“I was mesmerized. I didn’t even take my camera out,” said Shepalak, who eventually took cover as dark clouds rolled in over Grand Traverse Bay and winds whipped up to 100 miles an hour, tossing waves and uprooting three huge spruce trees in her front yard.
Shepalak’s “Uprooted” is one of 23 art works that interpret the storm in a new juried exhibition at the Glen Arbor Art Association. “New Views: A Storm of Art” opens Friday with an artists’ reception at 6 p.m.
Glen Arbor was one of the areas hardest hit by the Aug. 2, 2015 storm, which left a wake of destruction across the region including damaged homes, uprooted trees and blocked roads.
“In 12 minutes it did a lot of damage here,” said Elaine Keaton, Glen Arbor Art Association program manager.
Keaton said the exhibition was created to help artists and the community process the devastation and ultimately to heal and move on. Some 40 artists from Michigan, Ohio and Illinois submitted more than 60 entries.
“This is the first time we’ve had a show like this that was based on a theme that affected so many people,” she said, adding that the idea was for artists to interpret rather than document the storm. “It was more than we expected and we were very pleased with the response and the quality of the works. They were heartfelt because people experienced the storm. They lived through it.”
Shepalak said her uprooted spruce were the inspiration for her work in colored pencils, a time-intensive medium that involves layering up to 15 coats of color in some areas to produce the desired intensity.
“I was thinking about the force of wind, the violence of the trees being uprooted,” said the artist, who divides her time between her Traverse City and Chicago-area homes. “I tried to capture the colors of the clouds, a feeling of swirling wind.”
Cherie Correll’s mixed media sculpture, “Life Emerges Again,” incorporates nature- and "human-made" objects including wood, tire parts, plastic, metal and wire. It represents the strength and resiliency of a community that rallied after the storm.
“With high winds, heavy rain, flying debris, fallen trees and smashed cars and homes, the storm caused extensive damage to the area,” said Correll, of Lake Ann, who was driving west along M-72 toward home when it hit, cutting power all around her and showering her windshield with debris. "Out of darkness came new life following the destruction.”
Shepalak and Correll are both professional artists and members of several prestigious art societies. But Keaton said the exhibition also drew several first-time exhibitors.
“Just 10 minutes ago we checked in this turned bowl from a man who has never entered a show before. But someone had a (downed) tree and asked if he wanted it,” Keaton said on Monday. "It has a hole in it where the knot is."
Other notable works include the composite photograph, "Life Abounds," which shows new animal habitat and other new life created by the storm, and a ripped canvas covered with fresh canvas to represent “new views.”
Keaton said she was impressed by the wide range of responses to the storm and by how it was interpretive of the ways in which the event affected artists, their families and the community.
“Art provides an avenue for transformation and hope,” she said. “The work shows we survived the storm and we moved on.”
“New Views” continues through June 23. The exhibition is open during regular GAAA office hours, Monday through Friday; and Saturday, June 11 and 18, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
———
©2016 The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Mich.)
Visit The Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Mich.) at record-eagle.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
