Welcome to our Art Blog!

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7-26-2025

 

Many of you have heard that we will not be here next season.  This is true.  We are not renewing our lease and have decided to pursue opening an art center somewhere in the area.  This is going to require my whole attention span to make sure that it is done right.  As most state and federal funding has been stifled at this time, I am going to have to look for donors and investors.  I have a 42-page business plan ready to go to the bank with, and I have a rough idea for our building.  I do have a TON of fundraising I will have to do...to the tune of $5 million dollars.  It is NOT going to be easy, but anything worth doing is never easy.  It just requires a lot of doing, so I'm going to be DOING a LOT!  I am always happy to take on help too!

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Anyhow, we still have August, September and into October.  Come on in and support your local artists!  Several will be in the area next season in some of the other stores locally, and WE WILL BE BACK one day...bigger and badder and ready to do great things.  Dreams are only dreams unless YOU are willing to make them a reality!

 

7-5-2025

 

Hoping you all had a great 4th of July yesterday!  I was in the gallery all day and came home wiped out!  Went to bed early to get up and head out to the gallery again today.  Weekends are LONG days!​

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It's going to be a beautiful day today!  Come on in and say HI!  

 

 

6-6-2025

 

I missed a whole month!  Lord!  Well, we are open and artwork is out for display.  We have quite a few new artists this year again and now we have almost every art style imaginable!  Yes, we do have some "crafty" pieces, but we also have the gamut...fine art to craft art, folk art to upcycled and everything in between.  We have art this year that is going to make you think and we have art that will make you happy.  We want EVERYONE to be able to enjoy our community of artists!

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On a side note, because we want everyone to enjoy our artists work, I am now writing articles for UP Magazine!  Most are about the artists, but some are just about the area and "up north".  Seven Elements was featured in the May issue along with an article I wrote about Maple Moon Winery.  You can download a digital copy or pick one up at various stores listed on their site.  They have a LOT of locations!  The website to UP Magazine is www.up-porky.com.  It was originally the Porcupine Press, but Mike and Robin are updating their work and making changes since their business too was hit, hard, a few years ago, with Covid.  Anyhow, if you get a chance to visit the site and support their magazine, you should do so.  Not only will you enjoy the stories up north, but you'll get to learn about different art styles and artists!  And Mike and Robin always have some humor to share.  Something we need a lot of these days!

 

 

4-28-2025

 

Where has the time gone!  March and April have flown by!  I took on a couple of projects and now it's almost May 1.  Crazy!

 

So, the project I took on is one that I would love to share with all of you.  I am helping a new friend with his magazine...UP Magazine!  We will be sponsoring a monthly photo contest that will feature photos from "up north" and I'll be writing monthly articles about the gallery's artists.  If you are interested in the magazine, the link to their new site (designed by yours truly) is www.up-porky.com.  They even have downloadable PDF magazines for $5.  Mike and his wife, Robin, work their buns off (he's 84 this month!) and this is their baby.  It used to be known as the Porcupine Press, but they are evolving and changing the magazine to get more up-to-date with the times.  They now offer digital magazines for download too!  So, go ahead and check them out.  One of our artists, Karen Rieser (author) is now writing articles for them too!!  So it's just another way to support, not only a local business and local family, but also Seven Elements artists!! 

 

For me, the people have to support one another.  In these trying times, we, the people, have to stick together and support each other as much as we can.  Without all of you, we couldn't do what we do.  Without our artists, we couldn't do what we do.  We are here because of all of you and we can't thank you all enough for supporting us!!  

 

2-16-2025

 

February is flying by!  We are getting more and more excited for this new season in Mackinaw City.  We want you all to know that you are ALL welcome here and we look forward to sharing all of our artwork with you.  Our artists are busy bees, creating their art and making their pieces the best that they can just for you!  

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We will be opening May 23, 2025 for the weekends and then open 6 days a week beginning Friday, May 30.  Our artists will begin dropping their artwork off the two weeks previously.  That means we will be cleaning the windows, the floors, organizing the displays and eating fudge from next door!  Oh lordy.  My favorite fudge in the area.  A real treat for me.  Especially the cherry fudge.  Not the pink stuff, the good chocolatey one!  Ok...the art gets me stoked, the fudge gets my mouth watering and all the shops opening in Mackinaw will get EVERYONE excited to visit!

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Looking forward to seeing all of you in a few months!  LOTS of things happening!  I'll be posting some awesome "news" here soon!

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1-31-2025

 

Last day of January!  Wow!  3 months to do before we open up the doors to the gallery and start cleaning, putting in amazing work and welcoming art lovers from all over the world into the store!

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One of the items on my  to-do list this year is to create a few videos featuring our artists and their thoughts on everything from techniques and marketing to coming up with ideas for projects and equipment/materials.  I am currently working with Tony Johnson to see how we can set up our first one.  They will be structured in a round table style and then we will just talk!  I know.  Sounds a little boring, but I'll be honest, you never know what someone is going to say, what great information you can pick up and what ooops is going to happen to make you laugh until you wet your pants!  I know this because it has happened!  I'll keep you up to date on that and the videos will definitely be posted on this website.

 

1-26-2025

 

As you may have noticed, Seven Elements no longer has a Facebook page.  We thought about the use of this and other platforms for a number of years, as the negativity of many applications have been getting increasingly worse since 2016.  We put a Facebook page up for the gallery to help let people know about the business when we opened.

 

When Facebook's founder decided to allow hate speech and other negative comments towards others to move forward under the guise of free speech, we felt the need to remove our support from all META platforms...both professionally and personally.  As our community is one that strives to include ALL artists from ALL backgrounds and to allow them to be who they are, we just couldn't support that.  We support our artists and we refuse to let others treat them as if they are property, criminals, or anything other than human.  We respect all people from all walks of life; all cultures and religions.  We do NOT support bigotry, racism or anything else that takes rights away from an individual.  We are ALL HUMAN BEINGS and we should love each other and help each other.  At Seven Elements, anyone coming into our gallery is treated with respect and we expect the same in return.  We do NOT apologize if this offends anyone.