I’m lucky to be one of only five artists to have multiple pieces included in the Denno’s Museum Center regional artist showcase.

It was interesting to see the diverse styles represented in the show and wonderful to be among so many talented individuals who call northern Michigan “home” at the opening this past weekend.

Around 100 artists are represented in the 100-or-so works on display (selected from over 450 submissions) at the museum center through March. Prizes were awarded this weekend at the artist reception in a “best-in-show” kind of fashion and it was no surprise that (as seems to be the typical verdict in juried shows like this) the larger sized your artwork, the more likely it’ll be selected as a “winner.”

Personally my favorite piece in the exhibit (by far) is this understated and modest portrait titled Ann by Dan Oberschulte. (Sorry for the blurry photo) Among the smaller pieces in the show it wasn’t selected as a winning piece or even an honorable mention, but I agreed with several other artists who attended the opening that this portrait stood out from the pack.

My illustrated prints EAT and Smoking the Gun are included in the exhibit. Both are hanging in custom hand-made frames built from reclaimed lumber and are a part of my ongoing Across the U.P. illustration series (that I’m committing to finish this winter).

Each of these prints are priced to sell in my shop, contact me if you’re interested in framing.

Related Posts

1. Strong Odors Art Exhibit: Opening Party July 16
2. Traverse City Maker’s Market
3. Smoking the Gun

Early this summer my friend Kelly & I agreed to join forces on the totally awesome event that she dreamed up and founded in 2010—Traverse City Maker’s Market.

It’s been a whirlwind few months (since these things generally take a year of planning), which involved the two of us collaborating on a new website, recruiting over one hundred applications from awesome artists and crafters from all around Michigan, planning and promoting the coolest new thing in Traverse City.

This Saturday—October 22nd—the event finally arrives! (RSVP on our Facebook event page)

We’ve got 25 of the coolest vendors from around the state, plus a half-dozen amazing food & beverage vendors (including hand-squeezed brats!) and local musicians providing a great backdrop for us all day.

(plus some pretty sweet event merch too!)

October is a wonderful time to visit northwest Michigan – come on up this weekend for Maker’s Market!

PS. After-party at Right Brain Brewery is gonna be insane in the membrane.

Here are a few products from our vendors that I’m definitely looking forward to checking out:

Related Posts

1. Traverse City Maker’s Market
2. Traverse City Walk for Autism
3. Goat Cheese Stuffed Traverse City Cherry Burger

Illustration by Troy DeShano

I’m excited to announce my exhibit opening at Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City next weekend!

All the work is already up, so you can stop by anytime to check it out, but I’d really love it if everyone could come to the opening next Saturday night!

If you are anywhere near Traverse City or even in Grand Rapids or lower Michigan wondering what to do for fun next weekend you should definitely make the trip up to beautiful Traverse City! Nothing’s better after a long day at the beach or hike along the dunes than a hand-crafted brew from Right Brain Brewery!

My reception will be from 7-9pm so please stop by and say hello and hopefully you or a friend can go home with some radical new artwork for your walls.

TCFF John Huges Posters behind the bar

If you’ve never been to Right Brain then you’ve been missing out! Each beer is hand-crafted with the same kind of TLC that we visual artists know is required to create something that we can be proud of. The atmosphere is really fun and relaxed—way cooler than a bar with no big-screen TVs in sight!

Come support local art and just have an awesome Saturday evening at Right Brain!

Let me know if you can make it by Likeing the event on Facebook.

Here’s the details

Right Brain Brewery July Artist Reception

• Date: Saturday, July 16th
• Time: 7-9pm
• Place: Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City’s warehouse district. (map)

More on Right Brain and the Artist Reception

• RBB’s July Artist Reception announcement
• RBB on Facebook

Never miss out on Strong Odors news!

If you haven’t signed up for my email newsletter yet, do it today. I offer regular contests, giveaways and other big announcements like this one that you’ll never want to miss. Sign up now!

