Poetry Is Where You Find It

with Jane Desmond

Saturday, August 24, 2024, 10:00 a.m–1:00 p.m

Tuition: $75

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

This half-day workshop invites participants to find the poetry in Saugatuck’s history by transforming observations of the local landscape and its social history into works of visual and textual art. Taking the rich cultural and ecological history of Saugatuck and Ox-Bow as our starting point, we’ll explore and then transform copies of historical documents, which will be provided, into “found poems” through simple techniques of selection, amplification, and visual enhancement. Participants will leave with a hand-made work of art combining text, color, and line that reveals hidden expressive meaning in plain documents from the past, like storm reports, newspaper headlines, and ephemera regarding the history of Ox-Bow itself. No background in writing poetry or formal art training is required! Participants of all levels of experience can enjoy this process to create something new from the past.

Jane Desmond is a poet, anthropologist, and former choreographer who works broadly across the arts and humanities. Her work has appeared in books, national print journals, on television, in film, and even on a billboard. As a teacher, she brings several decades of experience to teaching interdisciplinary classes both in the U.S. and abroad, including at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where has been featured multiple times on the list of "Teachers ranked as Excellent by their Students." Her creative and scholarly work has been funded by the NYState Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Commission, and through residencies at Write On Door County!, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation and the Cummington Community for the Arts. Skilled in archival work, she will draw on Saugatuck's special history and local archives to bring the past alive in "found poetry" workshops that combine words and visuals and are easily accessible by both poets, visual artists, and the general public alike. Come find a poem in the past!

Tortilla Making & Cooking Techniques

with Stella Brown

Date: Saturday, August 17, 2024, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

Tuition: $100

This workshop will conclude with a group meal of your collective making.

Make your own fresh corn tortillas from masa! This process will be supported by educational information on the production of masa. Your culinary experience will encompass various cooking techniques for tortillas, including quesadillas with Oaxacan squash blossom soup and chilaquiles. The day will include all components and techniques necessary to result in a Mexican-inspired meal of your collective making.

Stella Brown is a native Chicagoan, artist, and curator. In 2009 she received her BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Art & Art History in 2019. She was the Founding Director of the Buddy store at the Chicago Cultural Center. She has been involved with the ACRE (Artist Cooperative Residency & Exhibitions) Kitchen Program since 2015. In her artwork, areas of  examination include the Anthropocene era of man-made geology, contemporary ecological restoration practices in the Chicago region, the history of museum display and natural history practices, and display and consumerism in store displays and souvenir shops. In the last five years she has presented her own artwork and curated a number of public exhibitions and programming events at venues including Gallery 400, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Goldfinch Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, ACRE, and Shoot the Lobster.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Landscape Painting

with James Brandess

Saturday, August 17, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $75 per session

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

In these multi-level oil painting workshops, students will paint outdoors in the historic Ox-Bow landscape. Instruction will focus on recognizing and then painting what we actually see. Through this process of learning to see, we will create paintings that have veracity and strength. The workshop will include discussion of the tools and materials needed to set-up and paint in any landscape you choose. Sign up for one, two, or all sessions of these three-hour morning painting workshops on the meadow alongside the lagoon. Students will be required to bring their own materials; a material list will be provided in advance. Please note that you must sign up for each session separately.

“I am a painter. I work primarily in oil. I studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My relationship with Ox-Bow started in 1987 when, as a student at the School of the Art Institute, I answered an ad for a summer job. While at Ox-Bow, I began my practice of painting landscapes and people. I currently work in Saugatuck, Michigan. My studio and gallery has been in operation in downtown Saugatuck since 1994.” –James Brandess

Introduction to Indigo and Shibori

with Sue Cortese

Saturday, August 17, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Tuition: $130

This workshop includes lunch at 1 p.m.

Learn to use indigo dye and several shibori, or Japanese manual tie-dyeing, techniques to create stunning textiles. We will learn several tying methods and then use an indigo vat to dye the bound cloth. In Arashi, we will use a pole to help manipulate the fabric. In Itajime, we will fold and bind the fabric between boards or sticks. In Kumo, we will use string to bind the fabric. We will also touch on stitched or nui shibori. Try out all styles or concentrate on one or two! You will be given a yard of cloth on which to practice techniques, but you may also bring their own pre-washed clothing or fabric to use.

Sue Cortese is textile artist who lives in Holland, Michigan. Using indigo dye and shibori manipulations allows broaden her work. Please see website for more information.

Breaking Down the Bird

with Stella Brown

Friday, August 16, 2024, 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.

