All The Clever Artists Who Live in Grand Haven, A Sailing Town with a Painting Problem, Are Beginning to Show Off Art for Fall Art Festival, the Grand Haven Art Walk

Grand Haven Art Walk began in 2010, one year after ArtPrize began in Grand Rapids in 2009. Street statues for ArtWalk began in 2011, beginning with a fish that flew, the Rocket Fish. Since then, we've painted on lighthouses and puppies and designs that emerge from the legendary silk screen shop, Michigan Rag Company and its mother-company, Marushka. The design is always leaked around Memorial Day ...with a painted example set before Michigan Rag Company in Grand Haven. Guessing this painting has the brush strokes of Randy Smith and atelier artist, Sean Sterzer. I walked around it a few times, took pictures from each direction and blinked a few times. Meaning it's a total success. The children who visit are going to love posing with an interactive wood sculpture that looks as if Duncan Forest nearby marched onto downtown. Scores of these wooden sculptures will be painted and deconstructed and repurposed, in large and small sizes, and placed proudly before area merchants. It's more frugal to participate in GH's Forest than Cowtown on Parade ever was... Now waiting to see if a new tradition returns. With the assistance of photographer Bob Walma, was it, and a list of local artists, Barbara Carlson posed all on the Grand River greensward and recreated "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" from 1884, one of Georges Seurat's most famous paintings. This she spun into a billboard, a tee-shirt design and even a free Coloring page for children and adults. Local artists have been quoting it in their works since, mostly notably Christa Barnell. Carlson has extended her collection of Grand Haven images for her adult coloring book ... and as of yet has given little hint how her sequel will be as cool as "Grand Jatte, Grand River". I have put my bet into a sealed envelope and wait. The ArtWalk has great hospitality and good prizes and has helped many artists find their place in this sailing town with a painting problem. Join us at @GHArtWalk on Twitter or Grand Haven Art Walk on Facebook.
— at Grand Haven ArtWalk.