Arts & Apples has full weekend lineup

Art & Apples has full weekend lineup
By ASHLEY WOODS Special to The Oakland Press

Photographing crime scenes inspired Beverly Benson Wolf to begin a new career in digital photography. “I had a need to learn how to photograph, and I enrolled in adult education classes,” said Wolf, a retired captain from the Waterford Police Department. Since then, the 2006 Detroit 73rd International Salon of Photography awarded her “Best of Show” for large color print photography. Her original photograph, “Golden Morn,” will hang in the dining room of Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s residence until July 2008.
Wolf is just one of more than 250 artists appearing at the 2007 Art & Apples Festival, running Friday through Sunday at Rochester Municipal Park.
Sponsored by the Paint Creek Center of the Arts, the festival also features live music and dancing, two food courts, activities for kids and their famous homemade apple pies.
“It’s a beautiful setting, with trees, and the Paint Creek running through the park ... and there’s all kinds of events for families,” Wolf said.
For Rochester resident and full-time watercolor painter Rick Burger, the 42nd annual Art & Apples Festival is a time-honored tradition. “I’ve been involved with the fair since the mid’70s,” he said.
Burger, a former GM employee, teaches classes from his studio in downtown Rochester. He said the festival was ranked in the top 10 art fairs nationwide during the mid-1980s, but the slow Michigan economy now makes earning a living difficult for some artists.
“People do buy more traditional artwork at the festival versus contemporary, and I do traditional watercolor,” he said.
To Barbara Markham, selling her watercolor paintings at the Art & Apples Festival is just one more blessing in a series of miracles. On her birthday, five years ago, the former Utica art teacher suffered an aneurysm.
“It took 6 1 /2 hours of brain surgery for them to save me,” she said.
She spent the next 18 months relearning how to talk, walk, count — and paint. In 2003, she presented her first art show. Markham said she has now sold more than 200 watercolors.
“I feel they are very fresh ... they use a lot of bright colors: red, yellow, green,” Markham said.
Exposing children to art is another mission of the festival. The Kids Art Zone, created especially for youngsters, includes “make-and-take” art projects and a life-size Kids Art Maze. Back by popular demand is the My First Art Purchase tent. For $5, budding aficionados can purchase their first pieces of art, which are donated by art vendors and Detroit Institute of Arts resident artists. A special artist demonstration by the DIA also is planned.
There’s more to the festival than painting and sculpture. The new Interactive Activity Zone will include a rock climbing wall and the Henry Ford Rouge Motor Factory, where fairgoers can view the makings of a car from scratch. Dozens of food stands will serve desserts and meals.
The first Community Apple Pie Bake-Off, at 10 a.m. Saturday, will crown one cook the Art & Apples Apple Pie Champion.
This year’s festival celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Paint Creek Center for the Arts in Rochester. The nonprofit center is funded by the Art & Apple Festival..
“The money raised by the festival goes directly to our operating budget,” said Karen Cuthbertson, special event director for the center. “It’s our largest fund-raiser. And we need it to keep the classes going, the doors open and the lights on.”
An estimated 100,000 visitors are expected over the weekend, especially as Sunshine Art Magazine recently ranked Art & Apples Festival in the top 35 art fairs nationwide, she said.
Cuthbertson said more than 25 nonprofit organizations will work with the Art & Apples team this year, creating art for a cause.
“We’re very proud that Arts & Apples can help other nonprofits, as well,” she said.

A photo by Beverly Benson Wolf called “Golden Morn” will hang in the dining room of Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s official residence.Wolf is one of the artists featured at Art & Apples this weekend in Rochester.