The Art Park is a place where artists tell the story of Michigan through the fundamental materials of nature while connecting man to nature, nature to man, and transcending those boundaries without disturbing the balance.
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| King Stanley |
King Stanley was made in 2008 by David Petrakovitz. It's made of stainless, painted and oxidized steel with brass and found objects. In his own words, Petrakovitz says "King Stanley was inspired by the idea of a futuristic robotic man who may face a world where rusted and found objects are precious enough to be used to build a King." His name comes from his royal chest medal, a vintage fishing lure. The work explores fabricated humanity, artificial intelligence, and the automation of our world while also cautioning us that someday ordinary things we take for granted, might become more valuable than we can imagine.
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| Sawpath Series No. 1 |
Sawpath Series No. 1 was made in 1995 by David Barr. It is made from treated wood and painted steel. This sculpture is the first in a series of five works that pay homage to Michigan's historic lumber industry. Like other pieces in the Sawpath Series, this work utilizes a mathematical progression of space. The boards in this work rotate around the negative space in the middle, an invisible horizontal column. The colored tips on the boards reference the methods that lumber workers once used to sort wood types and qualities.
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| Bouquet |
Bouquet was made in 2021 by Joshua Kochis. It's made from fallen trees, concrete and steel. Bouquet was made as part of David Barr's Artist in Residency project. It portrays how everything in nature eventually falls, and yet continues to have a purpose. These trees fell during a storm at the Art Park and have been given a second life, or reanimation, as a bouquet, while providing a metaphor for the concept of resilience. The artist was inspired by the work of prehistoric people who carried objects to far distant places and erected them as art and ceremonial installations, providing them with power from the interaction. As the artist carried these trees down hills and through valleys to their current location, he got to know each tree. He hopes to have empowered them to be positive and uplifting in their role as a new object.
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| Two Doors |
Two Doors was made in 2016 by Leslie Laskey. It's made from powder-coated steel. Laskey was born and raised in Michigan; he was deeply connected to nature, the four seasons, and the trees. He passed away in 2021. Two Doors invites visitors to be curious, to come in close, peek through the pierced door, and see something new each time they peer through the frames. The landscape, rocks, plants, and trees served as initial ideas for thousands of drawings, collages, poems, woodcuts, prints, sculptural pieces, films, and music created by him and those under this tutelage.
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| Robins! |
Robins! was made in 2011 by Patricia Innis. It is made with an earthen mound, wood chips, twigs, grass and painted stones. The American Robin is one of the few species of birds to have benefited from human development. In Michigan, farms, orchards, parks and suburban neighborhoods that emerged where forests once stood provided new habitat and breeding grounds for the birds. By the 1930s, the robin had become Michigan's most widespread songbird and in 1931 it was declared the State Bird. The American Robin's song is a familiar sound of spring. It is often described as "cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up." In this earthwork, the artist pays tribute to the red-breasted robin as a harbinger of spring. The description plate states that there is supposed to be three earthen mounds in the shape of flying robins, each having a wingspan of 18 feet and seemingly soaring towards the nest. (I did not see that at all; I only saw the nest itself.)
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| Ontonagon |
Ontonagon was made in 2002 by John Richardson. It is made from painted steel and magnetite. By the end of the 19th century Michigan was a leading producer of cooper and iron ore, a role that shaped its industrial future. Ontonagon resembles equipment used to mine, transport, and refine ore and pays homage to Michigan's mining history. The boulder weighs 1,500 pounds and is a visual connection between the way iron ore looks when it is first extracted from the earth and the familiar forms made from iron that surround us -- such as buildings, bridges, and cars. The sculpture's name refers to the 1.5 ton copper Ontonagon Boulder, found in 1766 on the south fork of the Ontonagon River, which is now in the collection of the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
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| Ontonagon Boulder, Smithsonian |
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| Beacon |
Beacon was made in 2016 by John DeHoog and Brian Nelson. It is made of wood and stainless steel. Beacon is a collaborative project based on the idea of combining architecture and sculpture. The form refers to lighthouses, buoys, and smokestacks, and uses architectural processes, materials, and principles for a sculptural end. Viewers will recognize architectural elements such as the foundation, walls, window, and drain as they consider how they are incorporated to create the overall sculpture.
