Pines as a paintbrush: Art From Our Parks helps Mount Pleasant community to blend art, nature
Sitting at a picnic table, two young girls carefully selected objects to decorate their canvases with. One girl picked up a bundle of pine needles, dipped them into bright pink paint and began to run them over her canvas.
Art From Our Parks was held in Deerfield Nature Park on Saturday, giving local artists the opportunity to display their work around the booths set up for children and adults to create their own artwork.
“It brings people out to the park who wouldn’t otherwise come here,” said Katrina Stock, organizer of the event. “It’s challenging to find something new and interesting every year, but we give people the opportunity to create art and do something creative, even if they don’t think they’re creative.”
The event, sponsored by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs as well as the Saginaw Artist Enrichment Commission, celebrated its ninth year. Several creative outlets were available around the park, including live music and dance performances. A bonfire was lit for families to gather around, as well as a variety of booths and stations for people to create arts and crafts.
Some stations set up included painting canvases with items from nature, creating door hangers, decorating mugs and coasters, making water marbled bookmarks and crafting fall-themed trees from scraps of construction paper.
There was also a caramel apple booth, a story time booth, and a henna art booth.
“It was a good chance to be outdoors and be creative,” Davison junior Erin Webster said. “I’ve never been to Deerfield Nature Park before. It was a nice opportunity to see the park and do something artsy.”
Ashley Whitten volunteered at the event, overseeing the coasters and mugs decorating booth. She said nature inspired designs were a common theme.
“It’s going really well, and everyone’s actively engaged at all the booths,” Whitten said. “I like being here and being able to do art outdoors — it’s fun to be out in nature while creating something.”
