Lavon, 30, crafts together ink and wood, among other mediums. She is often found in her Old Town Lansing studio The Bottega, meaning: a studio of a master artist who teaches. It opened in June 2011.
She describes her art as colorful, quirky and heavy with skeletal Day of the Dead themes. First a picture is painted using a mixture of ink and oil to get the right consistency. Then a design is created on a block. Lavon uses different tools to create her art to give them depth and character.
The Skeleton Society Collection was Lavon's first collection of work as a professional artist.
"I use the human skeleton to portray personalities - so people couldn't discriminate against it because it's a woman or what age it was," she said. "I projected everything that encapsulates a human being onto the skeleton so they can make their judgments based on that and not on race or gender or age."
Animalesque, A Social Commentary is her latest work; it can be seen at the Absolute Gallery (307 E. Grand River, Old Town Lansing). Similar to Skeleton Society, Animalesque represents people with animals. In her younger years Lavon saw herself as a caged animal lacking the ability to function in human company and communicate effectively.
After gaining the skills she needed from college she used her sketched animals to represent people she'd encountered throughout her life.
"Some people in our society still kind of act like Neanderthals, like when they make comments about people because of their weight or political party.
"The donkey is representative of the democrat and republican dilemma. The pig represents girls who try to be super-model skinny but they're normal sized and some people think they're huge when they're not. The giraffe is representational of a super model who is still worried about her weight and how she looks when she's gorgeous just how she is, but has no idea."
Upon entering her studio guests are greeted by a door reading "The Bottega" in a charming white font designed by Lavon. Inside is an office decorated in her work and custom-made pieces to fit the room. To the right there is a flower-shaped clock with a duct-tape stem to the floor and a cozy table to the left where guests are invited to relax and chat with the eccentric artist.
| The Bottega 708 Case St. Old Town, Lansing Contact e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
Through the back door, behind her personal desk lies the actual studio. The space gives off a calm industrial vibe where Lavon has the space to create and teach her classes on block and screen-printing. The studio is well organized and spacious. Artists' tools are easily at hand, something many art studios don't offer.
"It's where I host printmaking workshops and work on fine art for galleries around the country," Lavon said. "I also work on graphic design for clients and offer tutoring for artists and designers."
Lavon was born in Lansing but grew up in Mason where she started drawing as a child. By the age of 19 she worked as a portrait tattoo artist at Splash of Color in East Lansing, but felt she wanted to study art more thoroughly. First stop was at the Chicago Art Institute.
But it wasn't until she moved on to Kendall that the flirtation with printmaking turned in to a passion. After working her way through all the basic classes, she was faced with the need to declare a major. After encouragement from different department heads, Lavon found herself in the printmaking sector. She was accepted into the program before she even fully understood what it was all about.
Lavon said it took about a semester for her to become immersed in printmaking, and soon after she dedicated her life to being a Lansing-based artist.
"Being an artist in Lansing is very interesting," Lavon said. "Day-to-day, it varies. It can be incredibly frustrating, due to the lack of exhibition spaces. But right when you think you're going to explode and give up on the whole town, something amazing happens and you're like, ‘Wow, this is really cool. I'm glad I'm here.' But it's back and forth."
Lansing Art Gallery offers up a homemade holiday
Written by Jenny Kalish
Nestled in the heart of downtown Lansing's bustling business district, the Lansing Art Gallery is a large, quiet space solely reserved for works by Michigan-based artists.
The non-profit, community-funded enterprise currently has more than 1,000 artists in its database -- 200 are actively involved. That's a far cry from the original six artists who founded the community art gallery 47 years ago. The growth represents a remarkable progression from its humble beginnings.
Catherine Babcock, executive director of the Lansing Art Gallery, said in its genesis, the gallery operated on borrowed space from Lansing Community College.
"They were exhibiting in the LCC cafeteria, and they didn't have anywhere else that they could exhibit their art properly," Babcock said. "So they ended up getting a space from the mayor at the time for a dollar a year - they became a non-profit gallery."
After occupying several different locations in the Lansing area, the Lansing Art Gallery found its permanent home in 2004 at 113 S. Washington Square. Aside from hosting exhibitions, it also hosts summer art camps, Saturday workshops, lectures, and open state-wide competitions. The gallery also houses a 3,000 square-foot lease/purchase gift shop and gallery.
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Lansing Art Gallery Business Hours |
All of the Lansing Art Gallery's exhibitions are bi-monthly, and this year's 34th Annual Holiday Art Market will be its only exhibition for the months of November and December. Babcock said every year the market is a success for the gallery, she expects around 10,000 to attend - all browsing for locally produced artwork and unique trinkets.