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| Table and Chairs No. 3 |
Table and Chairs No. 3 was made in 2001 by Nolan Simon and is made of steel. Here in a quiet wooded site, this sculpture emerges from the earth like an artifact discovered at an archeological dig. The subject matter calls to mind the importance of Michigan's furniture industry, which was established using the abundant supply of lumber and still thrives today.
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| Serpent Mound |
Serpent Mound was made in 2002 by Patricia Innis. It is made of sand, topsoil, mulch, sweet woodruff, moss, clay, metal and wood. This long earthen snake, meandering through the trees and preparing to swallow an egg, pays homage to the mound-builders who arrived in Michigan from the Mississippi River Valley over 2,000 years ago. The Yam-Ko-Desh or Prairie People left behind over 1,200 mounds filled with small animal sculptures. The artist worked with students from neighborhood schools to create clay animals to bury in the mound. Each item carried a wish for the world. Students placed their hopes in the serpent and their fears and dislikes in the egg.
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| Bonnet |
Bonnet was made in 1998 by Lois Teicher. It is made of ferrocement. The bonnet, with its inner space and flowing outer ribbon, represents women's contribution and presence throughout time, particularly during pioneer life when the very sustenance of life had to be created daily. As pioneer families began settling in Michigan in the mid-1800s, women took on tremendous responsibilities to care and provide for their families and communities.
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| Hemmingway Haunts |
Hemmingway Haunts was made in 2004 by Patricia Innis. It was done with walnut dye on tree trunks. The legendary American author Ernst Hemmingway spent his childhood summers in Michigan, staying at this family cottage on Walloon Lake near Petoskey where he learned to hunt and fish. The first two figures represent Nick Adams and are modeled after photographs of the young Ernest Hemmingway. Another portrays Gregorio Fuentes, the captain of Hemmingway's boat who was the inspiration for the main character in The Old Man and the Sea. The remaining silhouettes represent the characters Maria and Robert Jordan in the novel, For Whom The Bell Tolls.
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| Satisfaction from Nature |
Satisfaction from Nature was made in 2001 by Byung Chan Cha. It is made of treated wood, metal and canvas. Beckoning you to sit and absorb the splendor of Michigan's natural surroundings, this sculpture invites the indulgence of your creative spirit. In framing the forest, the artist suggests a framed piece of artwork. Consider how art and nature mirror one another. Both are precious, both are tangible, and both stimulate a variety of responses that reflect the experience of the viewer. Let this artwork encourage you to stop, have a seat, and take in the beauty of the forest.
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| The Trap |
The Trap was made in 2005 by Naomi De Hart. It is made of metal. The larger-than-life hunter's trap seems set and ready to strike. It is a reference to some of Michigan's earliest European settlers. In Michigan, as in the rest of North America, the fur trade encouraged the exploration and settlement of the region. This sculpture recognizes the prominent role that fur trading and trapping played in Michigan's history while provoking contemplation about man's relationship to other species.
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| Inside a Historical Mystery: Mounds |
Inside a Historical Mystery: Mounds was made in 2003 by Rebecca Nagle. It is made of concrete. Thousands of years before Europeans arrived on the continent, the inhabitants of the Midwest constructed earthen mounds. The mound-builders thrived in Michigan more than 2,000 years ago and left a tremendous mark upon the terrain, with an estimated 600 mounds still intact today and another 500 that have been destroyed over the past two centuries. This piece increases awareness about Michigan's ancient cultural heritage of the Hopewell tradition and raises questions about a period that is mostly lost to history.
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| Nurture/Nature |
Nurture/Nature was made in 2006 by David Barr. It is made of granite. The title references the age-old philosophical question of "nature versus nurture," whether behavior is shaped by circumstances or innate characteristics. The artist has reversed this idea to focus on how mankind's behavior can shape nature. The egg is a universal symbol of life, and eggs from many species require nurturing to ensure continuation of life: without caring for the egg, there is no bird. Without the bird, there is no egg. Consequently, man's indifference or lack of protection of nature can further its destruction.