Related Posts

1. John Hughes Illustrations Published
2. New Project: Traverse City Maker’s Market
3. Traverse City Maker’s Market

I’ve seen Bob Dylan a few times… once even at the front of an 80,000 member crowd at ACL 2007.

I’ve also seen Sufjan in a performance that I unavoidably describe with the ultra-corny cliché ”life changing.” (sorry)

But I must say that this past Sunday’s performance by Breathe Owl Breathe at my favorite local coffee roastery was my first real folk concert.

It was just hipster enough to know these were real artists but not so hipster that the ramshackle instruments were merely for irony’s sake. The band interacted with the audience in a way that only adds to the experience when it is small and dingy and most everyone in the room is within spitting distance.

We clapped and sang along, giggled at inside jokes that we shouldn’t have known were funny… we even learned pre-song sing-a-long parts that never actually even happened in the song…

The best part of the show was being there with my 8-yr-old daughter.

She (like all 8-yr-olds) has a weakness for radio pop (kind of like my weakness for white bread or Skittles or Mrs. Butterworth’s) so I find these little experiences that she can have with real artists so valuable.

I also think it is important for her to see women in the arts and especially in pop-culture who represent women as artists and not merely sex objects. There is so much that she can learn just by witnessing someone like Andrea playing the cello and singing on stage.

That even though women can use their sexuality in powerful ways (or be exploited for their sexuality – as is more often the case), it doesn’t have to be that way.

But more than all that, it is a moment that she and I now share.

So that 20 years from now when I’ve made a million more mistakes with her than I already have she can at least look back and remember sitting on my lap on the concrete floor at Higher Grounds listening to Breathe Owl Breathe play “Swimming” and watching Micah do a cannonball off the 12″ stage.

And that is a grand memory.

Get Breathe Owl Breathe’s newest album Magic Central. I imagine it is irresistible to practically anyone. (You can even get it in this super-amazing pink vinyl – if you care about such things)

Related Posts

1. Brandi Carlile Live at Interlochen
2. WILD FLAG: WILD FLAG
3. Girl Talk: All Day

I’ve been involved with the Northwest Michigan Autism Resource Network for the past 4 years.

The tricky part about an autism community/support group is that everyone is so busy with their own kids (babysitters are rarely an option) that meetings are difficult and volunteer involvement has to be spread thin across a lot of people.

I wish I could be involved more, but the least I can do is create some cool designs for ARN from time to time…

(like the logo and the art-show poster and a few other pieces)

This year I got to do this super-fun poster for our first Autism walk fundraiser that features some iconic halloweenie costume characters.

(and for some reason reminds me of that Neil Young lyric “Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me”)

Help us out!

I’m trying to raise $500 for my Autism Walk team. ARN has been such a great resource to me over the past few years and I would love to help them do more for the NW Michigan community.

If you’ve enjoyed the writing or illustration or whatever on Strong Odors and you’d like to show your appreciation, would you consider supporting us in this event?

Just visit the ARN website to donate via PayPal and mention “team Gideon” in the comments section.

Thanks!!

Join Us

Do you live in or around Traverse City? How about Petoskey or Benzonia or another northwest Michigan town?

Come on out on October 30th and walk for autism! You can download the registration form and support-raising forms on their website.

See you there!

Share/Save/E-mail

Related Posts

1. New Project: Traverse City Maker’s Market
2. The Truth about Autism
3. Traverse City Maker’s Market

This past weekend was the very first indie craft fare to come to Traverse City—Maker’s Market.

It’s kind of surprising that it’s taken this long actually, TC is known to have a good art vibe and a great community of young adults who are attracted to more indie style.

(of course we’re also “up north” which means a gun show might fare better than a craft show)

But better late than never and it’s finally here, thanks to the initiative and gumption of my good friend Kelly and a few of her compadres.

Seems like the gloomy weather contributed to a merely moderate turnout for the inaguaral event, but based on the caliber of both the organizers and this year’s vendors, this event has a lot of promise for the coming years.

