I think of the association website as a community journal that unites us as Wilderness neighbors . Each month I will post a picture and short narrative of one artistic piece. Many are in the book Wilderness Art and Observations. These will be posted under this new tab entitled Art and Observations.
Jane Ewing
Betsy Wallin March 2026
Betsy, en plein air, drew a stand of trees in the Wilderness “Sugar Bowl.” Is it a bleak
winter scene or simply a graphite sketch of growth in the dunes?
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Chris And Janis Plouff February 2026
A slanting fence, bunches of dune grass, and patches of snow are patterns
in the Wilderness landscape. The winter tones are subdued: FROST
WHITE, PEBBLE BROWN, ICE BLUE, and BEACH SAND TAN.
Dan Kimball January 2026
Storm cloud 9\5\2018
Dan’s photograph stopped the commotion in the cloud just before he ran for the hills. I’m not a student of clouds, but I’d tag this one by its Latin name, Cumulonimbus.
Jay Sheridan December 2025
Jay had this sign designed and carved to mark a Wilderness place. We’re
drawn to the beach every season.
Missy Mayer November 2025
Missy is Mother Nature’s calligrapher. Her art supplies are driftwood and glue. She gives
Wilderness residents a beach identity with them.
Wally Ewing October 2025
We come upon much flotsam while beachcombing along the Wilderness shoreline,
such as driftwood, pebbles, snail shells, and shorebird feathers that wash ashore.
Wally found something more curious—a beachball of entwined reeds that he
imagined as a sculpture. He threaded it with a length of twine for hanging and
considered it a beach mobile. When Wally hung it at home, though, it lost its
charm.
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Marian Drake September 2025
Marian inherited hand-embroidered tea towels and featured them in a quilt
she sewed. The tea towels can be traced to Netta Cole Gay and William
Hovey Gay, Marian’s great grandparents. Marian said that she is not really
a quilter like Lyn Bullington or Juanita Sheridan, but felt compelled to make
her quilt out of sheer sentiment. There are memories in these towels. The
quilt could be titled “Stitched Stories” or “Art Through the Ages.” There
couldn’t be a better use for tea towels, in my opinion.
Juanita Sheridan
Lyn Bullington
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Kimball Photograph August 2025
These young Wilderness castle builders are Marc Marashi [Warren and Marcia
Pilling’s grandson], Julie Kimball, Danny Kimball, and Rob Kimball. The child
behind the spires in this collaboration is unidentified, probably a friend, relative,
neighbor, visitor, or total stranger. Anybody drawn to having fun on the beach was
included. Everyone onboard. You can’t be neurotic at the beach.
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Madeline Eberhard • Marilyn Green • The Heyl Family July 2025
Alchemists Madeline, Marilyn, and the Hyle family transformed plastic
flotsam that washed ashore on the Wilderness beach into whimsical art.
Madeline’s masks greeted guests at Kate’s door. Marilyn cut pieces into
squares and stitched them onto silk fabric to fabricate quilts. The Heyls
assembled fishing lures, bottle caps, and abandoned beach toys to make
mobiles and sculptural wall hangings. They may not be fine art, but they
are creative.
Tat Noll June 2025
Tat’s drawing of a smile and her words say a lot about her bright
spirit. Put on your hat, wear a happy face, and look up. After all,
you’re never fully dressed without a smile.
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Lyn Bullington May 2025
If the apple blossom is Michigan’s state flower, would it be right to say that
the trillium is the signature wildflower of the Wilderness? Lyn drew a
distinctive trillium and wrote a sentiment below it. It’s obvious that these
blossoms are welcomed in their back garden each May. She also focused
on trilliums that appeared through decaying oak and maple leaves and
wind-worn pine needles just off their driveway. The photograph documents
the rebirth of the three-petaled flower that is eagerly anticipated and grows
abundantly in our woodlands every spring. They’re a harbinger of warmer
weather.
Melanthiaceae is the family name of flowering plants.
NANCY OLTMAN April 2025
Wherever she is in the Wilderness, Nancy comes upon something in the landscape to
draw or paint, such as the signs posted at an intersection along the Wilderness Trail.
She drew it straight on the paper with a fine ink pen. The date is in the lower right
corner—1992. The montage evolved as families arrived and left. New families have
arrived in the last two years: Rob and Susan Ernst; Bill Hoyer and Jennifer Jones;
Andrew and Lena Koeman; and Gary and Lisa Simms. Welcome to
.
LINDA VINING March 2025
Oh, my galoshes! Linda photographed boot prints in the snow. Some frozen
forms may melt and eventually vanish but still leave a lasting impression. In
all temperatures, Linda and Paul wander along Wilderness Beach and the
shoreline beyond.
“Not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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LARRY BURNS February 2025
While Larry loves each season in the Wilderness, winter captivates him the
most. Perhaps it’s the interlude of hush and stillness which is sensed in the
photograph he took from the Wilderness Beach. Winter’s sleeping white
that colors the landscape submerges everything, hypnotizing and calming
us.
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LYN BULLINGTON January 2025
While walking Lucy along Wilderness Trail, Lyn takes impromptu snapshots
of images in nature that catch her eye along the way. Pictured here is one
that could be titled Ice Water on Tap.
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MATT AND KATHY OLDS-December 2024
The winter tones in the Olds’s photographs are subdued. I named them
shades of polar, whisper, porcelain, ghost, alabaster, ivory, mist, powder,
and pearl white. The snowy woods, dark and deep, recall a Robert Frost
poem. Are the stacked snowballs a cairn or a Zen-like minimalist
snowman? The icebergs hovering ashore captivate and comfort us.
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MISSY MAYER November 2024
Last August 12 when the sky was clear and the northern lights appeared vibrantly, Missy photographed the impressive display from our Wilderness beach. The admiring couple on the shoreline, the Big Dipper, and other solar activity furthered the drama. It’s especially appropriate that this is our November Art and Observations post because the Aurora Borealis continues to flare when the sky is very dark. The Aurora Alerts app reports the occasions of its presence and the locations of this inspiringly radiant show.
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JIM LOEKS-October 2024
GOLD AND ORANGE
Jim painted his impression of a wooded area he and Barrie call “The Old Oak
Valley.” Jim painted “Wilderness End” in 2011.
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TOM KIMBALL September 2024
FOREVER MOBILES
When eleven or twelve years old, Tom spent rainy days in the Kimball cottage
basement constructing mobiles from driftwood and sold them to his neighbors for
the asking price of $2.00. Some have remained for 60 years in Wilderness
cottages. Several are still floating around from the ceiling in their cottage.
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MISSY MAYER August 2024
Missy gave our beach a distinguished identity. Her art supplies were a driftwood
stick and wet sand.
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NANCY OLTMAN July 2024
The Oltman's footpath, like many in the Wilderness, trails over dunes and through beach grasses on its way to the shore. Nancy's sketches and paintings of the Big Lake, dunes, pines, beach, pebbles, and sandpipers, for example, record Mother Nature's presence in the Wilderness and signify PARADISE ENOW.
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OLDS FAMILY CONICAL FRAMEWORK June 2024
The Olds family constructed this driftwood tepee on their beach in June 2018.
Erosion caused it to collapse in 2020. Undaunted, they build another. We can
identify their tepee as the Olds family’s beach dwelling.
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