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| Fallen Comrade |
Painted Comrade was made in 2009 by David Greenwood. It is made of painted wood, PVC sheet and steel. Fallen Comrade is a stylized interpretation of a P-51 Mustang, a fighter plane that played a dominant role in World War II. While Mustangs were flown by other Army Air Corps divisions, the "Red Tails" are a distinctive insignia of the Tuskegee Airmen, a segregated squadron comprised solely of Blacks. Although they had previously been prohibited from serving as pilots, their efforts proved heroic -- in combat and in breaking down barriers of racism. This sculpture prompts us to remember those who fought for personal and national freedom even as they were denied their own. Of nearly 1,000 Tuskegee Airmen, 155 were from Michigan.  |
| A.M. |
A.M. was made in 1993 by Kaz McCue. It is made of bricks, cast iron and steel. This work is an exploration of contrasts. Built from man-made materials, staring with the found object at the top, the rigid structure stands in stark contrast to its natural surroundings. As the artist developed this work, he was inspired by an idea of an oven, which creates contrasts by transforming the objects that are placed inside. The large five is a reference to a painting by Charles Demuth, best known for his Precisionist paintings of industrial and machine landscapes of America.
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| A Dream of Home |
A Dream of Home was made in 2019 by Robert Holdeman. It is made of corten steel. It honors this historic I-House architectural style predominant throughout rural areas of the mid-west. Its popularity, especially in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana gave it the name. It recalls our roots, the "homeplace," and the safety of unchanging memories. The piece is also a memorial to Art Park Founder, David Barr, who felt strongly about the inclusion of architecture in Michigan's story, and to the artist's son John, who lived out his life in an I-House -- his dream of home.
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| Maple Seats for looking at A Dream of Home |
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| Waltz Stele |
Waltz Stele was made in 1987 by Michael D. Hall. It is made of aluminum plates. Hall's "Waltz Sculptures" were all fabricated in the 1980s. Each was configured from three identical flat panels, cut and folded in such a way as to produce a four-sided, three dimensional structure. Hall's method is akin to that of a seamstress making clothing, or a sheet metal fabricator shaping vents and ducts from flat patterns. In his Waltz pieces, however, no material was discarded. Instead, it was simply crimped and folded in ways that create a form that is structurally obvious but visually enigmatic. These sculptures evoke familiar industrial and agricultural containers -- hoppers, scoops, silos, cribs, dumpsters, blast furnaces, kilns, and the like. Viewers are invited to "see" Waltz Stele as both an evocation of memories and as an interactive part of the worlds of art and nature in which it is sited.
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| Communications Vine |
The Communications Vine was made in 2014 to 2015 by Eric Troffkin. It is made with coated galvanized steel and fiberglass. Michigan is known for its industry, its natural resources, and its beautiful landscape. During the industrial era, natural resources were extracted from remote areas and transported to industrial centers where one could be refined and lumber turned into buildings and furniture. With the rise of the information economy, progress is driven by communication, which spreads from the old industrial centers across the state. Today, communications towers seem to grow like plants, spreading across the landscape and providing a constant connection. Just as the industrial revolution changed the world for our ancestors, the rapid spread of communications technology promises to change how we live.
The artist states, "I think of my reference to communications equipment in this project as one possible focal point through which the larger issue of our status as makers and inventors of things can be addressed. And I think of the form of a vine in this project as a way of accessing the ideas of nature and wildness."
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| Superior |
Superior was made in 2005 by Brian Ferriby. It is made of oxidized steel. Created like a topographical map, this sculpture depicts Lake Superior and is one of a series of five featuring each of the Great Lakes. The deepest and coldest of Michigan's Great Lakes and the world's largest single body of fresh water, Lake Superior, contains ten percent of the world's fresh surface water and more water than the other four Great Lakes combined. Over 300 rivers and streams empty into Lake Superior and at its deepest point, about 40 miles north of Munising, it is 1,300 feet deep. With 350 miles of water separating the east coast of Lake Superior from its west coast, people on the lake's east side watch the sun set 35 minutes before it sets on its west coast.
