Sills’ new painted and drawn collages look to calling cards – the “social media” of the Victorian era – to study the interactions people have with one another as well as the natural world. Borrowing this imagery, Sills’ works show highly-rendered hands holding organic arrangements executed in an array of styles, from brisk charcoal gestures to flattened stencil shapes. Smaller works that appear to be formal exercises in color, shape and form reveal themselves as a further examination of human relationships.

In looking at the past in order to contemplate the present, Sills plays with artistic devices that highlight one another, such as representation versus abstraction. The media is chosen to support the content of the work – mechanical processes such as printmaking or stenciling combine with hand-drawn and painted marks to speak about humankind’s continued removal from nature.

“Removal as well,” Sills explains, “from the meaningful relationships and interactions that people have with one another as caused by the increasing dependence on technology for communication.”

In Sills’ hands, the collage form is used to heighten the understanding of identity and nature as constructed ideas rather than concrete realities. A native of Door County, Neva Sills lives, teaches and maintain a working studio in Chicago.

Martinez Studio is located in Jacksonport (Door County), Wisconsin, and is an intimate working studio/gallery that focuses on the work of Sandra and Wence Martinez. The couple’s work includes Wence’s intricate weaving and accessible photography and Sandra’s symbolic paintings and drawings as well as her functional art. The gallery is open daily from 10 am – 5 pm, seven days a week, May through October. For more information about the Neva Sills guest artist weekend or about Martinez Studio, please call 920.823.2154 or visit www.martinezstudio.com.

Door County cherries

Beautiful Lakeside Park on the shore of Lake Michigan is the setting for this 17th annual event that celebrates Door County’s cherry harvest. The Cherry Fest begins at 7 am with beverages and homemade cherry kolaches, fresh cherry pie and ice cream, as well as cherry sundaes for sale in the upper park shelter. The Jacksonport Women’s Club will feature their popular funnel cakes made “hot-on-the-spot” for all to enjoy.

The food booth will be open in the lower park shelter at 10 am including a wide variety of jams and jellies for sale. Door County Custom Meats owned by Keith and Jaci Birnschein will feature cherry brats and cherry burgers as well as a variety of ice cold beverages.  Peter Stoffel will provide fresh Door County cherries for sale from his orchards.

A juried arts and crafts fair will feature a wide range of artists and craftsmen from all across the Midwest. Many favorite artists from past years will return for this renowned show as well as many new and amazing artists here for the very first time. Local artist Sandy De Master will demonstrate spinning fibers into yarn at 10 am.

Live entertainment will be featured free of charge during Cherry Fest hours under the big tent. Picnic table seating will be available in the tent area. Bring your own folding chairs or blankets for additional seating for the day. Starting at 10 am to 1 pm Matt Wahl, popular folk singer and songwriter, will entertain us. Modern Day Drifters a local group featuring country music will entertain from 1 – 4 pm.

Mayberry’s Carriages will provide horse drawn wagon rides from 11 am to 3 pm for a small fee. Loading will be near the corner of Park Road and Hwy. 57 just north of the Lakeside Park boundary.

A penny hunt will be held on the beach at 1 pm for the younger set attending Cherry Fest.  Registration for the penny hunt is at 12:30 pm at the penny hunt site – the roped off beach area. Age groups are 3-5 and 6-8 year olds. Be sure to bring your cameras!

The Historical Society tent, set up in the Erskine Rest Area across the street, will feature the Jacksonport family memorabilia collection provided by members. All nine books published by The Jacksonport Historical Society- Jacksonport Through The Generations – will be for sale. The Society has many other items for sale as well.

For those of you who have never seen a root cellar, the completely restored Erskine Root Cellar will be open to the public for viewing during Cherry Fest hours. Four historical vehicles will be on display throughout the park. Back for another year the re-enactor Joe Jeanquart will once again feature pioneer living pre 1840′s and will have ongoing demonstrations of blacksmithing, fire starting, leather work and cooking throughout the day. Stop and view the awesome tipi and go back with Joe and his cohort, Randy Alexander to life as it was many years ago.

So come join us for a fun-filled day in the park to celebrate the cherry harvest and perhaps learn a little about Jacksonport’s history as well. We have something for everyone and maybe a surprise or two along the way. Look forward to seeing you August 6, 2011 in the park!

Check out our Web page for more details at www.JacksonportHistoricalSociety.org.

