Trending
HOUGHTON -- The inaugural Digital Bloom Art Festival took place Saturday in downtown Houghton. The festival featured more than a dozen local artists and more than 20 vendors. The waterfront was alive with crochet birds, basket-weavings, painted artwork and more.
City of Houghton Community and Business Development Manager Danielle Perkowitz organized the festival and said the community's response was positive. "It's been seven months of planning, so to finally have it come here is just, truly, a dream come true," Perkowitz said.
Seven bands performed throughout the day with space at the Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw was used to host visual artist Ella Shaw and the band Bees.
Rebecca Paavo of Hancock's Ilo Creative was tasked with painting several nature-themed murals to hang outside the entrance of the Portage Lake District Library. Paavo said it was a challenge working with additional stipulations from the city and the library, but it was something which motivated her. "I spoke with the ladies from the library and they wanted something that wasn't a rectangular shape, because we already have a big rectangle shape here," she said. "It was a little bit of a creative challenge... so I thought, well why don't we cut down these panels to make them in more interesting shapes?" Paavo said her canvas boards were donated by McGann Building Supply and her paint was donated by Sherwin-Williams.
Shaw's exhibit at the Carnegie Museum mixed physical art with digital, echoing the goals of the event. It aimed to be an immersive, perspective-changing experience. Shaw said she collaborated with the city, as well a local poet, Lilliepad poetry, to create the new art showcase.
"I decided I wanted it to be curated for the Keweenaw specifically," she said. "We really are honoring that piece of land." Visitors to the museum got a seed from Shaw. After watching a few videos, they would then plant the seed into the dirt on the floor, move their hands and watch the motion-tracked plant bloom. Archival and current videos of the area, like those of the Portage Lake Bridge, were used.
Shaw combined her regenerative sunflower field project in Wisconsin, local input and digital experiences. She added it was a challenge to create a new, detailed art showcase centered around land.
"Figuring out how to interact with the land and connect with it, even when I wasn't there, was a challenge," she said. "Planning an installation from afar can be uncertain, and it requires a lot of trust."