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| Barn Chair |
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| View from the Barn Chair |
The Barn Chair was made in 1995 by Gary Kulak. It is made of wood and steel. Overlooking the Betsie River Valley, the familiar form of a chair frames the beautiful landscape. The sculpture references the lumber and furniture manufacturing industries that continue that continue to thrive on Michigan's vast supply of trees. This sculpture was put together using the timber-frame construction technique that was utilized throughout the 19th century for barns and covered bridges.
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| Sister |
Sister was made in 2012 by Maureen Bergquist Gray. It is made from steel with rust patina. Representing a vision for how individuals can make great impacts on their surroundings, Sister stands alone yet constantly impacted by weather, seasons, and the people she meets in the woods. Three steel rods in the front represent Gray and her two sisters: independent women standing next to each other in solidarity and support, shaping each other's lives, and making them the people they are today. The sculpture also reminds us of a female figure -- strong and fierce in her surroundings and also quiet and Zen-like, allowing the viewer an intimate energy exchange with the work. The artist allows the rusting and changing colors to compliment and change the piece, adding tension and definition to the bold form and structure.
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| Michigan |
Michigan was made in 2012 by Brian Ferriby. It is made of mild steel. When standing on the shores of Lake Michigan, the magnificent body of water appears infinite and powerful. Viewed from a higher vantage point, like a space capsule orbiting the earth, the lake would seem small, set against the expense of North America. The sculpture, Michigan, expresses this finite, fragile nature of the lake, emphasizing the need for care and protection. Lake Michigan remains threatened by pollution, invasive species, careless use of water and global warming. Michigan is an abstraction of a bathymetric map of Lake Michigan. The deepest point in the lake is 924 feet, just off the coast of Frankfort and Manistee, Michigan. In the air around the artwork, can you point to Traverse City, Michigan? Green Bay, Wisconsin?
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| Stockade Labyrinth |
The Stockade Labyrinth was made from 1996 to 2010 by David Barr. It is made of wood, iron ore, and mixed media. From the outside, the structure appears as a small-scale interpretation of a French fort from Michigan's colonial period. Inside, however, is a labyrinth of Michigan's history from the fur trade of the earliest European settlers, to agriculture, timber and mining. All of these activities shaped Michigan's character and the inhabitants' relationship to the land. The square shape of the fort represents fundamental change that settlers brought to Michigan: the effort to survey land and divide it based on a grid. The angular shape of the fort is contrasted by the boulders and posts outside the fort, entitled Shadow Stone Circle. This configuration symbolizes the divergent perspectives of the region's first inhabitants who used natural landmarks such as trees, rocks, streams, and bluffs to distinguish land uses.
Now for the inside of the fort:
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| Book Totem |
The printing press and publishing brought the expansion of literacy, providing an enormous advantage to European society. Books are a vehicle for the rapid export of ideas, education, invention and technological growth. In the absence of literacy, knowledge must be preserved through the very restricted and slow process of oral communication. Without documentation that can be passed on and interpreted from reader to reader, ideas must be constantly repeated, requiring a huge investment of time and energy which handicaps technological growth.
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| La Chambre de Guerre (War Room - Red) |
It was the French who were the first to build a series of forts in Michigan. Military conflicts occasionally resulted in changes in proprietorship of these forts. Michilimackinac at the tip of "mitten" was the first to be built. British troops captured Michilimackinac in 1761. Then in 1763 a group of Chippewa braves staged a ball game outside the fort. When one through the ball into the fort, they took weapons that Chippewa women were hiding under their blankets and captured the fort. The only Spanish proprietorship established in Michigan existed for one day -- February 12, 1791, when Don Francisco Cruzat, Spanish commandant of St. Louis, invaded and held Fort St. Joseph, the western-most fort of the series built in Michigan.