Jeanne Kuhns performs “Greyhound” live

Fans of Eli Mattson | MySpace Video

July 10
Music at Lakeside Park in Jacksonport
Jeanne Kuhns and Friends from 3 – 4:30 pm

July 17
Music at Lakeside Park in Jacksonport
World On A String from 3 – 4:30 pm

July 24
Music at Lakeside Park in Jacksonport
Birch Creek from 3 – 4:30 pm

July 31
Music at Lakeside Park in Jacksonport
Global Accord from 3  – 4:30 pm

August 14
Music at Lakeside Park in Jacksonport
Primavera Strings from 3 – 4:30 pm

August 21
Music at Lakeside Park in Jacksonport
World On A String from 3 – 4:30 pm

The Jacksonport Polar Bear Club Ltd. brings in the new year with their traditional jump into the icy waters of Lake Michigan every January 1 at 12 noon sharp. The very popular annual Door County event is held at Lakeside Park in downtown Jacksonport which is located 11 miles north of Sturgeon Bay on Hwy. 57, along Door County’s eastern shore.

Thanks to John J. Ottow, photographer

The festivities will start at 8 am on New Year’s Day with the pancake breakfast at the Town Hall on Hwy. V. The Fire Departments of Door County will be working together to provide an “all you can eat pancake breakfast” for the public at the Jacksonport Town Hall. Pancakes will be cooked and served by the “Great Pancake Show” from 8 am to 11 am. Cost per plate is Adults $8 and Children $6. They have done numerous pancake breakfasts in Door County and are a big hit with their pancake antics. Profits will benefit all participating fire departments.

Other Jacksonport businesses that will be open on New Year’s Day, January 1: Mike’s Port Pub will be open at 10 am; JJ’s of Jacksonport will open at 11 am; Jacksonport Craft Cottage will open at 9 am.

The Jacksonport Polar Bear Club first started in Jacksonport in Door County, WI, 1986 with one swimmer. It wasn’t until 1989 that the number tripled from one to three swimmers. The club has seen rapid growth since then and often attracts an estimated 800 swimmers with well over 2000 spectators there to witness the event.

Souvenir Polar Bear t-shirts, caps, lapel pins and fleece jackets are offered for sale at the registration tent. Hot beverages will also be available at the registration shelter. The JPBC is a non-profit organization. Funds raised pay the clubs insurance and cost of printed materials. All participants receive a free official JPBC Membership Card and a Certificate of Participation in the annual event. After expenses, funds raised are donated to the Jacksonport Fire Department and Feed My People, a local food pantry.

There is no charge to participate but all participants and onlookers are asked to make a donation or bring some non-perishable food items to donate to the the Feed My People van which will be here. Feed My People will be represented this year by Joy Zakrzewski, Dick Chapelle and Rick Kinka. They’ll have the big “Feed My People” truck and are hoping for many donations to help fill their cupboards after the holidays.

The swim is held precisely at 12 noon, with the crowd favorite 10 second countdown preceding the massive influx of swimmers into the lake. For more information, contact the club website at www.doorbell.net/pbc , the www.Jacksonport.net website or phone 920.823.2288.

JACKSONPORT, WI — Art enthusiasts who make the trip to the Martinez Studio in Jacksonport will have the unique opportunity to see Sandra Martinez’s newest paintings coming to life in another medium — as weavings on the loom of her husband, master weaver Wence Martinez. “Semillas,” an approximately five-week-long project, is scheduled for completion within days, after which he will start on “Vessels.”

Weaving underway by Wence Martinez

The husband-and-wife team have collaborated frequently on artistic projects throughout their years together, but Sandra Martinez said these new projects are particularly thrilling for her.
“Wence and I met and started doing artwork together 20 years ago, and watching him work on ‘Semillas,’ I feel like I did 20 years ago,” she said. “I could watch him for hours and hours. With all those curves, it’s exciting, and I’m reminded of how much talent it takes. He brings a gracefulness to the work.

“Whenever Wence weaves a piece of mine, it evolves,” she continued. “I love how it changes from the wall to the floor, with all the different angles and perspectives. And we are always having a conversation about that translation.”

With a smile, Wence added, “It’s fun.”

Door County visitors and residents who stopped at the Fairfield Art Center earlier this season will remember the paintings, which were prominently featured in the exhibition “Wence & Sandra Martinez: Presence.” They were part of a large body of new work Sandra created this past winter in Teotitlan del Valle, Wence’s home village in Oaxaca, Mexico. The couple often spends the winter offseason in the village, working on their art, visiting neighboring households to select yarn for new weavings and building a bed-and-breakfast that also will serve as an artist’s retreat. They return to Door County in the spring.

