The Shiawassee Arts Center opens a new exhibit featuring artwork by Marti Liddle-Lameti of Sanford, Watercolor Blooms: A Tribute to Jim Ferguson, Group show, and John Diephouse of Lansing. The exhibit, which runs September 4 through October 27, is sponsored by Hon. Clark & Linda Harder and Dr. Dan Williams & Diane Cutler. The public is welcome to attend the ‘Meet the Artists’ reception Sunday, September 8, 1-3pm

Fiber Artist Marti Liddle-Lameti presents her exhibit titled “Forest Bathing, or Forest Therapy”. It is a health-promoting practice that involves spending time outdoors in nature. Being amongst trees has been proven to enhance wellbeing and relieve stress. Increased connection with Mother Nature helps us to harness natural healing and restorative powers. Marti’s current work seeks to bring this feeling into homes, workplaces, and healing institutions so that we can experience this healing power in our busy lives. She states, “The series the viewer will see represents the way Divine Mother expresses herself to us: nurturing, embracing and protecting us in every step of this journey we call life”.

Watercolor Blooms: A Tribute to Jim Ferguson, Group show brings together 13 artists whose work was shaped by the late James Ferguson, a local watercolor artist and teacher who mentored and taught dozens of artists in the area, many of whom have gone on to become professional artists. A representative explains, “In honor of his memory and legacy we would like to show a collection of our watercolors”.

Photography artist John Diephouse actively explores the technical and creative sides of his medium in ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’. John is attracted to a wide variety of subjects ranging from natural landscapes, botanicals and wildlife to images that provide either abstract expression or social commentary. He is interested in sharing images that evoke a story of some kind. Images may be simply documentary, reflect a sense of time and place, or resonate on a more abstract level of color, shape or form. Others provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection. Most often he is drawn to images created while wandering through the back roads and small towns of the upper midwest. These images of architecture, commerce and social life often reflect a mixture of nostalgia and a changing set of forces that shape life in the heartlands.

The Shiawassee Arts Center, celebrating its 52nd anniversary in 2024, is located at 206 Curwood Castle Drive in Owosso and is open to the public free of charge, Monday through Friday 10-5pm, weekends 12-3pm. The Arts Center features the artwork of local and statewide artists in eight galleries including the Frieseke Gallery and a specialty Gift Shop. SAC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage participation and appreciation of the arts. For more information call 989.723.8354 or visit www.shiawasseearts.org.