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| Earliest French Map |
This map was created by Adrien Jolliet who made the first recorded trip by a European to Michigan's lower peninsula. A map, like a work of art, illustrates what its creator considers most important at the time. Bullet shells indicate early fort locations.
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| Wall of Surveyors |
The first Europeans came to Michigan not so much to settle, but to exploit the seemingly endless supply of resources for export to France. In 1763, however, the French ceded control of the Great Lakes region to the British. Trappers and traders were gradually replaced by settlers and colonizers. With the European settlers came the concept of land ownership and the technology to accurately measure, or survey, territory. Surveyors established a base line running across the peninsula through what is now the city of Jackson and began dividing the territory into grids or plats.
Following the description by Edward Tiffin, surveyor general of the United States, was written after the War of 1812, when Michigan was now U.S. property and was to be divided and given as a reward to the victorious soldiers. "I am informed, all the surveyors concur... The whole two million acres appropriated in the territory of Michigan will not contain anything like 100 parts of quality that is worth the expense of the survey ... the country is low wetland with very heavy growth of underbrush intermixed with very bad marshes. ... There would not be more than one acre in a thousand that would in any case admit cultivation." Based on this grim assessment, the soldiers were instead given land in Illinois and Missouri.
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| La Chambre Du Fer (Room of Iron-Blue) |
When the first Europeans arrived they found the indigenous peoples had a great respect for the mineral wealth surrounding them. In his correspondence of 1665, Father Claude Allouez wrote: "One often finds at the bottom of the waters, pure copper weight of 10 to 20 pounds weight. I have several times seen such pieces in the savages' hands ... they keep them as so many divinities or as presents which the gods dwelling beneath the water have given them."
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| The Mine |
From the late 1840s, iron and copper mines provided wealth and a means of livelihood to thousands. Inside the ceiling opening is a cross like silhouette of a miners axe. Imagine working deep below in cramped, dangerous and unhealthy conditions for long hours and minimum pay.
Come listen young fellows who follow the lakes
In iron ore vessels our living to make,
I shipped from Chicago, bid adieu to the shore,
Bound away to Escanaba for red iron ore.
Hi derry! Ho derry! Hi derry, down!
Give sailors good whisky and they're always around.
~~ Opening verse of "The Red Iron Ore" a popular song of 1856
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| The Saws |
The lumbering industry in Michigan was the largest in the world until the states of Oregon and Washington were opened up. Hardwoods were not desirable until sawmills with power saws made cutting cost effective. Oaks and maples were avoided or burned out, pines being the preferred wood. Pines, however, were actually difficult to find. There were no roads at the time. Consequently, "cruisers" traveled hills, ravines and thickets for months at a time listening for the distinct whispering sound made as wind moved the pines. They worked in the summer, warding off mosquitos, deer flies and yellow jackets, in order to mark stands of pine located within two to three miles of a river which would enable transport of the precious wood to sawmills in towns like Saginaw and Muskegon. In harsh winter conditions, they sawed and dragged out the logs over ice and frozen ground.
I reached the top of the stockade. This is where the Stockade Labyrinth ends. Looking around I see forest and the stairs that go back down to the ground. The land around the fort was once nearly barren from lumbering, but now is lush and green.
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| Shadow Stone Circle |
The Shadow Stone Circle was made between 1995 and 2018 by David Barr and Michelle Schulte-Leask. It was created to compliment the the Stockade Labyrinth. His intent was to balance the colonial nature of the fort with an acknowledgement of the counter-presence of Native and Indigenous tribes. He hoped that a Native American artist would improve it. In 2018, local artist and educator Michelle Schulte-Leask, Citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewas, worked with local students to arrange the boulders to better represent Anishinaabe culture.
By representing the Medicine Wheel through four stages of the sunrise and adding Tribal flag logos and clan symbols for each of the 12 Federally recognized tribes in Michigan, there is now an interpretation from authentic Anishinaabe voices. The Medicine Wheel carries ancient wisdom passed to the next generation through stories and practices that support teachings about life, good health, and our connection to all things existing on Earth, Wind, Sky and Water.
