Blog Posts

Art du Jour Presents Graze Here

7/25/2018

#fabulousfennville #artfarmfennville

Imagine the light of firefly and slice of moon, campfire stories with live music that gives summer that spectacular well-deserved break from reality.
Graze Here, The Farm 2 Fork potluck and live music evening returns Saturday August 4th with an August line up of fantastic #localvore vendors and the magic of an outdoor barn gathering in case of weather that goes sideways.
Join Anna p.s. at 6p.m one of our favorite songstress and impressive creative force with a guitar. Donation based event. Plan here: Farm 2 Fork in #fabulousfennville

August will also bring Book Binding and Journal Building workshops at Art Farm Fennville.
Sock Puppet Theater set -up below in our ArtBarn. Fun with fabric.

Summer Art Camp: Eco ART.

6/29/2018

Create A Journal Workshop

Eco art can be a fun recycle savvy way of turning the flotsam of recycle and re-use into a sketchbook/journal.
Join us for our adventures in art summer camp series featuring paper making and Journaling.
Three hours of hands on creative project with a take away treasure that you create.
Sketch? Yes! Journal? Write on!
(Workshop includes materials for one journal, extra journal material available for sale should you decide to make more.)
Register here: Eventbrite

Spring Has Sprung

5/31/2018

Spring Fling Ala Tie-Dye and Airbrush

4/18/2018

Community art projects ala Pop-up art studio took shape with tie dye this past month.
How to entice the arm chair creative? There’s a short list of things I have found to ease
People into a mind set of try it on for size. Firstly: it must not have too many steps toward mastery (dipping things in dye) Secondly: Take home appeal sets the stage for “hey look at what I’d did!” And lastly: got to be fun. These pictures showcase the finished product if only because the camera near by was forgotten in the wake of all that was created.. That’s a good thing especially when looking at how many can’t seem to unfocus from the tiny screen thats’ become a pacifier of sorts.
Learning a new medium, again has left it’s mark of excitement all over my studio. Big scale boats as inspired by the nearby marina and afternoon sailing on Bandaras Bay in Nayarit. Tie dye was a surprise hit with sailors bringing in well loved tees and even socks ala fashion forward wannabes walking away with a brighter shade of fun. So much creative muscle to be flexed in such a short time- Oh My! Let’s celebrate spring and all it’s new options for expression.
Be well, and stay tuned
Christine

Paint and Tie-Dye and Coffee Oh My!

3/9/2018

You know that song that rings in your head? My Van Morrison loop “Sailboats a comin and I gotta get on it, please can ya cut me some slack?” Some random B side bite of logic, for me a wounded wing of a Captain ala Dislocated shoulder held less swagger that it needed to spend 24 days a float. So? Plan B.

Plan B is a great plan. It means there’s some hope in the plan to make a plan and not go directly to the bullfight arena of big disappointment. It’s been fun to riff on it as short story, an idea iced for now.

Tah dah! Some creative energy.. Winter Art Camp, Snowbird Spring breakers, we can extend a caffeinated and creatively orchestrated little art adventure while you are here South of the boarder.
La Cruz is slowly morphing into a polished more discoverable yet great surf, art and food culture spot where fun in the sun abounds.

Coffee? Local beans can be found sourced from up the mountain here near a goat trail that saunters up a long and winding road only to run smack into a sleepily long eyelashed Donkey carrying big bags of beans ala Juan Valdez styled reality check.

Complete with a roast and a grind, voila! Awesome cups of coffee. I’ll furnish the link on Monday.

Iced Coffee available at the Winter Art Camp Pop-up of Art duJour. Tie-Dye and Coffee oh my!

Art Farm Fennville Workshops For Creatives

2/12/2018

Creative Journal Workshop
Eco art can be a fun recycle savvy way of turning the flotsam of should use into a sketchbook/journal.
Join us for adventures in art summer camp series 2.0
2.5 hours of hands on creative project with a take away treasure that you create.
Sketch? Yes! Journal? Write on!
When & Where:
Saturday mid morning 10:00- 12:30 in the Stables Studio June16th-July28t
Setting:
#fabulousfennville
Art Farmfennville offers an authentic slice of #fabulousfennville. Explore almost twenty acres of Plein Air worthy barns, ponds and forrest scenes for painters. Local art and sculpture to experience.
Wednesday drop in and sketch offered again this year in the Stables Studio Event space. Inclement weather may find us in the Painting loft

Metal arts are a theme here with found object Awesomeblage’ by our in-house Stig of welding.

