The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is looking for a few artists to live in the Upper Peninsula this year and create art for a state park.
The Porcupine Mountains Artist-in-Residence program is accepting applications from artists whose work is influenced by the northern wilderness setting of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, or “the Porkies,” as it is familiarly known.
Five to six artists, including writers, composers, and visual and performing artists, would stay at the state park located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for free for two to three weeks starting in May.
It is an “opportunity to experience the natural beauty of the Porkies and to express it through their art form,” according to the natural resources department.
The program is ran by volunteers from Friends of the “Porkies,” a nonprofit group that partners with the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. The program was founded by a photographer who lived in the Upper Peninsula and was a member of the organization, said Joan Hawley, president of the nonprofit organization.
In 2007, a cabin was built exclusively for artists who participate in the program.
“At the cabin, they have time to work on their art … and then within one year, they submit to us one piece of their work. This piece of work … we display in the visitors’ center at the park and then every other year we’ve started an exhibition,” Hawley said. “Our goal would be to raise enough money to build something where we could have a permanent exhibition for this really incredible art work.”
Artists have come from Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin and even internationally to participate in the program, Hawley said.
The park encompasses 25 miles of wave-washed shores, four inland lakes, entire river systems, waterfalls, wooded peaks and an escarpment that rises from the edge of Lake Superior and plummets abruptly into the Carp River valley, according to the DNR’s website.
“There’s a certain type of artist that’s going to want to come to this type of program because it is rustic. There’s no electricity, there’s a wood stove, it’s extremely cozy little cabin but you’re in the middle of the wilderness, so it’s quiet. Some people from the city may have a harder time adjusting,” Hawley said.
Creators are housed in a rustic cabin located on the Little Union River and, if requested, a three-night backcountry permit to explore the park, which has vistas and 90 miles of rugged backcountry trails.
The program is open to all art forms, and artists may be asked to demonstrate their art at the Porcupine Mountains Music Festival in August.
“The art pretty much speaks for itself, we look at the quality of the art. They have to produce a piece of art that is applicable to the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park,” Hawley said.
Lorraine Bubar of Los Angeles seeks out residency programs in wilderness locations like the one in Michigan. She’s done residencies in state parks in Arkansas, Utah, Arizona and California. She stayed in the “Porkies” in August and said it was “unlike any place,” she’d been before.
“The old … forest in the Porcupine Mountain is so different, coming from California we have a lot of wildfires …, Bubar said. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park “is so unusual and wonderful to experience,”
Bubar, 71, is a painter whose been cutting her work out of paper for the last decade. She has a background in commercial animation and teaching art.
“I just started cutting my work out of paper, so it also has a kind of folk art feel to it and uniqueness, which has led me to many opportunities to do these residencies, too, because it definitely is a unique artwork.
“Traditionally, papercutting is usually done with one or two layers of paper, but I do it in a very colorful way as if I’m actually painting with paper,” Bubar said.
She went hiking, swam in waterfalls, visited Picture Rocks National Lakeshore park along the southern shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula, hunted for “an amazing variety of wildflowers,” and did an art presentation for the Porcupine Mountains Folk School.
She said her cabin was planted amid a “canopy of leaves” and called her experience an “enrichment of greenery.”
“I love being off the grid … (it was) wonderful to take two weeks to remove yourself from news and everything,” Bubar said. “You can’t anticipate all the surprises you’ll find … the colors … the greenery was so intense and then coming upon some of the unusual vegetation …”
She said one day she found waxy white flowers popping up. “I’d never seen anything like that … it slows you down having two weeks to look deeply into a place and that’s a very unique experience.”
“The idea is that the artist gets immersed in the place, goes back to their studio, creates art about it, and then when people see that art they get inspired to go visit that location,” Bubar said.
Ken Reif of Illinois, an oil painter for over 50 years, is a two-time program participant who just wrapped up his residency in the Upper Peninsula in the fall.
“My focus is mainly trees, so for me, that’s heaven,” he said of his stint at Porcupine Mountain State Park. “The trees are these old stands of hemlock … the sugar maples … the colors were absolutely incredible. It was so good to get so close to nature and just live in it,” said Reif, 66.
He’s traveled from Illinois to the state park over a half-dozen times and plans to return this year to get more inspiration for the creation he will submit to the Friends of the Porkies.
While exploring the park, Reif would sketch, draw, and take pictures of nature to take back to his cabin to paint.
“I got to paint with some of the town’s people. I did a lot of hiking, went out to Lake Superior quite a bit and did a lot of drawing there and photographs,” he said. “I’d go up there (Lake Superior) late at night and I got to see the northern lights for the first time. That was pretty special.”
He participated in the fall of 2020 and said he strongly encourages all artists to apply for the program.
Applications for the 2024-25 season must be received by Feb. 14 and the top five selected artists will be notified by phone in mid-April.
“The overarching goal is to continue to support the art and the artist, and to provide a venue for artists to produce their work in a different setting and kind of get away from it all … ,” said Hawley, Porcupine Mountains Artist-in-Residence program coordinator. “And to be able to engage the community not just in … physical activities but to enjoy the beauty of it and show it in a different way,”
mjohnson@detroitnews.com