Tuition: $90

This workshop will conclude with a group meal of your collective making.

Learn how to break down, or butcher, a raw chicken to prepare it for cooking. The secrets to different chicken techniques, including how to roast a bird to perfection, will be revealed! The workshop will also cover broth-making basics, so no bits go to waste. The experience will culminate in the preparation of a chicken-centered meal to be shared at the end of class, all ingredients provided.

Stella Brown is a native Chicagoan, artist, and curator. In 2009 she received her BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Art & Art History in 2019. She was the Founding Director of the Buddy store at the Chicago Cultural Center. She has been involved with the ACRE (Artist Cooperative Residency & Exhibitions) Kitchen Program since 2015. In her artwork, areas of  examination include the Anthropocene era of man-made geology, contemporary ecological restoration practices in the Chicago region, the history of museum display and natural history practices, and display and consumerism in store displays and souvenir shops. In the last five years she has presented her own artwork and curated a number of public exhibitions and programming events at venues including Gallery 400, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Goldfinch Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, ACRE, and Shoot the Lobster.

Image courtesy of the artist.

Watercolor Painting for Tweens and Teens

with Kim Meyers Baas

Saturday, August 10, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $75

This workshop includes lunch at 1 p.m.

This workshop offers students ages 8-16 the opportunity to explore views of the lagoon, meadow, and woods while painting en plein air with watercolor. Experiment with techniques such as washes, color mixing, mark making, and creating textures inspired by the natural environment. This is a drop-off workshop for youth ages 8-16 only! Parents are welcome to drop off their young artists or to stay on campus during the course of the workshop. Adults are encouraged to consider taking Landscape Painting by James Brandess, which runs concurrently.

Kim Meyers Baas is an arts educator who has worked in public and private settings in Michigan, Chicago, and on the Mexican/Texas border cultivating youth artists and community workers since 1992. Her teaching and art making practice focuses on exploring family identity, inequality, migration, cultural recognition, art + technology literacy, and media representation in marginalized communities. Kim has worked as an artist educator with Kentwood Public Schools, Ox-Bow Summer School of Art, Calvin University, Kendall College of Art & Design, Chicago Public Schools, Valley AIDS Council, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim holds a BA from Loyola University Chicago & MAAE from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Landscape Painting

with James Brandess

Saturday, August 10, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $75 per session

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

In these multi-level oil painting workshops, students will paint outdoors in the historic Ox-Bow landscape. Instruction will focus on recognizing and then painting what we actually see. Through this process of learning to see, we will create paintings that have veracity and strength. The workshop will include discussion of the tools and materials needed to set-up and paint in any landscape you choose. Sign up for one, two, or all sessions of these three-hour morning painting workshops on the meadow alongside the lagoon. Students will be required to bring their own materials; a material list will be provided in advance. Please note that you must sign up for each session separately.

“I am a painter. I work primarily in oil. I studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My relationship with Ox-Bow started in 1987 when, as a student at the School of the Art Institute, I answered an ad for a summer job. While at Ox-Bow, I began my practice of painting landscapes and people. I currently work in Saugatuck, Michigan. My studio and gallery has been in operation in downtown Saugatuck since 1994.” –James Brandess

Floral Still Life Painting

with James Brandess

Saturday, August 3, 2024, 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Tuition: $75

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Learn to paint a floral still life in oils from a local master. Turn your focus to painting from observation, using a demo floral arrangement made that morning as the subject. Luxuriate in the colorful playness and compositional inspiration that only flowers can provide. Students will be required to bring their own materials; a material list will be provided in advance. For a full-day making experience, during which you will make your own floral arrangement, sign up for the first part of this workshop, Flowering: History and Arrangement led by Maddie Reyna!

“I am a painter. I work primarily in oil. I studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My relationship with Ox-Bow started in 1987 when, as a student at the School of the Art Institute, I answered an ad for a summer job. While at Ox-Bow, I began my practice of painting landscapes and people. I currently work in Saugatuck, Michigan. My studio and gallery has been in operation in downtown Saugatuck since 1994.” –James Brandess

Flowering: History & Arrangement

with Maddie Reyna

Saturday, August 3, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $130

This workshop includes lunch at 1 p.m.

This workshop will invite students to create a living sculpture with florals. We will consider foundational historical styles including Dutch Baroque, Ikebana, and contemporary movements, and experiment with vessel armature techniques such as wire mesh, pin frog, and tape grid. Local and exotic live flowers will be provided to each participant, and after demonstration, arranging, and group discussion, they will take their ephemeral arrangement home. For a full-day making experience, during which you will make a painting of a floral arrangement, sign up for the second part of this workshop, Floral Still Life Painting led by James Brandess!