The market features crafts and fine art pieces from more than 150 Michigan artists. Savvy holiday shoppers with an art lover on their gift list may want to check out the colorful array of hand-made creations that come in every medium, material and texture.
"One of the biggest misconceptions of people who pass by the gallery sign is that they can't afford it, and that is truly not the case," Babcock said. "There's fine art as well as fine craft, so it really opens up the potential for a lot of gift ideas."
This year's Holiday Art Market, which ends Friday, Dec. 23, offers more than just paintings. Up for sale is also a large collection of jewelry, glass, sculptures, paintings, pottery, ornaments, soaps and scarves, with wide-ranging price points.
Local glass artist Dave Porter will show his sundry blend of pieces in this year's market.
"We've had some glass at the Lansing Art Gallery last year around Christmas season, but it was very limited. This is the first year that we're displaying any significant number of pieces," said Porter, whose studio is located in Williamston.
While Porter's handmade ornaments were well received at the gallery in the past, he plans to illustrate the diversity of his work by showing glass vessels, vases, bowls, dishes and rondels, which are spun out, flattened bowls.
Pictured: Deborah Hoover's painting, "Mosaic Gold" on display at Lansing Art Gallery
New Identity: Michigan Institute of Contemporary Art
Written by Peter Richards
Stepping inside the Michigan Institute of Contemporary Art gallery space in Lansing's Old Town on a recent Sunday morning, I was greeted by gallery co-founders Jack Bergeron and Kirby Milton and a blur of activity.It was about one hour until art lovers participating in Lansing's First Sunday Gallery Walk would begin arriving, and the pair were busy aiming lights at freshly installed artwork and labeling the paintings, photographs and wall sculptures that composed the October-November "Themeless" exhibit. MICA's third partner, Terry Terry, joined us moments later.
MICA's high ceilings and tall, West-facing windows allow the room to be flooded with ambient daylight. Formerly Old Town's Studio 1210 Gallery (and before that, Banyan Gallery), the space currently shares its doorstep with the adjoining Lansing Arts Council headquarters on the busy corner of Grand River and Turner Street. It's advantageously situated just steps away from Old Town art destinations like Absolute Gallery and Creole Gallery, and right in the middle of a half-dozen popular annual festivals and events, such as JazzFest, Michigan Mosaic Music Festival and Old Town BluesFest.
Listening to Terry, Milton and Bergeron speak about their artistic backgrounds and their friendship, one of those invisible connectors is art itself: Milton helped found Lansing Community College's photography department. Several of the artists became acquainted while students, others while faculty. Over the years, a few of them even fulfilled both roles. Despite that camaraderie, the works on the walls diverge in style and subject as often as they complement one another.
Another important connection is Old Town itself. Terry was one of the early investors (along with the late Robert Busby, founder of Creole Gallery) to begin Old Town's transformation from a state of neglect to its present status as a popular destination. Many of the artists represented in Themeless spent time in Old Town in its more ragged, early period - before it was even called "Old Town." Less than two decades ago it was simply lumped under the broader category of North Lansing. Nowadays the vibrant cluster of businesses and galleries has its own unique identity.
MICA is not only a fresh gallery in Lansing, it also represents a name change from the Old Town Business and Development Association.
"The name has changed but the mission is the same, to promote the arts," Terry said.
| MICA (Michigan Institute of Contemporary Art) 1210 Turner Street, Lansing Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm oldtownarts.org, (517) 371.4600 |
A concept that comes up often in conversation with the animated Terry is "catalyst." MICA is a board-run, non-profit organization that seeks to "serve as a catalyst for community development through quality arts programming," and the word comes up again while discussing Old Town's transformation over the last 15 years into an arts and cultural destination, eventually attracting professional businesses and an emerging boutique and retail shopping district.
Terry sees MICA's mission for the arts as larger than just the city limits.
"Lansing is the capital city, it seemed like we should include the whole state in our name."
A world traveler who visits galleries and museums everywhere he goes, Terry says it makes him realize just how good the art scene in Lansing really is. Drawing in artists from all over Michigan who work in contemporary, even edgy styles and who provoke dialogue is a priority for Terry.
