'Big Lake' subject of art exhibit at local church
Thu, May 28, 2009 
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"Big Lake Perspectives" opens Friday as the summer exhibit at the Atrium Gallery of Second Christian Reformed Church of Grand Haven, 2021 Sheldon Road.
The show runs through Aug. 19.
The six diverse artists who are represented in the exhibit work in oils, acrylics, collage and photography.
Sy Ellens, who has worked as a commercial artist and taught art in Kalamazoo and Nigeria, creates birds-eye-view landscapes. Included in the show is an 8-by-12-foot aerial view of Grand Haven — showing the river, bayous, Harbor Island and the city's neighborhoods as well as Lake Michigan.
Christina Hahn studied at Kendall School of Design in Grand Rapids and now lives in Charlevoix. She fuses two depictions of the land, painting her impressionistic view of landscapes in oils on maps.
"I like using maps for the ground because they add a layer of depth and give the viewer something to come up close to," she explained. "I want people to think more about our natural surroundings, our God-given gifts — air, water, earth."
Hahn started using the shoreline because it was the only border on the maps not determined by man.
Mary Rausch, a Belmont-based artist, first worked as a graphic artist before turning to fine art and focusing on landscape painting. She became enthralled with Lake Michigan as an artist-in-residence at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 2005.
"As the sun moved on its path, as the winds died and rose, as clouds assembled and cleared, the expanse of the lake changed immeasurably," she recalled. "I became very engaged in watching and capturing the changes in my paintings."
Three generations of Hoeksemas are represented in the exhibit.
Herman Hoeksema, father of Ron and grandfather of Marc, was a chemist for the Upjohn Co. in Kalamazoo for 30 years. He started oil painting in the 1950s. "The Cottage" is a painting of a family cottage and the subject of many of his early paintings. After retirement, Herman pursued his art in his home studio near South Haven, where beach and water scenes from his window continued the Lake Michigan theme. He now paints occasionally in his 31st-floor condominium in Chicago, still looking at the Big Lake.
Ron Hoeksema graduated from the University of Michigan in 1969, and taught high school biology and chemistry along the southern shores of Lake Michigan until he was introduced to the art of serigraphy (silk-screen printing) and became a full-time serigrapher in 1980. He did dozens of scenes of Lake Michigan. The physical demands of printing the serigraphs and his need to grow in other directions led to his decision to stop printing in 1997. Ron has been a resident of Colorado for nearly 30 years and now concentrates on oil painting in his studio in Ridgeway, having moved from impressionistic to abstract art over the last 12 years.
Marc Hoeksema has been interested in photography since childhood and worked for the Mona Shores High School yearbook and newspaper. He then studied photography as an art major at Hope College, graduating in 1991. Photography has been his profession since then, with a special interest in black-and-white photos. Last year, Marc won an honorable mention at the Muskegon Museum of Art's Regional Exhibition with an abstract piece taken on Lake Michigan.
"The lake has been a passion of mine since my teenage years, when my dad taught me to windsurf, and we would visit my grandparents when they lived on the lake," Marc said. "Since then, surfing, sailing, kiteboarding and photography have all kept me connected to the lake. My business, taking family portraits and children's portraits, revolves around Lake Michigan."
A reception for the artists and a gallery walk will be held at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, June 7.
Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; and 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays and Fridays. Special arrangements can be made by calling the church at 842-0710.