Workshops led by:
Christine Currie. Mixing metaphors and melting metal. Art Farm Fennville summer camp coordinator and salty salior co-hosts events with local creatives. She’s fresh off the boat with her most recent endeavors chronicled as Pen 2 Paper Adventures. Storytelling and photography share meets campfire theme with the last Wednesday of June 27th as our inaugural kick-off. Watch the almost full moon rise over the Art Farm. Marshmallows and sticks available. Bring your tales and pictures to share. 8:30- 10:00 p.m.
Sandra Hansen. The art nomad travels the world and evangelizes paper art and eco friendly zero waste ideals. We love her energy and especially love making journals with her. Step by step as free range art unfolds to encompass so many fun possibilities. Calendar fills quick. Cost: $50.00 drop in, $85.00 for a couple, or grandparent and child $75.00
includes materials and use of tools, studio time, coffee/tea. Wash it down with Big Cock Coffee,

Artisan micro roasted magic in a cup. See you soon Hipcamper!
Authentic Slice:
Our neighboring area of Douglas and Saugatuck offer the best of art adventure with great locavore places to seek out. Kismet Bakery, The Farmhouse Deli, Grow, Salt of The Earth concert series, Virtue Cider, Crane’s Apple Orchards, Fenn Valley Wine, Evergreen Lane Artisan Cheese will keep you picnic basket ready.

Weld Meld Melt Helmet Wearing Fun

2/7/2018

I offer up a great way to pull yourself into a new orbit or better yet change your solar system.
Take up a new medium. What’s the use of learning a completely new medium? It might be fun, or you may have the opportunity to ply it on a broken axel of a tractor your neighbor limps over with. I’ve been representing metal Artists over the last few years plus sidekick to a genius of sculpture has given training wheels. It's the right time to embrace melting metal. The torch that was passed to me was a worthy one.
In the last year I’ve created a small body of work that now graces Art Farm Fennville.
Airbnb Adventure Seekers Come for a workshop and stay. Experience garden art awesomeablage - as a love note to all matters of recycled found object finding a home.

Escape Chicago/Detroit guides have sent a new wave of HipCamper into SWMI . Get Outside! So love being apart of the Hip Camper Experience. Farm fresh art and craft projects.

Our Fennvillian Feral Farming is a proposed project with collective gardens sprouting. Looking to get picnic-Plein Air -poet like ? Us too...We Love that.
So let’s cook up workshops in’ authentic barns hosting farm to table styled coffee roasting and cupping classes. The raw edged tables and local made at Art Farm furniture in the event space/Art Barn will inspire a few to be announced music evenings. Stay Tuned

coffee.coffee.coffee.coffee.coffee.coffee
Learn to love new coffee bean varietals plus cold-brew educational hands on brewing. Eco-art and workshop styled retreats.
#fabulousfennville really shines with surrounding area cider, microbrews and food of bread basket propensities. Local home spun venues offer music and food centric opportunities.
Sprinkle with art and workshop opportunities from neighboring Ox-Bow you’d be hard pressed to find a more authentic slice of locavore. True Love.

LOVE HIPCAMP
Why give a hip camp weekend? Giving experiences will cement you in the grey matter of your fave friends.
Book an art adventure with eco artist Sandra Hansen make paper or create a journal, sketch a tree or join the Wednesday Figurative returning for it’s third season.
The 2018 season offers much of what you just can’t imagine, much of what we see in our recycling bins is being re-purposed as art. Workshops being developed for the fall include Cob and straw homes, clay and organic materials for small house fabrication can be an art project that yields a cozy factor with lessons learned as this hands on workshop will offer the conception to construction phase of creative swell dwell-able spaces. Uses? Art studio, writing shack, hip camp site as eco friendly with creature comforts galore. We'll post them here as they find a home on the schedule. Thanks for the emails- we add them as we get em.
Glampsites more camp than glam, available again.
The coffee is spectacular. French press Big Cock Coffee.

