Maris Soule: Artist Feature

Maris Soule Artist, Author, Teacher

Artist's Website: marissoule.com, Facebook, Pinterest

ARTIST BIO

Maris Soule earned a Bachelor's in Art from UC Davis, and a secondary level teaching degree from UC Berkeley. She taught middle school and high school art for eight years, but now spends most of her time writing novels. Art has become a means of relaxation for Maris, and she’s taken several classes at the South Haven Center for the Arts. She also loves attending SHCA exhibitions to see the work of other artists. Although she started out working in oil, over the years, due to limited space, she has switched to acrylics and watercolors.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I generally work from a photo, but the end result may or may not resemble the photo. I like to experiment with different techniques and surfaces. Space has changed my practice over the years. Whereas I started with oils on large canvases, as my living space has shrunk, so have my paintings. Nature and animals dominate my work, and, of course, paintings of shorelines and sunsets.

FAVORITE ART TOOL

For me, it’s a paintbrush, but I’m not picky. Give me pigment, a brush, and a blank surface, and I’m happy.

Paintings by Maris Soule

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Maris Soule is a South Haven Center for the Arts artist member. As a benefit of this membership level, we are proud to be featuring artist members on our blog. If you are an artist member and would like to be featured, email us at info@southhavenarts.org. Interesting in becoming an artist member? See more information here: southhavenarts.org/artist-membership.

Memorial Butterflies by Joan Bonnette

South Haven multimedia artist Joan Bonnette joins the 2020 Mistletoe Market Virtual Artist & Artisan Gallery in a flutter of memorial wings.

As does a caterpillar morph into a butterfly, so does found metal in Joan’s hands. Joan works in many mediums, including sculptural butterflies made from rusted metal she finds on South Haven beaches, such as pieces detached from old oil drums that have found their way into Lake Michigan and back.

Designed to hang on a wall, each of these three-dimensional butterflies has a spirit of its own; each representing survivors—those who are still with us, and those who have passed. “We may feel battered and sad and fragile, but we survive and better times are ahead.” In this strange world we now live in, Joan wisely notes that “it [Covid-19] came not to stay, but to pass.”

The butterfly—or Endura—is a theme that began in 1995 and continues to weave its way through Joan’s art.

While at Western Michigan University, where Joan studied printmaking, painting, and other media to earn her MFA, her mother survived a bout of cancer, which led her to conceive the first of thirty “Endura World Spirals.” "My mother was a survivor—she endured and lived to be eighty-seven."

These collaborative butterfly installations have graced the floors of churches, schools, libraries, galleries, and other spaces in Texas, Ohio, Michigan, and many other locations throughout the country. The spirals consist of six-by-six inch butterflies made of every conceivable material that she arranges into intricate works that fill rooms with color, texture, and hope. Some of the spirals contain as many as 500 butterflies made by people from ages two to ninety-six. Through the years she has had contributions from not only the US, but Japan, Australia, and several other countries around the world.

The pieces pictured above are just four of many Endura Joan has to offer for purchase.

Contact Joan directly at joanebon1@gmail.com to purchase an Endura as a gift to memorialize someone in your life. Joan also invites you to her spacious studio to choose one of her unique artworks. Social distancing and masks will be appreciated!

Happy shopping and happy holidays!

The South Haven Center for the Arts thanks Joan for her contribution to the 2020 Mistletoe Market Virtual Artist & Artisan Gallery, and for helping the art center continue to further its mission of enriching our community through the arts.

The 2020 Mistletoe Market Artist & Artisan Gallery was made possible by the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, and sponsored by South Haven’s Hardt Insurance and the Edward Jones Office of Paul Hix.

Vintage Travel Prints By Petrus Martens

The South Haven Center for the Arts welcomes colorful vintage-style travel posters created by Petrus Martens to the 2020 Mistletoe Market Virtual Artist & Artisan Gallery.

Petrus began drawing at a young age and grew up in the Caribbean, lived in Florida and New York City, and eventually settled in East Lansing, Michigan, never expecting the beauty of Michigan’s lakes and shores. Fascinated with water, he says the Great Lakes remind him of any tropical location in the world.

Petrus travels the Great Lakes region illustrating and photographing on-location, then digitally draws and combines color and vintage fonts to create travel prints resembling advertising posters from bygone eras. Inspiration for his work springs from his combined fascination of locale, the composition of his subject matter, color, fonts, and the craftsmanship employed in the foregone era of screen printing and printmaking.

The colors resemble old stone lithography—the use of two or three colors. He creates his digital drawings using a color table of up to ten inks (the colors can’t be created using just primary colors) to create high-quality archival pigment prints in palettes of purples, violets, oranges, and blues.

Petrus notes that some of his prints, like "Sleeping Bear Dunes," are starting to become more simple, using two colors, which is meant to resemble four colors that are actually printed on a two-color press. "I am always trying to improve to make a piece resemble something vintage and authentic."

Font choice also plays a large role in each piece to re-create the effect of a vintage advertising poster from the early 20th century. Petrus graphically manipulates traditional fonts to resemble authentic period fonts that match the era each piece represents. He favors early- and mid-century poster stylings, especially those from the 1930s. He spoke of a documentary called Helvetica that describes how subconsciously fonts have an important impact on how people react to this visual cue.

Scaling and layout of fonts are also important, especially in relation to more than one font. “It’s a challenge, because you can ruin something with the wrong font in relation to an image, but there is always that magical moment when I know I’ve got the right font and scaling to complement my subject.”

Petrus notes that in early century prints by French poster artists, the foregrounds of scenes with great depth like landscapes and seascapes are often framed with foliage and shadow.

Visit the market to purchase vintage prints from Petrus for someone on your gift list or to enjoy his unique work in your own home. You can also view Petrus' work at martensprintworks.com, on Instagram: @martensprintworks or Facebook: Martens Printworks.

Happy shopping and happy holidays!

The South Haven Center for the Arts thanks Petrus for his contribution to the 2020 Mistletoe Market Virtual Artist & Artisan Gallery, and for helping the art center continue to further its mission of enriching our community through the arts.

The 2020 Mistletoe Market Artist & Artisan Gallery was made possible by the Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, and sponsored by South Haven’s Hardt Insurance and the Edward Jones Office of Paul Hix.