Category Archives: Inspirations

Nov28

Art, Wine and Be Merry

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Have you ever thought about the art of wine? For instance, in wine there is the art of the grape, the art of nature, and the art of the winemaker.

Think of the grape as a canvas. Every fall, unfolding as a lush pastel of taste, they hang from the vines full and ripe just waiting to be picked and turned into something different, something say, for your holiday table. The result is part of a cycle that began in the spring with buds bursting and will end in your living room when you uncork a bottle of fine Michigan wines.

In the art of nature, every fall the trees give us the most glorious backdrop and artists flock to the wine regions to record the splendor. It’s also the time for the harvest of the grapes, which have seasoned in the heat of day and cold of night, absorbed the runoff of spring, the rains of summer and the mists of autumn, and then there are the minerals of the soil and sunlight turned to nutrients in the elegant fruit that becomes drink. It isn’t coincidence that Mission and Leelanau Peninsulas are very close in proximity to the latitude of France and their hills and closeness to warm waters make them perfectly suitable for this other form of art – the art of making a fine wine. Like all art forms, the cycle is only completed by the viewer or, in this case, the wine drinkers – and that’s you.

It starts with the wine maker, the creators. Winemakers are fun, interesting people. You never meet a winemaker studying for a degree in accounting or law. They have found their place and live happily in it. I have interviewed a dozen of winemakers, and each one sees his craft and creative process differently but honors the sacred process of creation. What struck me as I was learning from them was how much my process as a painter was parallel to their process as winemakers.

Larry Mawby of the renowned L. Mawby Winery said, “You can hear the land, the wine, and what it’s telling you.” In the studio it’s the same: The canvas and paint reveal to you what they want to become, you are just the vessel. Larry is also a poet; he writes beautiful little seductive gems for each of his creations. The poems appear on each of his sparkling wines, deepening the link between art and wine.

I read on Silverleaf Vineyard and Winery’s website that they take an artisanal approach to wine making. When I meet Mark Carlson, proprietor and winemaker, it was no surprise that it was he who crafted the giant silver leaf sculpture that sits outside the tasting room on Michigan’s Leelanau peninsula. I was not surprised because I have found winemakers to be very artistic people with creative outlets, from musicians, landscape architects, to cooks and, in Mark’s case, he has even tried his hand at painting. At Silverleaf, they planted the grapes themselves and have their hand in every bit of the process – a true artisan approach!

Winemaker Brian Ulbrich of Left Foot Charley fame says making wine is about “living with the seasons, the cycle of a year in a bottle.” When you visit his winery in Traverse City, you will find plenty of wooden barrels and stainless steel, where the wine lives and the palette of science with creativity turns the glorious grapes of harvest into the wine you share with loved ones.

Coonraad Strassen can be found creating for Brys Estate. His wines have taken the industry by storm and he has quickly risen to his place in the fabric of the Michigan wine industry, even winning international awards. Coonraad is interested in “what I can do with the land” and sees his room full of barrels as his palette of color for getting creative.

Mark Johnson at Chateau Chantal is one of the original winemakers who got the idea to let Chardonnay be what it is with out oak: clean, crisp, and steely. Inventing, creating, and redefining, seeing what can be done.

Like a painter, each winemaker is pushing the boundary of what has been done, but looking forward to what can be done. They look to history while forging into new and better ways to create. True artists.

As you eat, drink and be merry this holiday season. I urge you to think about the wine you uncork as a piece of art, and think about the process it went thought to become wine, the land from which it comes and the choices made in the process of creation. Uncork and enjoy the art of the vine.

Oct19

What IS Art?

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A friend of mine called me the other day, from one of those mass-produced “art” sections in a major chain retail store.  She wanted my opinion on some prints she was considering for her walls at home.  She wanted to text me a picture from her phone.  “You know your art, Stephanie, should I buy this one?”

“No!”  I replied without hesitation.  “Please don’t buy that–unless, of course, you happen to absolutely love it.  But, if that was the case, you probably wouldn’t be calling me.”

Art seems to be a confusing topic in the United States.  Yes, it’s all around us, but our culture doesn’t really encourage us to recognize it as such.

Throughout Europe, on the other hand, people are raised right into the soul of art–breathing in the layers of art and its history, from the walls to the streets surrounding them.  Not to mention all the master artworks that live around every corner.

But here in the United States, our story is a younger one.  Our nation simply hasn’t been around long enough to build up the centuries of art history as European countries have. And it seems as if the Puritans forgot to bring it with them when they fled Europe, seeking their religious freedoms…almost as if they forgot it mattered.

Today, art programs are the first to go during school budget cuts.  We Americans have to pursue art, on our own accord to know it intimately–or at all.

After pursuing my own relationship with art for 13 years, I’ve been able to form some opinions on the subject.  To me, art must have soul–it has to stir an emotional response within me. Art is the result of an artist’s personal passionate pursuit–and in that place where passion meets skill is where I find true art… and it moves me.

You don’t need to know anything about art to know what you like.  “But, what is art?”  Your answer can be found in the questioning.  The more you expose yourself to the arts, the stronger your desire to learn grows. As you embark on that magical journey of discovery, your ideas and opinions grow clearer, and your own definition of art will begin to appear.

So, what ever happened with my dear friend and her bare walls, you ask? After the phone intervention, I invited her over to begin her own relationship with art.  Since her budget didn’t really allow for original pieces, we went through some of my prints and found a few that really spoke to her.  We also had some fun getting her hands dirty and playing around with paint to create some of her own masterpieces.  Her walls are now adorned in a deeply personal way with art that really means something to her.

I invite you to begin your own dialogue with art.  Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Take a trip to the library or Google around and familiarize yourself with the artists, works and styles that move you.
  • Keep your eye open while on vacation or browsing a local street festival for pieces of art that call out to you.
  • Take a camera with you on a nature hike.  Snap some pictures.  Collect “specimens.”  Create a collage of your adventure, or frame the photos that really jump out at you.
  • Buy a canvas and some acrylic paints (craft paints come in all sorts of shades and can be quite inexpensive).  Collect some random household items and trace them–overlapping and repeating the shapes until the array becomes interesting to you.  Then paint them. (Example)
  • Buy some watercolor paper and paint.  Drip the paint onto the paper, until the abstract play of shapes and colors pleases your eye.  (Example)
  • Buy some glue (ModPodge works great) and decoupage an old piece of furniture, or a picture frame–with images and text cut out from old children’s books, postcards, birthday cards, or ticket stubs.  The more sentimental the collage items are to you, the more meaningful the piece will be.