Join Christine Currie for a kick off of Spoken Word Sundays. Pen 2 Paper Adventures will offer up adventures far and wide from local creatives returning into the local orbit. This fine constellation of wonderfully story-filled travelers… Barn charm with big screen to share your pictures and tales from far and near. Contact christine to secure a slot for these Sundays’ starting in June running thru the summer as monthly installments.

Model Drawing returns to Art Farm Fennville.
Sketch, draw and paint the female form. Join us with a donation.( we recom $15) to the model.
Meeting every Wednesday eve from 6:00-8:30.
Inclement weather friendly barn, join us for our third season of sketch. June 6th kicks off.

Big Cock Coffee proudly roasts micro batches of the most interesting bean varietals. Roasted weekly, with a nod toward interesting imbibing for summer sipping. Join the subscription service for weekly beans delivered to your doorstep.
Tee’s and hats, and hoodies oh my…all available at Art Farm Fennville. CoffeeFarmstand.

Art Nomad Sandra Hansen and Art duJour Workshops 2018 Presentation

1/23/2018

Cozy fireside chats, a place to melt into the warmth and see what the solitude of such seasonal comforts might remind us of. There’s a stillness to the frozen night air, a friendly fire can bring a new seasonality to ritual.
Join us at Oxbow this Thursday, January 25, 2018 for Campfire Download with Sandra Hansen our paper making and eco- artist in residence at Art Farm Fennville as she shares her adventures-in-art as an Art Nomad, making paper pulps with paper artists world round’ gives depth to her hands-on workshops.
Sandra will present this Thursday evening at Oxbow. Join us in a great localized arts presentation and meet other creatives.

Paper making and Art Farm Fennville artist in residence program for the Fall of 2018 will be shared with pictures and story. 7:00 PM 9:00 PM Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists' Residency 3435 Rupprecht Way Saugatuck, MI

Art du Jour @art_farm_fenn 2018 Workshops

12/6/2017

Art du Jour will help facilitate the Artists Cultural Exchange hosting global creatives with an authentic art experience at Art Farm Fennville in September of 2018.

@art_farm_fenn
A great space; reconnect with your creative side surrounded by art and sculpture.
Metal Studio available for welding and metal arts.
Farm to fork community meals in the art barn starting in July.
Figurative drop-in drawing-sketch-paint offered on Wednesdays June through October.
Eco-Artist Sandra Hansen hosts workshops for those paper makers looking to explore
paper making with natural fibers. All workshops t.b.a and will be limited to eight students (wait list with three backups.) held at Art Farm Fennville.
There will be no refunds for classes or workshops. Thank-you for choosing an art adventure through Art du Jour.

May Your Creative Spirit Burn Brightly in 2018

Give Thanks. Be Great. Create.

11/23/2017

As the weather turns it’s this cycle that we contemplate, a poke to remind us that renewal takes a full cycle of calendar. The ego free place that puts all involved on a similar plane of understanding, of empathy. Holidays will pull us from our normal orbit regardless of how stoic, how self involved we unfortunately find ourselves.

There’s a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and the season of giving means kindness in all shapes manifesting for those willing to heed it’s call. Artistically many re-use, recycle upcycle consumables as art prop? Never a better time to have a pulpit from which to voice the need to re exam much of the current waste we all generate.
Art Imitates life for a reason.

The pulse of discontent stronger. Creatively gratitude shines brightly: The current Maker movement embraces re-use re-working life's garbage as metaphor for those of you using your creative powers to turn a tide in our own way, voice of dissent takes flight with the full focus of struggles that many artists face every day. This Thanksgiving we embrace the collaborative it’s the juice for great art. Be Great. Create.

The daily generosities of those that remain nameless yet pave the way for things to happen, we all have people in our lives that offer us so much, it’s time to thank the collaborative. Together things happen.