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| Five Needles |
Five Needles was made in 1998 by Michael Gillis. It is made of wood, synthetic canvas and steel. Before the turn of the 20th century, seemingly endless stands of white pine stretched across Michigan. This conifer species could live more than 400 years and reach heights of 200 feet, with trunk diameters of five feet. These impressive trees were once prized for use as ships' masts and are still valued for lumber today. The sculpture refers to this lost era and to the only virgin white pine stands that remain on the Lower Peninsula, in what is now Interlochen State Park and Hartwick Pines State Park. The title is derived from the five-needle clusters that make up the white pine's foliage.
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| Have a seat |
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| Masonry Vessel |
The Masonry Vessel was made in 1997 by Joe Zajac. It is made of stone, sand, mortar, and latex binder. This sculpture is a tribute to the indigenous building materials that continue to connect Michigan residents to their landscape. When prehistoric glaciers retreated, they left behind the Great Lakes, thousands of smaller lakes and hundreds of sand and gravel pits. All settlers in Michigan have come to depend upon these materials to create tools and other products such as concrete, bricks, decorative objects and ceramics. Numerous examples of cobblestone masonry construction in homes, bridges and landscape markers are found throughout Michigan. The simple shape of a vessel also acknowledges its holistic metaphor for the human figure. Like a vessel, humans collect energy and information that can be stored inside or projected outward.
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| Harbinger |
Harbinger was made in 1998 by Robert Caskey. It is made from granite. The intriguing title offers a clue to the mystery of this enigmatic stone. A harbinger signals the approach of another person or event. The sculptor created a fedora hat like those worn by businessmen and industrialists to represent the period of Michigan history when waves of settlers, farmers, and businessmen displaced the region's original settlers. While a hat covers the head, it can also conceal the wearer's identity. The keyhole in the center of the headboard is another puzzle presented by the artist.
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| Mysterious Traveler |
Mysterious Traveler was made in 2005 by David Petrakovitz. It is made of oxidized steel. In a wooded setting, this sculpture seems to be a mysterious traveler, foreign to the landscape around it, but part of industrial Michigan. The figure is created from industrial steel objects welded together with steel shapes fabricated by the artist. Its construction suggests a mechanical purpose or function while its form reflects the beauty and grace of early industrial machines. The sculpture evokes contracts between 20th century industrialization of Michigan, with all its steel and kinetic mechanics, with the tranquility of the natural woodland that peeks through as well as frames it.
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| Big Two-Hearted |
Big Two-Hearted was made in 2000 by David Barr, and restored in 2016 by Gary Kulak. It is made of stone and cast bronze. This installation commemorates the 100th Anniversary of Ernest Hemmingway's birth and reflects his fascination with people and the natural environment. As a boy, Ernest Hemmingway would travel by boat from his home in the Chicago suburbs to Walloon Lake near Petoskey, where his family had a summer home. He explored the forests and lakes of northern Michigan and learned how to fish, hunt and camp. The title refers to a river in the Upper Peninsula, the setting for one of Hemmingway's early short stories.
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| Sawpath Series No. 2 |
Sawpath Series No. 2 was made in 1997 by David Barr. It is made of wood and painted steel. Sawpath No. 2 commemorates Michigan's logging history and is inspired by patterns in nature. The spiral form of the sculpture reflects the infinite number pattern first articulated by Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci in 1202 A.D. while exploring ideas of "the Golden Mean." The numbers form an infinite series or spiral in which each number after one is the sum of the two preceding numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, etc. The Fibonacci sequence, as it is known, has fascinated mathematicians, philosophers, and artists for centuries. The number pattern can be seen in the branching of the trees, veins of leaves, an uncurling fern, and the arrangement of a pine cone.
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| Part of the trail |
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| Sanctuary |
Sanctuary was made in 2017 by David Williams. It is made of wood. "Creative inspiration begins with meditation and contemplation," began Williams' proposal for Sanctuary. The Sanctuary's structure embraces nature with a roof that is open to allow light to enter and air to freely flow. Williams worked with David Barr for many years as a volunteer at the Art Park. After Barr's death, Williams conceived and designed Sanctuary to honor his departed friend, the Founder of Michigan Art Park. By honoring nature, art, and the memory of his friend, Williams creates a quiet and secluded place away from the trail where guests can relax mind and body, enabling creative inspiration to blossom through mediation and contemplation.