According to Sandra Martinez, this past winter’s visit started as an art retreat for her after a long year of recovery from hand surgery. Sandra said she became aware of the indigenous plant movement — the efforts of local farmers to preserve indigenous seeds that are being systematically destroyed — and this awareness infused her art.

“The drawings of roots became broader talismans, symbols of the spirit of the plants,” she said. “They are meant to honor, uplift and energize the sacred and the natural in the face of a tenacious assault by corporate, genetically altered, experimental food crops.

“We live in a farming and weaving village, in an area where corn is sacred,” she continued. “I was surrounded daily by people who would be impacted by these issues. The threat and the mounting evidence broke my heart and was reflected in my work.”
The results are striking.

“The paintings in ‘Presence’ use bold, elemental designs to explore the interdependent relationship between human beings and the land upon which their survival depends,” writes Shan Bryan-Hanson, the Fairfield’s artistic director and curator of the exhibition. “Paradox is at the heart of this work, which represents both past and present, interconnection and independence. The strong graphic designs and large scale of the work (is) demanding that the viewer spend time with each work and rewarding those who do.

“In the words of Leonardo da Vinci, ‘There are… those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see,’” she continued. “(This) art asks the viewer to be one who sees. The works are beautiful but not easy, not rooted in one place, one time or one identity, but instead, in a timeless, quiet moment of presence.”

After the exhibition, the couple looked forward to seeing Sandra’s paintings reborn on the loom. Wence Martinez has been weaving for more than three decades. He is a Zapotec Indian whose family still lives and works in Teotitlan del Valle, a community of approximately 5,000 people that has been renowned for textile weaving for centuries.

Wence has garnered international recognition for his one-of-a-kind artwork and carries on the Zapotec legacy by using hand-spun, hand-dyed wool, weaving his original contemporary and traditional designs into museum-quality tapestries for the floor or wall.

The black wool in “Semillas” is naturally black, the color of the Oaxacan sheep from which it was taken. Wence hand-dyed the red wool, mixing the colors to create a full palette of reds much the way a painter mixes paint.

“I work on the dyes for a couple of days, one color at a time,” Wence explained. “Then I have a range to choose from.”

“The tone of the red in ‘Semillas’ was determined by the natural black we chose to use, by the way those two colors work against each other,” Sandra added.

“Semillas” is the first painting from last winter’s Oaxacan art retreat to evolve into a weaving. As soon as it is complete, Wence will start with “Vessels,” and he and Sandra will continue to enjoy their unique collaborative relationship.

“We enjoy each other’s input and encouragement as we work on collaborative and individual projects,” Sandra said. “We welcome everyone to visit us at our studio — anytime — to see what comes next.”
While some of the “Presence” paintings will evolve into weavings, others will become patterns on Sandra’s renowned functional and wearable-art design projects. The most popular of these are her handbags.

“I’m making handbags again,” she confirmed. “Functional art is a passion for me, since it allows me to enjoy art with a light heart. I love to play with the combinations of symbol appliqué, vintage fabrics and vinyl, so the bags turn out to be one-of-a-kind. I think of them as sculptural containers.”
Sandra also is developing a series of “shoppers.”

“They’re simple, lightweight and tough,” she said. “I was sick of my ugly bags at the grocery store and was no longer able to use the store’s bags without cringing, so I made some cool ones! They’re modeled after the sugar-sack bags I use in Mexico at the markets.”

In addition, the Martinez Studio has unveiled a new Web site at www.martinezstudio.com, and they are eagerly anticipating another Oaxacan art retreat in Teotitlan del Valle this winter.

“Every spring, the public should expect a new batch of work from us,” Wence said of the offseason, lower-latitude retreats. “This is just the beginning for us.”

About the Martinez Studio:
The Martinez Studio is a working studio and gallery located 10 miles north of Sturgeon Bay and 2 miles south of Jacksonport on State Highway 42. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from May to October, or by appointment, its intimate setting provides collectors with a comfortable, direct connection to Wence and Sandra Martinez and their work.

Available are hand-woven contemporary and traditional tapestries by master weaver Wence Martinez, each produced with hand-spun wool that he hand-dyes himself. A Zapotec Indian from Oaxaca, Mexico, Wence also is a black-and-white photographer, documenting the Zapotec people and culture as well as the Door County landscape. Fellow resident artist Sandra Martinez incorporates her signature ethnographic figures and glyphs into one-off appliqué handbags, blockprinted scarves, rug designs and paintings.
The Martinez Studio has been a destination gallery since 1994. For more information, call 920.823.2154 or visit www.martinezstudio.com.