For 10 years, they have operated State of Art Framing & Gallery in downtown Beulah. That\u2019s where Ann sells her photograph-inspired \u201clandscape art quilts\u201d and Steve, a Traverse City native, sells his photographs. Ann and Steve Loveless will exhibit their work at Frankfort\u2019s Oliver Art Center until the end of 2014, with the opening reception on November 14 from 5-7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Betsie Current<\/strong>: How do you describe your art? What\u2019s unique about it?<\/p>\n Ann<\/strong>: Traditional quilts are made for function. My quilts are made to hang on the wall.\u00a0I am inspired by nature and Northern Michigan, and I capture the beauty of the outdoors in my art quilts.\u00a0I use cotton batik and printed landscape fabrics,\u00a0which have a \u201cpainterly\u201d quality.\u00a0I also use linen, silk, yarns, netting, and many other interesting fibers to achieve wonderful texture and realistic scenes.\u00a0My work is unique in that I do not use patterns;\u00a0I have all original designs, and I work directly from photographs, cutting\u00a0and placing fabrics directly onto cotton batting.<\/p>\n Steve<\/strong>: Some people say they can tell when they hold one of my photographs because of my style. I\u2019m a landscape photographer. I photograph Benzie County and some of Leelanau. We\u2019re fortunate to have two cool lighthouses here in Benzie. I get to feature those structures, explore them, and work them. I might go to a place multiple times a year to the photograph it under different circumstances.<\/p>\n Betsie Current<\/strong>: How did winning the Grand Rapids 2013 Art Prize change your life? Did it change your outlook on art? Did it boost sales at your Beulah gallery?<\/p>\n Ann<\/strong>: Winning first place in Art Prize has changed my career and life.\u00a0I now have wonderful opportunities coming my way and have to be selective in what I say \u201cyes\u201d to.\u00a0I have a quilting book\u00a0titled Landscape Art Quilts, Step by Step to be published in March 2015 on my \u201ccollage\u201d quilting technique.\u00a0I have had numerous commissions this past year.\u00a0The largest was a seven-foot quilt\u00a0for the Michigan State University Secchia Center medical building in Grand Rapids.\u00a0It is an autumn woodland scene in my \u201cimpressionistic\u201d technique called Virtues and Responsibilities.\u00a0Sales at our gallery in Beulah and on my website (QuiltsbyAnn.com) have been up about 30 percent since my win.\u00a0I am also getting numerous requests for lecturers and classes throughout the United States.<\/p>\n Steve<\/strong>: Winning last year was the pinnacle, but even during the two years that Ann participated in Art Prize prior to that\u20142011 and 2012\u2014the attention always drove traffic to Benzie County and the gallery. It\u2019s a lot of exposure in a venue where 30-40,000 people are seeing your work. A lot of people recognized her. So now business is doing tremendously well. We\u2019ve talked with other Beulah merchants who have noticed an increase in their sales as well. <\/p>\n Betsie Current<\/strong>: What should a visitor (or a local) know about the local Benzie County art scene? What\u2019s unique about art around the shores of Crystal Lake?<\/p>\n Ann<\/strong>: A visitor to Beulah should know that my 2013 winning piece Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore is NOT on display at our gallery but is owned by Art Prize.<\/p>\n Steve<\/strong>: We have a very strong art scene here, and it has longevity. We have one hell of an art center in Frankfort. Other galleries have been around for decades, so it\u2019s a great place to be. I joke with customers about doing photography around here; it\u2019s like shooting fish in a barrel! We\u2019re surrounded by so much natural beauty, and it\u2019s my job to capture that and pass it on to other people. After Ann won Art Prize, one of their directors came here. He had never been here before, and he was amazed that a community of this size could have such a great art center that was so embracing of Ann. The amount of art and galleries here is amazing.<\/p>\n Betsie Current<\/strong>: What are you working on right now? What\u2019s your muse?<\/p>\n Ann<\/strong>: I am just trying to catch my breath from the busy summer sales and the fall lectures and teaching schedule. I will be slowing down for the winter months to work on my inventory and will have time to create new designs.\u00a0I will be working on something large (16 feet) to display in our gallery for 2015.<\/p>\n Steve<\/strong>: I\u2019m getting off a fantastic autumn color season. It was actually frustrating for me last year that\u2014after Ann\u2019s win and all the attention that followed\u2014I wasn\u2019t able to get out last fall and do much photography. Otherwise, I\u2019ve been working on panoramic compositions and working in multiple role panoramas; I\u2019ll have one piece at the Oliver Art Center show from that.<\/p>\n Ann<\/strong>: I get artist\u2019s block at times, especially when working on large pieces.\u00a0I usually hang them on the wall and come back in another day or week. I will work on something else and then come back when I have it all figured out.<\/p>\n Steve<\/strong>: Sometimes you [get artist\u2019s block]. Out at Point Betsie, you think, \u201cHow can I possibly get a photograph here that I haven\u2019t gotten before?\u201d But any location I\u2019ve been to multiple times. I have to go there and alter my vision, my perspective. Play with grayscale. Go out and just work a location. I try to look at things from a different frame of mind than before.<\/p>\n Betsie Current<\/strong>: What are your plans for the winter? Sticking around Benzie County? Heading south? What are you excited about this coming winter season?<\/p>\n Ann<\/strong>: My winter plans are to create new quilts in December, January, and February.\u00a0In March, I am traveling to Colorado and California to give lecturers and classes. I am also taking my skis to Colorado for six days of skiing, and I plan to hang by the pool in San Diego!<\/p>\n Steve<\/strong>: I hope to go along with Ann on her ski trip. I hope to keep myself occupied by taking photos in the Rockies. I also hope to complete a Historic Route 66 road trip through California, maybe Arizona, New Mexico, too, in March.<\/p>\n Questions & Answers with Community Faces<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Loveless for Art http:\/\/wp.me\/p3TDCr-f3","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,46,47,41,43,158],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Loveless-Ann-at-the-Ford-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3TDCr-f3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":948,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pictured](\"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Loveless-Pictured-Rocks-Pg42.jpg\")
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\nBetsie Current<\/strong>: We know that writers get writer\u2019s block. Is that true for artists, as well? How do you overcome artist\u2019s block?<\/p>\n<\/a>