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| Weeping Willow |
Weeping Willow was made in 2017 by Les Scruggs. It is made of willow wood. The organic enclosed "ribbon" form carved here came remarkably from a single piece of Black Willow tree wood. The surface is gouged with individual carvings using only hand tools and a weathered patina. Les Scruggs began woodworking in grammar school and began making his first sculpture in 1959. The mathematical formula known as the Mobius strip was used to create this organic artwork which has only one edge. If you visually follow the smooth surface around two loops you end up back at the starting point. This is an alternative to the rectilinear grid that the artist says dominates our lives both physically and psychologically.
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| Wheels of Progress |
Wheels of Progress was made in 1997 by Dewey Blocksma. It is made of mixed media. Simple machines can capture the natural power of the wind blowing across the Great Lakes and Michigan's windswept peninsulas. While the weather vane indicates the wind's direction, the windmill harnesses its power for the purposes of human industry. The sculptor uses both natural and synthetic materials such as wood, gourds, coconuts, skate bearings, light fixtures, musical instruments and fish lures, to suggest the tension between the natural and fabricated worlds. The playfulness of the form suggests how people in a consumer society understand progress.
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| Sawpath Series No. 3 |
Sawpath Series No. 3 was made in 1999 by David Barr. At the height of Michigan's lumber industry, workers harvested throughout the year. Logs were often floated down rivers and streams to mills in Saginaw and Muskegon. When rivers and streams froze in the winter, workers stacked the pine logs until the waterways opened in the spring thaw. Sawpath No. 3 stands as a small historical echo of these mountains of wood that once dotted Michigan's winter landscape.
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| Singing Tree |
Singing Tree was made from 2005 to 2009 by Fritz Horstman. It is made of oxidized steel. Nestled among the trees, this composition merges contemporary art designs with ancient concepts and spiritual themes from several cultures. Its location atop a breezy ridge makes wind an important theme in this piece. The shape is based on an Aeolian harp, the instrument played by the Greek god of wind. The artist wanted the sound of wind whistling through the branches to serve as a reminder of Manitous, the spirits that according to local indigenous tradition, inhabit every part of our world.
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| Compliments: Hands Hearts Cars Carts |
Compliments was made in 2003 by Caroline Courth. It is made of brick, concrete and ceramic. The sculpture, who is also an art teacher, conceptualized, fabricated, and installed this work in partnership with local students. The students designed and created their own bricks and developed ideas for the construction of a larger unified visual statement the preserves the individual character of each brick. The relationship between the natural resources of the Upper Peninsula and the manufacturing prowess of southeastern Michigan are symbolized in the materials, colors, and geometrical forms depicted in each brick.
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| Sawpath Series No. 4 |
Sawpath Series No. 4 was made in 1999 by David Barr. It is made of steel and logs. This 16-foot sculpted blade seems to part the curtain of time as well as clear a path in the forest. Through the opening, one might imagine lumberman working first with the hand-driven whipsaw, then the steam-driven buzzsaw, and finally the band saw. The Park is now free of the sounds from a turbulent lumber camp, yet here we can imagine a time that was at once heroic, traumatic, and dramatic.
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| Sawpath Series No. 5 |
Sawpath Series No. 5 was made in 1998 by David Barr. It is made of painted wood. In 1955, the towering white pine was designated Michigan's state tree, in recognition of its important role in the logging industry that shaped Michigan's history. From 1870 to the early 1900s, the state led the nation in lumber production, and is still covered by 19 million acres of forest today. This is the last of a series of five sculptures commemorating the lumber trade. As in nature, the investigation of even the simplest form within the Sawpath Series can lead to ever-expanding knowledge and understanding. In this interpretation, the wooden spiral appears as if it is still growing and reaching toward the sky, like the tall trees from which they were sawn.