Maddie Reyna is an American painter who began arranging flowers as a way to have live subjects for her work. That practice has come to stand alone as she applies considerations of color, form, and composition to three-dimensional organic matter. She has a Masters in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, studied at The Flower School of New York, designs flower arrangements for brides and other party throwers in Chicago, and is the Academic Program Director for Ox-Bow School of Art.

The Thai Table

with Daniel Pravit Fethke

Date: Saturday, July 27, 2024, 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m

Tuition: $150

This workshop will include snacks along the way, and conclude with a group meal of your collective making.

An alternative cooking class, The Thai Table will take a succulent, in-depth dive into the delicious, messy, and spicy details of Thai food. Focusing on Bangkok-style cooking, we will explore the spicy-sour-sweet-salty axes of Thai cuisine—all while cooking a well-rounded dinner feast that emphasizes balance and high-quality ingredients (which will all be provided).

Daniel Pravit Fethke is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and activist. He regularly facilitates workshops, cooking classes, and creative gatherings that center food and recipes as ways to explore identity and culture. He has exhibited work internationally in Bangkok, Berlin, Barcelona, and New York City, having shown at the Yale School of Art, Recess Art Space, and the Knockdown Center. Daniel has published food-based writing in the Berlin-based Soft Eis Magazine, as well as with Commercial Type's online catalog. He co-founded the mutual aid food pop-up Angry Papaya, and has hosted workshops at the CUNY Graduate Center as well as the Ox-Bow School of Art. Daniel received his BA in Modern Culture & Media Studies from Brown University in 2015. He recently published an autobiographical Thai-American cookbook through Pratt Institute, where he also received his MFA in Integrated Practices in 2023. He currently lives and works in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Make a Statement with Screen Printing

with Yeji Kim

Saturday, July 27, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $125 per family

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Collaborate on your own screen printed family T-shirt design! For decades, graphic T-shirts have been used to convey a wide array of statements, spanning from comical and heartfelt to political and satirical. We will explore how T-shirts have served as a medium for diverse commentaries, and then each family will formulate their own statement and design accompanying graphics. Every participant will then print their family’s design on their own shirt. White T-shirts of various sizes will be provided; bring your own other printable cloth or paper if you so desire.

Yeji Kim is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer who collects negative spaces between narratives, lived experiences, texts, and images, and materializes them as paintings, books, sounds, animations, sculptures, and prose. She holds a BFA from The Cooper Union and has been recognized with various awards, including the Sarah Cooper Hewitt Fund Prize for Excellence in Art, The Center for Book Arts Scholarship, and the Leroy Neiman Fellowship at Ox-Bow School of Art. Her works have been exhibited in diverse spaces across NYC and beyond, such as Socrates Sculpture Park, Entrance NYC, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and The Juilliard School. In her design practice, she has collaborated with a range of arts, advocacy, cultural, and educational institutions, including the National Audubon Society, Nonhuman Teachers, Museum Hue, Food Education Fund, and Pratt Institute. During her free time, Yeji co-organizes the East Village Zine Fair, volunteers as a designer and art director at 8-Ball Community, co-runs Misplaced Press, a small independent publisher, and enjoys baking killer sourdough.

Principles of Pad Thai

with Daniel Pravit Fethke

Thursday, July 25, 2024, 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.

Tuition: $90

This workshop will conclude with a group meal of your collective making.

Principles of Pad Thai is a hands-on workshop where participants will learn the ins and outs of how to make this famous Thai dish. We will make Pad Thai from scratch in an outdoor cooking environment alongside the Ox-Bow Lagoon, accompanied by a food-historical lecture and discussion of the political and cultural roots that bring this storied recipe to our plates. All ingredients will be provided.

