"Cast" Party

Well-known sculptor, Janice Trimpe, had her big studio bash Saturday evening at her new space on Kercheval, close to my home. I have been taking her sculpture classes and have discovered "life in the round”. So I couldn’t miss her opening. My husband and I attended and sampled the sangria.

Hmmm… interesting doorstop…

On closer inspection - hey, isn’t that Cardinal Maida? Why, yes, I believe it is…

Artists are a democratic sort and all kinds of people are drawn to the studios.

Here is Janice with her beautiful 90-year-old mother.

The jazz band was really hot.

I wonder what all those heads are thinking?

Wish you'd been there. Next time, join us.

The River Knows

(Photo courtesy of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial)

Solving a mystery
of the deep
Stolen War Memorial statue found by police divers

By K. Michelle Moran
C & G Staff Writer CandGNews

DETROIT — Detroit Police Department Dive Team divers felt “The Nude” in the Detroit River before they ever saw her.

While on a routine training dive two weeks ago to recover a submerged car off of Alter Road, one of the divers came in contact with the sculpture’s hand and head. With no visibility in the murky waters, they had to postpone the recovery until May 6... (Read Full Story Here )

Tile Be There

On Sunday I took a walk with my dog on Belle Isle. This island park sails the river between two countries - Canada on one side and the US on the other. It is a place layered with history and events, both peaceful and violent.

Ships from all over the world chug past the island. Lake freighters carrying ore to downriver steelmills and the "salties" which venture across oceans and through the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The dog is especially fond of our walks on the island. There are lots of muskrat holes to explore.

Deeply.

And new life to admire and celebrate.

There are other discoveries to be made. The seawall that protects the island from the swift river currents and knife-edged winter ice is made up mostly of chunks of recycled concrete from roadsides and torn-down buildings. Beautiful architectural details can be found under lapping waves, abandoned.

You can even find ghostly dance steps in some random pieces of concrete. I don't know how this occurs.

I wandered out to this lonely spot.

At my feet, among the blocks of plain, gray concrete, I found pieces which had been deliberately decorated with colorful tiles by artists unknown.

It would be easy to work quietly, and undetected, here. Few people venture out this way and not all reach this place. Fewer still pay much attention to a person seated low and close to the water, assuming, probably, that they are picnicing or just spending time by themselves looking at the water. One mosaic stated simply and enigmatically,"3 degrees".

The more my eyes scanned the shore, the more mosaics I saw. A kind of quiet, guerrilla art in a quiet, natural place, with the sailboats fluttering along nearby and massive freighters as the most frequent witnesses to the color and imagery. And someone willing to wander away from the crowds. With a dog as a companion.

I think I will come there again with supplies tucked into a satchel, claim a block and create a mostly unseen mosaic. Maybe several. Look for me this summer. I'll be the woman sitting low, and close to the water's edge, seemingly absorbed by my own thoughts and the sunlight glinting off the waves.

New Homes Built in Detroit!

February 17, 2009

On The Detroit River: Beavers Are Back After Long Absence

From the Detroit Free Press:

In a stunning sign of ecological recovery, beavers have returned to Detroit for the first time in perhaps a century.

A single beaver lodge has been discovered in an intake canal at Detroit Edison's Conners Creek power plant on Detroit's east riverfront. Edison workers using motion-sensitive cameras caught photographs and video of the beaver in November.

John Hartig, the Detroit River refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said beavers were last spotted in the Detroit River at least 75 years ago, possibly as long ago as a century. Their return signals that a multiyear effort to clean up the river has paid off.

EM NEPO

This is a new garden painting for the front yard. It is two rectangular pieces of wood which face each other.

On one side is an old book with two little brown hands holding it. There is a message on the book spelled backwards, in letterpress.

On the other side is a picture of a little girl with a mirror where her face should be. You can read the message from the book in the mirror.


Views of the back of each piece. The girl has a landscape on her reverse side.

The book is a book on its back cover. The hands hold it there as well.


Acrylic paint, glass beads, automotive glass and mirror on wood.