I wasn’t able to participate (a sad but wise decision from earlier this hectic summer) but hopefully next September I’ll be there with some radical prints (like maybe this or this or this), some t-shirts or some of my handmade lingerie for plus-sized men. (ok, I haven’t started work on that one yet)

Or maybe Noël and I can share a table where she can set up some of her handmade purses, etc.

Anybody have a chance to visit the Maker’s Market? What were your favorite finds?

Stay up-to-date on Maker’s Market announcements by becoming a fan on Facebook.

Check out Kelly’s Etsy Shops

The Best Things – vintage kitsch

kngo – awesome embroidery and prints

Beloved Vintage – vintage clothing & accessories

Share/Save/E-mail

Related Posts

1. New Project: Traverse City Maker’s Market
2. Traverse City Walk for Autism
3. Denno’s Museum Center NW Michigan Exhibit

March Madness has a whole different meaning where I come from…

When everyone else around the country has a skip in their collective steps celebrating the new season… grass sprouting and dogwoods blooming…

We’re typically knee-deep in crusty, dirty snow that’s been frozen for the past two months.

It can make you go a little bit nuts.

This year however, we’re joining in the heel-clicking… thanks to some unexpected sunshine.

It makes me a little nervous to think that winter might return in April… with a sneer no less…

Well I say, bring it on…

Related Posts

1. Yes! new k-os
2. Return of the Fudgies!
3. Odorifous: Edward Orato

I discovered Spikehorn Meyer this week in an old travel-film clip my grandma sent me

It’s really cool to see mid-century footage of my home here in Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, but Ol’ Spikehorn steals the show.

He seems like a guy I’d want to know… or maybe even a guy I might have become…

Spikehorn said that the company of bears was much preferable to that of other people… he might be right, but I guess I’m lucky that I haven’t yet become so cynical about people that I’ve taken to avoiding them altogether…

I was hoping to check out the biography from my local library, but I haven’t had time… each nugget of  information I scrounged up online just made Spikehorn more and more interesting though…

like when he made national news in 1945 after sending wires to Truman, Atlee and Stalin announcing a personal offer of $50K for the capture of Adolph Hitler.

I like him…

Photo from Don Harrison’s Up North Memories Flickr collection. I thought some color might give it a little life.

Related Posts

1. I’m Going to Africa
2. Freakiest Puritan Ever
3. Personal Update

It is starting to smell like winter outside.

So I took advantage of some unusually nice weather and shot some photos at Grand Traverse Commons.

The old state mental hospital.

Some say it is haunted.

Share/Save/E-mail

Related Posts

1. Traverse City Maker’s Market
2. Guess the Smell
3. Music Inspires Me: ReadyMade, Creative Allies, SXSW

My sister shared today’s note from Michael Moore.

I like Michael Moore.

• He is a Traverse City neighbor
• He is funny
• He cares enough to say something
• He challenges people
• He respects others who earnestly seek justice (even if they disagree)

Of course the question he raises in the note (and apparently at some point in his newest film) is a provocative one (what else?):

Is Capitalism a sin?

Now at this point, people are already writing their blog post comments in their head (just as he hoped) quick to point out how Mike might be using certain particulars of his faith only when they happen to support his agenda du jour…

But that’s not really what he’s doing at all.

Michael Moore knows that question can’t be answered.

His films are never about black and white, I’m right-you’re wrong…

They are intended to make you doubt… to start asking yourself questions… to consider…

Because without doubt… where would I be?

If I just follow someone or some system… economic, political, religious, relational…

Then I’m merely a cog… a tool being used by that particular system and those that run it.

If I doubt however… If I question the system… If is say “Is this right?” or “Is this wrong?” even if those questions can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” then I’m no longer being used by the system…

Instead of a cog, I’m a compass… or a refining fire… or a strong ingredient that somehow makes the whole thing smell less toxic and more intoxicating…

Salt, perhaps.

P.S. If the trailer doesn’t make you want to see his movie today… you must have some sort of super-power resistance to fantastic and effective advertising… and M.I.A.

Related Posts

1. Internet Monk
2. Thinking About Divorce
3. My first post is about Michael Jackson’s Socks?