tufting has been a rocky road so far. I love that I can work larger and faster, but I am having a hard time accepting that the detail level that I’m able to achieve with punch needle, needle felting, and rug hooking, is just not going to be possible with a tufting gun (or at least not at my current skill level). I had to rethink my ideas and adjust accordingly.

Some of my other struggles when it comes to tufting are purely comfort-related. It’s a very physical art form - you are on your feet for hours and hours, the tufting guns are heavy and they take a toll on hands and wrists in a way hand-work doesn’t seem to effect me. Plus, it’s loud and messy, and I like to keep my studio neat, even though the whole point of a studio is to have a workspace where it’s totally acceptable to have a mess. It seems silly that these drawbacks are part of what’s kept me from tufting for half a year, but I’m just being honest.

I was considering selling my tufting guns and frame, I hadn’t used them in months, they were new and in good condition (and too expensive to just sit here and not be used). I wasn’t looking forward to setting up the frame and having whatever project take over my studio for days on end. Although I may eventually eliminate tufting from my studio I needed to give it another chance, a REAL chance, a chance to be it’s own thing and lead the way to a new style, a chance to change my expectations. It can’t do what I want it to do but it can do a lot of other very cool things. I need to embrace those things.

All 3 of these diptychs have a completely different style, though the subject matter is very similar. One is focused on two-tone gradients, one it’s very abstract and blocky, and the last has a bit of a stained glass or paint-by-number feel. I like all of them for different reasons, and it’s enough to push me to keep trying and keep tufting. I hope to add more tufted pieces to the website later this summer, but for now shop the small collection online.

Flat Out Under Pressure 24-Hour Art-Making Competition 2023

I participated in the Flat Out Under Pressure 24-Hour art-making competition this year in Greenville, SC and it was so much fun (a LOT of work, but worth it!). My mixed media fiber art piece included punch needled yarn, rug hooked fabric strips, and needle felted wool fiber. I’ve participate for several years in a row but this is by far the largest piece I’ve attempted for this competition (and I was really pushing my luck to finish on time).

The piece is about 20" in diameter, featuring a scene inspired by Lake Jocassee, here in the upstate of South Carolina. The finish piece, along with all of the incredible work made by 100+ other local artists is now on display at Metropolitan Arts Council in downtown Greenville, SC and will eventually be available on my website.

Hope you enjoy the process video!