When I moved to Bay City, Michigan, from Beaver Island, my artist friends all over Michigan sang, practically in chorus, “Bay CITY????” A friend who grew up around here and still lives here has frequently suggested “Bingo, Beer and Bowling” as the city slogan. That works, along with Bars, Boats, and Vehicles–American, please–this is car country. And I’m happy here. It’s friendly, tolerant, inexpensive, and just fun. We have a river AND a Great Lake (Lake Huron), and we are pleasantly lagging in “progress.”

But some things are changing to my liking. Last Monday night, several of us women started a book club, our choice for a first read being “The Kite Runner.”

And now Bay City has its own Bijou Orchestra, which, led by director and violinist Leo Najir, puts on concerts and performances of many descriptions–just last night I saw “I love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” with four excellent imported professional actors. It was performed at the newly acquired cultural center: The Scottish Rite Masonic Temple Auditorium.

Tonight I’m going to see Central Michigan University’s first ever opera, a performance of ‘The Marriage of Figaro,” a good friend and neighbor having made over thirty costumes for it when she wasn’t teaching eighth grade special education classes full time. She roped all her friends into the project–I sorted the profusion of jewels that she sewed on by hand.

And now, on the first Thursday of every month, starting on May 5, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., an Art Walk welcomes Bay City and neighbors to explore our downtown galleries: Start at Fourth Street and walk down Washington to visit
A & J Gallery, Nielsen Gallery, Garden of Art, and Jeff Ward Gallery. Find A City Studio just off Washington on Fifth Street, and on Fifth and Water find Studio 23. Click here for more information.

The painting is my latest, just finished: Acrylic on paper measuring about 15 x 24 inches. Click on the image to enlarge it.