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| Michigami Down Under |
Michigami Down Under was made in 2020 by Donald Rau, Jr. It is made of steel, wire and glass. For thousands of years before European settlers came to the Great Lakes, Native and Indigenous people used rods, spears and nets to hunt fish for their own food, and also to trade. These were the Anishinaabe tribes, such as the Odawa, Saulteaux, Potawatomi, and Objibwe (Chippewa). Lake Michigan was their main source for fish. As the settlers continued to settle here, the big lake went by many names. Finally "Michigan" was settled on, a word believed to come from "Michigami."
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| Diversity |
Diversity was made in 2002 by David Barr. It was made of granite and stainless steel. In Diversity, the broken posts and lintels of a ruined temple represent the effects of careless human action on ecological diversity. Each weakened or missing piece undermines the structural soundness of the whole. "We need diversity to sustain natural life. We need cultural diversity to sustain cultural life. We need social diversity to sustain social life." ~~ David Barr
These representative ruins remind us of a past grandeur such as Michigan's white pine forests. Even though the pine forests are slowly being reconstituted, numerous species that once thrived in Michigan are now listed as extinct, endangered or threatened.
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| Unravel |
Unravel was made in 1997 by Sandra Osip. Unravel is made from bronze. Unravel draws its inspiration from spiral forms, which can be found throughout nature from nautilus shells to hurricanes to galaxies. The spiral form has a strong relationship with the "Golden Mean," the mathematical pattern observed by the 13th century mathematician Fibonacci and represented in Sawpath sculptures elsewhere in the Art Park. Do the segments of this sculpture look like they are expanding from one another like a pine cone or snail shell?
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| Frog |
Frog was made in 1995 by William Allen. It is made of galvanized steel with copper coating. Northern Michigan's abundant lakes and forests are home to thirteen species of frogs and toads. More frequently heard than seen, frogs are an important part of wetland ecosystems. Sensitive to chemical pesticides and water pollution, their health serves as a warning sign to dangers in the environment.
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| Fairy Ring |
The Fairy Ring was made in 1997 by David Barr. It is made from marble and painted copper. Fairy rings are naturally occurring circular or arc-shaped groupings of mushrooms and can be found in forested areas throughout Michigan. The beauty and precision of such natural rings have long provoked forest dwellers to search for an explanation as to their pure design. Many mushrooms species can create fairy rings, which range in size from a few inches to hundreds of feet. Today, naturalists tell us that the rings are the result of the decaying root tips of dead trees and, since lightening is a frequent destroyer of trees in the forest, the yellow rod is a reminder of where the tree once stood. In European folklore, fairy rings, elf circles, or pixie rings were seen as magical places that marked the mystical world of the forest. Since the mushroom circles appeared and disappeared quickly, the common myth was that elusive "fairies" made them for campsites and dances or they could be seen as gateways to unseen kingdoms.
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| Logging Camp |
Logging Camp was made in 1999 by Patricia Innis. It consists of Black Walnut dye on tree trunks. Michigan's white pine forests provide a natural resource for lumber, paper, and furniture. In the late 19th century, lumberjacks including the artist's great grandfather, cut down millions of trees, forever changing the state's landscape. The silhouetted figures commemorate those men who worked in logging camps during Michigan's "timber rush." The figures were painted using an environmentally-friendly dye the artist created from black walnuts.
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| Saarinen's Column |
Saarinen's Column was made in 2021 by Christopher Yockey. Saarinen's Column is made from 5x5 inch I-beams, mitered and welded to create a continuous line of 90-degree angles in space. The inspiration for this piece was the decorative linear pattern found on an architectural column located at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills. The artist was moved to create a three-dimensional version of the pattern. Yockey's work is representative of the industrial age with characteristics of today's age of technology. Through repetitive forms, mark-making by the human hand, and precision of machines, his goal is to evoke human qualities to make for a more harmonious dialogue between the man-made object, nature, and human emotions. His work explores a balance of technology and hands-on working methods to better understand the positive and negative effects of this digital age.
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