Good Hart Artist Residency

It’s hard to believe that two weeks have already flown by! This place and you opening your home up is such a special gift to other artists. I’m leaving here with fresh ideas, lots of momentum and rejuvenated. It’s an experience I won’t forget – it’s not often I have two weeks uninterrupted to make artwork and watch spring unfold. I arrived and there were no leaves, ice still on the lake and Trulium in the woods. What an incredible thing in two weeks to see leaves and flowers just explode across the landscape.

Good Hart and Emmet County have been such an immersive look into a place – from the seemingly countless preserves to Wilderness State Park; sunsets over the lake and shooting stars over the milky way; the resident indigo bunting and rose-breasted grosbeak. And of course the countless times I strapped my waders on to walk into Lake Michigan’s endless flats or turquoise water (and the one time I could have used those waders while landing a 25 pound carp on a fly after a meeting at Crooked Tree in Petoskey!) All of those qualities in a place get me so excited and inspired to make more work, to see things in new ways.

Mike Marks – May 2015