Art & Style

North American Portraits: A Quintessential Road Trip

STORY AND PHOTOS BY ARMON A. MEANS

The traditional ideal of community structure was rooted in individuals’ formation of living groups derived from families and built through doing apprenticeships, seeking education, and returning to or remaining near the area where one was raised (generally within a 20-mile radius). In contemporary modernized society this ideal has become a relic as individuals no longer feel the need to remain near their place of birth. In addition, every year immigration and social change lead influxes of people to move to or within North America. Armon A. Means delves into resulting questions of individual and societal identity through his latest road trip photographic project.

MADE: An Unexpected Oasis of Beauty and Conversation

STORY BY HOLLY WREN SPAULDING

We must give you fair warning: Upon reading this article, you are likely to find yourself checking directions to the tiny village in Michigan where Melanie Parke’s The Provincial resides. As in her other MADE columns, Holly Wren Spaulding has introduced us to another artistic gem, in so many senses of the word.

Illuminating tall ceilings, vast white walls, and shiny, painted wood floors that evoke the vintage of this place, natural light draws me through the doors of The Provincial. As my eyes adjust, a collection of paintings come into focus, by some of painter Melanie Parke’s favorite artists: this is her studio as well as a space for showing others’ work and fostering artist projects.

Pink Vibes

COLLABORATION BY JONATHAN RANDALL GRANT AND WILL JOHNSON

Culture Keeper is all about collaboration, and this whimsical impromptu photo shoot by Jonathan Randall Grant, Culture Keeper’s founder and creative director, and photographer Will Johnson embodies this Culture Keeper ethos. For creatives, space to improvise and play is fertile ground for new projects! (For more creative projects that emerged from an artist’s playing, check out our MADE column.)

Two Paintings and an Encounter

STORY BY JANE POTTHAST

This week’s writer illustrates the power of art for guiding us to new places. For her, two paintings in a Vatican gallery thrust her into a spiritually profound encounter.

These, the “Pope’s paintings,” cried out to God more than any others as we wound through masterpieces in the sad, vast Vatican.

We were plodding through the quarters and it was less crowded than the other museums, as it was not on the path to the Sistine Chapel.

I started to tremble when we saw a Raphael, his last before death. A secrecy pervaded the image, forcing me to a craggy edge of longing at which my eyes watered.

When Still Life Isn’t Still

STORY BY DONNA FORDPHOTOS BY JOHN FORD AND DONNA FORD Culture Keeper contributor Donna Ford describes some of the unexpected

#HijabFashion

ARTICLE BY HEATHER M. SURLS

Our resident contributor in Amman, Jordan, takes us into the world of #hijabfashion, a commonly used hashtag for this burgeoning corner of the fashion world in which social media is a large part of the marketing strategy.

The Importance of Improvising

Contributor Joanna Marsh introduces us to a composer who taught her how to be free of the notes on the page.

Finding Interior Inspiration in Morocco

STORY BY DONNA FORD AND PHOTOS BY JOHN FORD

When traveling, Culture Keeper contributor Donna Ford discovers plenty of inspiration for her home’s interior. Here, she shares with us some of the style ideas she picked up as souvenirs in Morocco that are years later still showing up in her home design. From the decor of a luxury hotel to the energy of the medina, inspiration abounded during this North African getaway with her husband.

MADE: Karen Dolmanisth’s Big Little Things

STORY AND PHOTOS BY HOLLY WREN SPAULDING

MADE: A series of conversations with artists about how they navigate impasses and discover breakthroughs in their work.

To reach Karen Dolmanisth’s studio, I must first navigate a series of stairs, metal doors, and maze-like corridors in an old mill building in Florence, Massachusetts. Then follows a tunnel of books, artwork, costumes, and other ephemera gathered and carefully placed over the twenty years she has worked in this space.