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Contact: |
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Vince Cavasin/APLAUDD 313-510-7610 |
Joe Breidenstein/Walloon Lake 231-535-2227 babyjoe@chartermi.net |
Detroit, MI – November 6, 2003 – Detroit artist Matthew
Loflin Davis will be creating his popular rock sculptures in the Walloon
Lake/Boyne City area of Northern Michigan on the weekend of November 7, 2003.
“Governor Granholm and Mayor Kilpatrick want Detroit to
be a cool city that attracts and keeps high-potential employees in Michigan. Art
in all its forms is part of such an attraction,” said Davis from his Detroit
home.
Davis went on to explain his purpose for making art in
northern Michigan: “The Detroit area is rich in arts, culture & history.
Northern Michigan shares that acclaim. Creating rock sculptures similar to those
on Detroit's Belle Isle in the beautiful environment of Wallon/Boyne will help
bring our state closer together. I feel strongly that we have a lot to share
with each other throughout Michigan; we all have a common heritage to be proud
of. I hope this gesture will help bring us closer together.
Davis hopes that this is the first of many forays into
other parts of the state. “Wherever there are stones to be stacked, I plan to
create art, and there are some great opportunities around the state to do
this,” he said. Davis has been in contact with a Traverse City area patron who
is interested in having a private installation there, and Davis plans to return
to the Walloon/Boyne area in the spring to do more stacking. He encourages stone
art lovers everywhere to email him at matthewdavisy2@netscape.net
to discuss possible installations elsewhere in the state.
In welcome contrast to Davis’ struggles with the Detroit
Recreation department to keep his Belle Isle installation standing, area
officials in government and the chamber of commerce in the Boyne/Walloon area
are welcoming him, even setting aside public spaces for him to make his art.
Folks of all ages are invited to meet Davis at noon on
Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Village General Store in Walloon Lake. The artist will
discuss rock stacking, and provide lessons while creating some sculptures at the
Village beach. Plans call for a similar session in Boyne City at about 3:00 p.m.
Davis, a well-known Detroit-area sculptor and photographer,
has received overwhelming public support for his work on Belle Isle—so much so
that the Mayor’s office intervened to keep his installation there standing
when the Detroit Recreation department threatened to take it down. Davis has
been featured several times on WJBK Channel 2 news in Detroit, and his work has
been covered by the Detroit Free Press, the Ann Arbor News, the Holland
Sentinel,
and other newspapers nationally. Several Detroit-area art lovers have
commissioned him to do stone and metal sculptures.
For more information on Matthew Loflin Davis and his work, visit www.mldavis.com. For more information on APLAUDD: Art for Public Life And Urban Development in Detroit, a group that Davis co-founded, visit www.aplaudd.org.
Copyright © 2003 by Matthew Loflin Davis. All rights reserved.