Daniel Pravit Fethke is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and activist. He regularly facilitates workshops, cooking classes, and creative gatherings that center food and recipes as ways to explore identity and culture. He has exhibited work internationally in Bangkok, Berlin, Barcelona, and New York City, having shown at the Yale School of Art, Recess Art Space, and the Knockdown Center. Daniel has published food-based writing in the Berlin-based Soft Eis Magazine, as well as with Commercial Type's online catalog. He co-founded the mutual aid food pop-up Angry Papaya, and has hosted workshops at the CUNY Graduate Center as well as the Ox-Bow School of Art. Daniel received his BA in Modern Culture & Media Studies from Brown University in 2015. He recently published an autobiographical Thai-American cookbook through Pratt Institute, where he also received his MFA in Integrated Practices in 2023. He currently lives and works in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Landscape Painting

with James Brandess

Saturday, July 20, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $75 per session

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

In these multi-level oil painting workshops, students will paint outdoors in the historic Ox-Bow landscape. Instruction will focus on recognizing and then painting what we actually see. Through this process of learning to see, we will create paintings that have veracity and strength. The workshop will include discussion of the tools and materials needed to set-up and paint in any landscape you choose. Sign up for one, two, or all sessions of these three-hour morning painting workshops on the meadow alongside the lagoon. Students will be required to bring their own materials; a material list will be provided in advance. Please note that you must sign up for each session separately.

“I am a painter. I work primarily in oil. I studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My relationship with Ox-Bow started in 1987 when, as a student at the School of the Art Institute, I answered an ad for a summer job. While at Ox-Bow, I began my practice of painting landscapes and people. I currently work in Saugatuck, Michigan. My studio and gallery has been in operation in downtown Saugatuck since 1994.” –James Brandess

One-Page-Wonder Artist Books: An Introduction to Screen Printing

with Melissa Dettloff

Saturday, July 6, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Tuition: $130

This workshop includes lunch at 1 p.m.

Learn the basics of screen printing by making your own accordion-folded, single-sheet, screen printed artist's book. This workshop is great for beginners or those looking to refresh their print skills! You'll learn the basics of screen printing and a simple approach to bookmaking using a single sheet of paper. You will create your own screen using accessible techniques that can be easily replicated at home. We’ll use provided images plus those you create using handmade stencils and foraged foliage. You will go home with a handmade book you made yourself, and a zine created by the instructor to help replicate these simple processes at home. Materials will be provided.

Melissa Dettloff is a printmaker and teaching artist based in Detroit. Her current work is inspired by urban ecology and creating community through art. First introduced to screen printing as an art student at Wayne State University, Melissa has been making screen prints for over twenty years. With her friends, she co-owned Ocelot Print Shop, a community screen printing shop in Detroit’s Cass Corridor, for five years. Melissa has been teaching art and screen printing workshops for over ten years and maintains an art practice in her home print studio. She has shown her work nationally and locally, including at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Sculptural Cake Building

with Magnet Curry

Saturday, July 6, 2024, 10:00 a.m–5:00 p.m.

Tuition: $150

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

There is a limitless range of creative approaches to contemporary cake decorating. This workshop will help you elevate your cake making to an art form! Learn tiered cake construction; piping and spatula techniques; flavor profiling; adornment and floral arranging. We will discuss the juxtaposition of permanent and perishable sculptures and the history of cake decorating. This workshop is beginner-friendly, doesn’t include baking or the use of any electrical appliances, and is open to all levels of experience. Cakes and decorative edible materials will be provided. Take home a cake creation of your own design at the end of the day!

An image of Magnet Curry with a cake and a close up of an orange and blue cake with herbs. Images courtesy of the artist.

New Beginnings in Creative Community

with Jack and Meridith Ridl

DATE: Saturday, June 29, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Tuition: $125

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Jack and Meridith Ridl believe that the doing of art and writing brings about realizations and valuable experiences that can happen no other way. They also have more than 60 combined years spent “de-threatening” the art-making process. They offer a workshop that starts something for participants. They hope that you will leave at home any notions of departing Ox-Bow with something completed; instead, they will encourage you to start many things – written pieces, creative notions, seeds of ideas. They strive to create an “Instant Community” where conversation throughout the day is stimulating, a joy, worthwhile; where participants become “Instant Friends.”

Jack Ridl, Poet Laureate of Douglas, Michigan (Population 1100), is the author of Saint Peter and the Goldfinch (Wayne State University Press). His Practicing to Walk Like a Heron (WSUPress, 2013) was co-recipient of the National Gold Medal for Best Collection of Poetry by ForeWord Reviews. His collection Broken Symmetry (WSUPress) was co-recipient of The Society of Midland Authors best book of poetry award for 2006. His Losing Season (CavanKerry Press) was named the best sports book of the year for 2009 by The Institute for International Sport. Then Poet Laureate Billy Collins selected his Against Elegies for The Center for Book Arts Chapbook Award. Individual poems have been published in The Georgia Review, Poetry, Colorado Review, Rattle, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Field, Poetry East, and elsewhere.The students at Hope College named him both their Outstanding Professor and their Favorite Professor, and in 1996 The Carnegie (CASE) Foundation named him Michigan Professor of the Year. More than 85 of Jack’s students have earned their MFA degree and over 100 are published, several of whom have received First Book Awards, national honors. Every Thursday Jack hosts and posts on YouTube his monologue “The Sentimentalist.”For further information about Jack, his website is www.ridl.com.

