Art - Patricia Innis

Patricia Innis' work reflects the spirit of times past and the study of their transformations. An environmental artist, she integrates art and nature in works like Field Projects, selectively cutting paths in huge fields of corn or grass that, when viewed from the air, are revealed to be intricate designs and symbols. Because of the natural mediums used in her art, many of her finished pieces are documented with photos and videos. Innis' work is included in the public collections of Bowling Greene State University, Northwestern University and the Central Iowa Airport. She has also provided illustrations in Embroidered Horizons, a poetry anthology, and in the History of the Pioneer Picnic.

Patricia Innis received her master of fine arts degree from Maharishi International University and her bachelor of fine arts from Bowling Green State University. A committed educator and University Professor, Patricia Innis works closely with students from area schools while installing her art.

Logging Camp was originally created as a series of ephemeral works commemorating the men who worked in the camps during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The artist's grandfather was among those that participated in Michigan's "timber rush," harvesting millions of trees from virgin forests.

The original images for Logging Camp were intended to be temporary. During each season, beginning in fall 1999 and continuing through the summer of 2000, Patricia Innis created silhouette-like images on trees throughout the park, the images were selected from family photos and placed on trees using natural materials of the season including snow, fallen leaves and dye she prepared herself from berries and bark. The art was so popular that Innis was asked to make some of them more long lasting. Take a moment now and then to look for the spirits of Logging Camp as you tour the park.

In 2002 environmental artist, Patricia Innis, completed the installation of a 120 foot Serpent Mound.  The Serpent winds its way through the woods and has an open mouth about to swallow an egg.  The Serpent is 2-3 feet in height and 5-6 feet at the base. Both the serpent and the egg are made of sand covered with a layer of top soil and mulch.  Sweet Woodruff ground cover blankets the serpent while moss grows on the egg.

The serpent references the ancient mound building people who came from the Mississippi River Valley.  As the Ottawa migrated into what is now Michigan, their legends tell of finding the Yam-Ko-Desh, or Prairie People, who were “thicker then leaves on a tree.”  The many mounds and small animal sculptures they left behind testify to their existence in the state. 

Innis worked with students from three school systems to create ceramic animals to bury in the mound.  Each animal carries a wish for the world.  Animals students wanted to see increase in the world were buried in the serpent, while things they wanted to eliminate were buried in the egg.

As well as paying homage to the Yam-Ko Desh people, the Serpent would also represent the numerous types of snakes inhabiting Michigan.

Serpent Mound was paid for by grants from The Michigan Council for Arts and Culture and a private family foundation.

Hemingway Haunts was supported by a 2004-2005 grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. Under the leadership of Innis, students in Mancelona and Frankfort learned about Hemingway. Painted with natural dyes, these five figures depict Hemingway as Nick Adams the young man; Nick Adams the child; Gregoria Fuentes, the captain of Hemingway’s boat the “Pilar” (representative of the hero in the “Old Man and the Sea”); and two characters Robert Jordan (modeled after the actor Gary Cooper) and Maria (modeled after the actress Ingrid Bergman) from the movie version of the book “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.