Local artist featured at Cass City gallery
By Bill Petzold
Editor
CASS CITY — Caro artist Victoria Grace Scelfo doesn’t want her opening reception Friday as featured artist at the Artistic Endeavors’ gallery in Cass City only to be about viewing some pretty pictures on display.
She wants people to find inspiration they can take home with them.
“I don’t think art is just about creating things that hang on the wall or sit on tables, I think it’s about our inner voice coming out, and that could be sewing; it could be writing, it could be cooking in your kitchen for your family,” Scelfo said. “I just want people to come to this gallery and get inspired to know that they have a voice.”
An opening reception is planned for 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Artistic Endeavors, 6358 Main St. Artistic Endeavors is a non-profit gallery that promotes local artists. The public is invited and refreshments will be served.
Scelfo joined the group in March and this will be her first time being selected for featured artist. She was born in Cass City and raised in Caro, where she teaches watercolor painting. She studied at Delta College and at workshops with renowned watercolor artists, and has taught at Midland Center for the Arts, Shiawassee Center for the Arts, Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina and in her own private studios.
Among Scelfo’s works on display are vibrant watercolors of local scenery, as well as street scenes and more abstract still lifes. She explained that she uses a number of media and techniques in her work to achieve desired results, and demonstrated how she uses techniques such as continuous line drawing to create a sense of distortion in some of her abstract still lifes, then completes the piece with watercolors.
Scelfo says she hopes she pass along the idea that people can take creative satisfaction in anything they do.
“We’re born with an inate creativity – you put a crayon in the hand of a child, and it knows how to make its mark, whether it’s on the wall or wherever it is,” Scelfo said. “We all have that, and we still need to do that. In my brother it comes out in that he can do bodywork on cars and make them look (good); there are so many things that we don’t think of as creativity.
“Whether I sell anything is not the point to me. It’s about just seeing the gallery, feeling you’re in a creative space and maybe it’s going to get you inspired to go home and even just cook a better meal.”
Artistic Endeavors is open noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays and noon to 7 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Opening receptions are held the second Friday of each month. Scelfo said the group is seeking four members. For information, call (989) 872-1596 during business hours.