Meridith Ridl is an artist and an art teacher Holland Public Schools. Much of her painting and drawing work explores gestures that might suggest tenderness, humor, gentleness, loneliness…arrangements that might have a wobble, or that ""aren’t quite right."" Her work ranges from meditative, delicate, and quiet to more tipsy and quirky. She recieved a BA in Studio Art from the College of Wooster and MFA from the University of Michigan. Her work is represented by Lafontsee Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI. He first illustrated book (The Lake Michigan Mermaid by authors Linda Nemec Foster and Anne-Marie Oomen was given a Michigan Notable Book Award in 2019.

Watercolor Painting for Families

with Kim Meyers Baas

Saturday, June 29, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $125 per family

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Ox-Bow’s campus provides hundreds of beautiful views for painting the landscape. Families will explore views of the lagoon, meadow, and woods while painting en plein air with watercolor. Experiment with techniques such as washes, color mixing, mark making, and creating textures inspired by the natural environment.

Kim Meyers Baas is an arts educator who has worked in public and private settings in Michigan, Chicago, and on the Mexican/Texas border cultivating youth artists and community workers since 1992. Her teaching and art making practice focuses on exploring family identity, inequality, migration, cultural recognition, art + technology literacy, and media representation in marginalized communities. Kim has worked as an artist educator with Kentwood Public Schools, Ox-Bow Summer School of Art, Calvin University, Kendall College of Art & Design, Chicago Public Schools, Valley AIDS Council, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim holds a BA from Loyola University Chicago & MAAE from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Seek: Ox-Bow Treasure Hunt

with Kim Meyers Baas

Saturday, June 22, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $125 per family

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Prepare for an active day exploring Ox-Bow’s campus. This interactive hunt will have families collecting artifacts and documenting treasures while visiting the art studios and unique locations of Ox-Bow. Develop map-reading skills, use compasses, and discover how artists develop a deeper connection to the natural world around them.

Kim Meyers Baas is an arts educator who has worked in public and private settings in Michigan, Chicago, and on the Mexican/Texas border cultivating youth artists and community workers since 1992. Her teaching and art making practice focuses on exploring family identity, inequality, migration, cultural recognition, art + technology literacy, and media representation in marginalized communities. Kim has worked as an artist educator with Kentwood Public Schools, Ox-Bow Summer School of Art, Calvin University, Kendall College of Art & Design, Chicago Public Schools, Valley AIDS Council, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kim holds a BA from Loyola University Chicago & MAAE from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Here’s What Matters

with Jack Ridl

Date: Saturday, June 22, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Tuition: $125

This workshop includes lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Workshop participants will spend the day exploring, through their preferred form of writing, the things that have profoundly impacted their own lives—whether they are funny, traumatic, serious, sorrowful, or joyous. Using Jack’s suggestions, writers will first talk with one another about what subject they have chosen. Then, they will have time to explore that choice in writing, after which the group will engage in a delightful debriefing about what showed up as they wrote, culminating in a deeply memorable day.

Jack Ridl, Poet Laureate of Douglas, Michigan (Population 1100), is the author of Saint Peter and the Goldfinch (Wayne State University Press). His Practicing to Walk Like a Heron (WSUPress, 2013) was co-recipient of the National Gold Medal for Best Collection of Poetry by ForeWord Reviews. His collection Broken Symmetry (WSUPress) was co-recipient of The Society of Midland Authors best book of poetry award for 2006. His Losing Season (CavanKerry Press) was named the best sports book of the year for 2009 by The Institute for International Sport. Then Poet Laureate Billy Collins selected his Against Elegies for The Center for Book Arts Chapbook Award. Individual poems have been published in The Georgia Review, Poetry, Colorado Review, Rattle, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Field, Poetry East, and elsewhere.The students at Hope College named him both their Outstanding Professor and their Favorite Professor, and in 1996 The Carnegie (CASE) Foundation named him Michigan Professor of the Year. More than 85 of Jack’s students have earned their MFA degree and over 100 are published, several of whom have received First Book Awards, national honors. Every Thursday Jack hosts and posts on YouTube his monologue “The Sentimentalist.”For further information about Jack, his website is www.ridl.com.