Artists Valerie Allen & Armin Mersmann, Pooh Stevenson, and Shiawassee Artists’ Guild

The Shiawassee Arts Center opens a new exhibit featuring artwork by Valerie Allen & Armin Mersmann of Midland, Pooh Stevenson of Owosso, and members of the Shiawassee Artists’ Guild.  The exhibit, which runs March 12 through April 28, is sponsored by CLH Insurance Agency. The public is welcome to attend the ‘Meet the Artists’ reception Sunday, March 17, 1-3pm

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Armin Mersmann, born in Remscheid, Germany in 1955 immigrated to the United States in 1962. He grew up in an artistic environment and was greatly influenced and tutored by his father, Fritz Mersmann, a successful oil painter. Although Mersmann is mainly known for his intense naturalistic graphite drawings, he also works in photography; these works are much more about the idea of exploration than the drawings, but it’s a wonderful balance. “My interests have become exceedingly experimental with more attention placed on the surfaces of the work itself. Discovering and rediscovering my chosen medium is the everlasting stimulus that keeps me interested and excited. Accidental process and meticulous planning co-mingle in all my work. Texture, either real or illusionary, and that one ever-elusive brushstroke, the one that says it all; this keeps me searching and exploring”.

Valerie Allen is a professional artist living in the Midland. She received her BFA from University of Cincinnati. She is a certified working artist for Golden Artist Colors, New York and co-founder of the podcast, Art Ladders: The Creative Climb. Allen has exhibited nationally and internationally and has lectured across the Midwest on painting with acrylics. These lectures are presented to university art departments, guilds, and associations. She has juried exhibits all over Michigan and as a curator has promoted artists of the Great Lakes Bay Region organizing exhibits at Studio 23, Bay City, including a collaboration with the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy titled “Land to River” in 2021. In 2022, Allen received the Great Lakes Bay Regional All-Area Arts Award for her role as a visual artist and community leader. Working as a teaching artist, she teaches a current online course titled “Abstraction Now” and conducts workshops through the Midwest.

Pooh Stevenson, of Owosso, is a  photographer specializing in fine art photography, portrait work and other natural light images. “I use my camera to observe the world; to see what is often unseen, bringing attention to forgotten moments.”. She began taking images as a way to document the  farm when the children were young, keenly aware the fleeting days of childhood would soon be gone. Through her work she tries to, in the words of John Updike, “give the mundane its beauty due” to communicate visual beauty, chase beautiful light and make extraordinary the every day. She is a long time member of the folk music community in mid- Michigan and has two grown daughters. 

Shiawassee Artists Guild is a group of 15 active mid-Michigan members, whose mission is to Support each other’s lives and artistic endeavors, Observe & record the world around us, Be inspired by people, places and ideas, Express emotion, color, texture and space, Learn from others and masters of the past, Share ideas, techniques and inspiration. The members work in a variety of media including painting in oils, acrylics, mixed media, watercolors and pastels, drawing, pen & ink, photography, printmaking, pottery and ceramic sculpture, jewelry making and collage.

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.