MICA's current exhibit, "Themeless," is an open-ended group exhibit of contemporary works that ranges from Bergeron's geometric haiku-like wall sculpture of acrylic polymer tubes and rusted metal to photographer Mary Cusack's studies of flickering light and flame. While the exhibit title would seem to suggest a willful avoidance of continuity or a hodge-podge of styles, the viewer is instead greeted with a number of connecting visual themes between the artists. The exhibit is presented as a careful, formal arrangement of artworks in a horizontal band around the perimeter of MICA's warm gray walls. Walking around and contemplating the individual works, a viewer begins to be aware of the invisible threads that exist among this group of artists. Anne Nolan's layered mixed-media pieces echo the strong color and design sentiments found across the room in Milton's photography of international scenes. Grant Guimond's twisting, color-infused interiors hint at still lifes if they were collaborations between de Chirico and Braque, playing off the gently surreal manipulated photographs by Roxanne Frith, the more graphic, illustrative style of Bruce Thayer and the gestural charcoal strokes of Terry's own drawings. Also featured in the exhibit are a range of artworks by Greg Limmer, Tim Whalen, and Ilene Curts.
With various art incubators popping up throughout Lansing, MICA provides one more sturdy set of walls for exhibiting contemporary artists in the region, and their stated intent to attract artists and visitors from far-flung corners of Michigan is an inspiring vision. MICA began exhibiting this summer, somewhat quietly with well-received exhibits by activist artist Dylan Miner and a retrospective of distinguished, recently deceased artist Clifton McChesney. A full-blown grand opening is in store for early 2012, says Terry.
"Themeless" will be on display at MICA through the month of November.
Old Town Oktoberfest serves up German brews
Written by Jenny Kalish
For the sixth year in a row, thousands of festive folks will get a genuine taste of Germany at the Old Town Oktoberfest, Located on the corner of Turner Street and Grand River Avenue, the two-day festival runs Friday, Oct.7-Saturday, Oct. 8 and is projected to draw upwards of 3,000 people.
It will have local food vendors serving German-style cuisine like brats, Vienna schnitzel and spaetzle with a Lansing twist. Food vendors include Grand Grillin (a Lansing-based mobile food cart and Restaurant Mediteran and Deli.
While food is an important component of any festival, it's not a true Oktoberfest without the company of polka and beer. The festival will feature an assortment of both German and domestic Oktoberfest brews for festival-goers to taste, sip, chug or share.
Musical acts will include a variety of polka bands such as The Hy Notes and Linda Lee, though the final line-up has not yet been confirmed by the OTCA.
| Old Town Oktoberfest Old Town, Lansing |
Oktoberfest, as well as many other events in Old Town, is a city fundraiser organized by the Old Town Commercial Association (OTCA), a grassroots organization with a focus on community and economic development. Help from 200 volunteers makes the nights run smoothly.
"We have five standing committees that focus on five different areas of community development," said OTCA Executive Director Brittney Hoszkiw. "Anything from design aesthetics, marketing and promotions, to residential outreach and things like that. So this is just one of the many events that we do."
Oktoberfest accounts for about 20 percent of the OTCA's operating budget. Not only do big events like Oktoberfest bring thousands of people into the city, but it also helps fund a variety of community programs the OTCA hosts in Old Town.
"We do things like community gardens and festivals, we have a lot of ad campaigns for Old Town, we even take care of all the trash pick-up in the neighborhood," Hoszkiw said.
Oktoberfest 2011 Beer List
Spaten Oktoberfest/Ur-Marzen
This Oktoberfest Beer, created in 1872, is the world's first Oktoberfest beer. Amber in color, this medium-bodied beer has achieved its impeccable taste by balancing the roasted malt flavor with the perfect amount of hops, having a rich textured palate with an underlying sweetness true to tradition.
Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest
Hacker-Pschorr is the brewery for Braurosl. This beer has 100 percent natural ingredients of what marks the original Oktoberfest beer ingredients. Crystal clear, tawny copper in color, its taste is that of a malty, bittersweet and hoppy taste that goes well with Bavarian food.
Samuel Adams Octoberfest
This masterfully blends together five roasts of malt to create a delicious harmony of sweet flavors including caramel and toffee. The malt is complimented by the elegant bitterness imparted by the Bavarian Noble hops. Samuel Adams Octoberfest provides a wonderful transition from the lighter beers of summer to the heartier brews of winter.
Leinenkugel Oktoberfest
Traditional Marzen-style bier brewed with Munich, Caramel and a blend of Pale malts. Hallertan, Tettnang, Perle and Cluster hops provide the aroma for this well-balanced, smooth, festive lager.
Frankenmuth Oktoberfest
An authentic German Oktoberfest beer. Its trademarked copper color is achieved by four different malts, thus giving it a barley flavor. Adding German noble hops brews the perfect balance and tops with a nice finish.
Blue Moon Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale
The Harvest Pumpkin Ale has a generous bounty of autumn flavors like vine-ripened pumpkin, allspice, cloves and nutmeg for a taste reminiscent of fresh pumpkin pie - with a touch of wheat for a smooth, lightly spiced finish. This rich, amber-colored ale pairs well with an abundance of fall gatherings.
