Alison Healy and Neil Sherman receive Graham Studio Residencies

 

Two Cook County residents, Alison Healy and Neil Sherman, are the first artists to be awarded Graham Studio Residencies from the Grand Marais Art Colony.

Under the program guidelines, Healy and Sherman will each receive a monthly stipend plus studio access.

Funding came from the Blandin Foundation Leadership Boost Grant for this inaugural program. In the future, the Art Colony hopes to continue offering the residency.

Healy and Sherman will be resident artists from February 1 to October 31, 2023, and both artists will also engage the community in various activities from their two open studios.

While many know longtime local artist Neil Sherman, Alison Healy is relatively new to our area.

Meet Alison Healy

For 13 years, Alison Meredith Healy made Boston her home, but when the COVID-19 pandemic began, “The work started to dry up, and I decided it was time to move somewhere more rural. Somewhere where I could concentrate more on my art.”

Alison Healy

That search led her back to her home state of Minnesota. “A former high school art teacher told me (the late) Birney Quick had started an Art Colony in Grand Marais, and he suggested I check it out. Birney taught at the same college I attended, so when I looked into Grand Marais, I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

Alison moved to Cook County in December 2020 during COVID. “It was a quiet winter, and I kept to myself and worked on art.”

Alison grew up in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, a town about the size of Grand Marais, not too far from Grand Forks, North Dakota. She said she couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t coloring or drawing, even as a young child.

“I was born to be an artist. It’s what I love to do.”

In high school, Alison quickly ran out of chances to expand her artistic skills, so she left after tenth grade to continue her education at Northland College. At Northland, Alison completed high school and achieved her Associate’s Degree. Next, she attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), where Birney Quick had taught.

Fleur Delacour Wand made from Vinewood

At MCAD, students learn about visual arts, design, fine arts, and media arts. This set of skills allows her to create an illustration, take it from design to production, and finally, to a finished product.

“Having these skills makes me more marketable. Of course, if I could do art, just paint all day, I would, but you have to pay rent, pay for groceries. You have to make money, and these skills allow me to make a living.”

Alison markets herself as an illustrator, designer, and artist, but ultimately she said she would like to be a fine artist. She has done album covers for a variety of musicians; her latest is for a violin playing cousin, Alex Conwell, whose sweet-sounding CD is called Fractal Skies.

When asked if she has traveled, she smiled and replied that her love of British illustrators led her to study for six months in Brighton, England, a seaside city known as the UK’s “hippest city and the happiest place to live in the UK.”

Custom Olivewood Wand with Olive Branch Carvings and natural peral inlays

“Brighton has a lot of characters. It’s kind of like San Francisco with a lot going on, a lot of creativity with old folk charm.”

Currently, Alison works at Joy & Company downtown Grand Marais, a hot spot for artists to display and sell their art, as well as a treasure trove of art supplies available for purchase. Additionally, she has an After School Art Camp for kids 7-12 on Tuesdays, which isn’t her first brush stroke working with kids.

“I taught at the Elliot School of Fine & Applied Arts in Boston,” she said. “It’s one of the oldest schools in America, started in 1676 by the Rev. John Eliot.”

When asked if there were any other artists in her family, she stopped and thought for a second. “Well, my dad, he’s a normal Minnesota guy. He hunts and fishes, but he’s also a builder, an iron worker, a designer and a welder. He’s made some pretty creative stuff.”

Reclaimed Redwood Vine Wand

Besides painting and drawing Alison is also an accomplished wood worker.

In 2011 Alison began working for OrchardWorks Magic Wands. “They made hand-carved wands. It was the big Harry Potter craze.” Today Alison continues to make ornate custom wands, wooden guitar picks, and pendants through her company, Rooted Relics.

She said she is excited about her residency through the Grand Marais Art Colony. “I hope to pull the community in, to include more people in the art colony. I’m not sure how that will look, but it’s the goal of mine to make art more inclusive.”