Variety of art to highlight Art in the Park on June 6-7

With Community Arts of Tecumseh’s (CAT) juried art fair, Art in the Park, just three weeks away on Saturday, June 6, and Sunday, June 7, participating artists are preparing their work for the show. “Our art fair is growing, and we have more artists this year than we have had in past years,” said CAT Executive Director Diane Savoia.Tecumseh resident Mike Thomsen and Debra Hoffmaster from Adrian are two artists bringing their work to the AJ Smith Recreation Center next month. Thomsen’s hand made canoe and Hoffmaster’s fine jewelry represent the large and small ends of the artwork spectrum available to view and purchase during Art in the Park.Recently retired, Thomsen now has the time to hit the road with his woodstrip canoe design, and is excited to be part of Art in the Park. “I live here, and I really like this show,” Thomsen said.His work as an electrician in the International Bureau of Electrical Workers has taken him all over the country. While working a job in Maine, Thomsen met a man who made woodstrip canoes detailed in the book “Canoecraft” by Ted Morris.“I bought the book and read it for five years before I built anything,” he said.Since he took the plunge, Thomsen has built four watercraft, including a rowboat sailboat. Each one takes him about 30 days to create.“This canoe is built upside down, one step at a time,” said Thomsen. He has received a lot of interest from people unfamiliar with the woodstrip design, as well as the Asian wood Paulownia that he found as trim pieces at a lumberyard in Chelsea.Not a tree grown in the United States, Thomsen had looked all over for a place that stocked the wood he wanted to work with. “I’ve got a new good friend,” Thomsen said of Paulownia.The lightweight and durable wood is used by the Japanese to make musical instruments and furniture. Thomsen works with pieces of Paulownia trim to create his canoe. The process involves splitting the wood trim in half and then adding tongue and groove to each strip. The flexible pieces then lock together, and allow the connection to be fluid and curve together for the canoe shape. The canoe also contains fiberglass, cherry wood, and is finished with an epoxy resin that takes a week to cure.Hoffmaster is a biologist, but always found art to be a way to beat boredom. She created jewelry in college, but the rising cost of sterling silver kept Hoffmaster from pursuing jewelry making.After she and her husband moved to Lenawee County and started their family, Hoffmaster needed an outlet and began making jewelry again. “I was bored,” she said. “It kept me from bumping off 7-11s.”Hoffmaster is known for her work with Mokume gane and keum-boo technique. Keum-boo is a Korean technique that creates a diffusion bond between thin 24K gold foil and sterling silver.Mokume gane is a technique used by Japanese sword makers where metal takes on a wood-grain pattern.“To create a mokume piece, I kiln-fuse layers of differently colored metals to form a solid billet,” said Hoffmaster. “The billet is forged and rolled to reduce its thickness. This patterned sheet is used to make jewelry.”Her background in biology shows in many of her pieces. Texture plays an important part in her jewelry design, which Hoffmaster creates through piercing, folding, fusing and forging.“My love of nature is apparent in many designs, but especially my labradorite ‘story’ pendants in the fish and leaf series,” Hoffmaster said.Now in its third year, Hoffmaster has participated in Art in the Park since its first year. “It’s nice here. It’s peaceful,” she said. “This is the kind of show where you aren’t going to get exhausted seeing everything. It’s a family friendly experience.”Savoia believes the show’s success is directly related to organizer Anne Flora’s talent at creating a welcoming environment for artists and art lovers. “Anne’s engrained passion for the arts shows in her attention to detail planning this event,” said Savoia.For more information on Art in the Park, visit www.tecumseharts.org or call CAT at 423.0000.

Tecumseh Herald

 

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