BEULAH — An award-winning piece of mixed-media artwork that gained state-wide prominence when it took home top honors at the prestigious ArtPrize competition may soon be headed to the chopping block – literally.
“Northwood Awakening,” a large piece of mixed-media artwork, took home the $200,000 grand prize at ArtPrize 2015 for winning the popular vote and juror’s grand prize at the annual Grand Rapids-based art exhibition.
Now it faces an uncertain future because of a pending divorce settlement between its two creators.
According to Benzie County photographer Steve Loveless, who created it with his ex-wife Ann Loveless, a Frankfort native and nationally renowned quilter and textile artist, the piece is part of the couple’s divorce settlement.
Under the settlement terms, as of Jan. 15, the piece will be divided between the two: He will get half and she will get half, he said.
“It’s tough because it’s a very unique, one-of-a-kind piece,” he said. “By splitting it, it ruins it.”
“Northwood Awakening” is a massive piece of mixed media, two-dimensional art that’s 5-feet-tall and 25-feet-wide and spans multiple panels. It portrays an emerging spring flora and fauna scene not far from M-22 in the Benzie County woods near where the artists lived.
Half of the piece features Steve’s photography work and the other half is Ann’s textile creation.
Ann Loveless also took home a top prize at ArtPrize in 2013 for a piece of textile art called “Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore.” Repeated attempts to contact her for comment for this story were unsuccessful.
The “Northwood Awakening” piece was originally on display at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in downtown Grand Rapids during ArtPrize Seven. After taking the popular vote there, it finished 2015 on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. It was later part of an exhibition at a gallery in Big Rapids before it was relocated to its current display at the Lucky Dog Bar & Grille in Beulah in late July 2018.
Lucky Dog co-owner and general manager Ray Knox said the piece has become a popular fixture – and attraction – at the restaurant over the past five-and-a-half years.
“It’s become part of our dynamics here, part of our ambiance and we’re sad to see it go,” Knox said.
It’s been hanging in the Lucky Dog since the business first opened.
“It has definitely brought some people in. Some people come in just to look at it, and that’s just fine. Other people come in to look at it, or see it once they’re here, and do stay for a drink or dinner,” he said. “I call it our Grand Champion.”
The vacated wall space might be used for merchandise, a large television – or both – once the art is removed, but patrons will be sorry to see it go.
“We’re preparing to do whatever we need to do on Jan. 15,” Knox said.
While the Lucky Dog’s large wall has been an ideal backdrop for the scene, Loveless said it’s been hard to find a new home for it because most galleries or private collections don’t have sufficient room to display such a large piece of artwork.
Loveless said it’s difficult to attach a value to the piece as it’s never been formally appraised. “We’ve been all over the board with pricing on it,” he said. “On one hand, it’s worthless because we can’t sell it; we haven’t been able to find a buyer.”
He said it’s also difficult to estimate how much time the couple put in to creating the piece, but estimated it could have been more than 1,000 hours. “It’s impossible to know. There was a remarkable amount of conceptualism for this piece… it has a lot of complexities beyond, ‘Oh, it’s a nice picture’.”
Loveless is still hoping to find a buyer and new home for “Northwood Awakening” before it’s broken up.
“In a perfect world, an organization or art patron would pay $100,000 and put it in a prominent place where people can enjoy it,” Loveless said. “Once the piece is split up, it’s split up.”