Artist Patrick Dougherty’s medium is trees. Using young tree saplings as construction material, Dougherty creates captivating structures audiences can wander through and explore. He has built, and grown, pieces across the country and around the world. Pictured is Just Around The Corner, one of Dougherty’s twisted tree creations in New Harmony, Indiana.
Source: Patrick Dougherty
Minnesota’s celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern is giving out delicious advice on Twitter, including where to eat up on the North Shore. He snapped this photo of Kendall’s Smokehouse on Highway 61 in Knife River, famous for its smoked whitefish and herring. This isn’t the first time Zimmern has shown Kendall’s some love: the roadside smokehouse took the number one spot on his list of 12 Favorite Bites on the Road.
Source: Andrew Zimmern
Shinola, the Detroit-based manufacturing dynamo, has gone far beyond its signature product, the watch. It took on the bicycle and now Shinola’s two-wheeled cruisers are a thing of beauty. But what’s next? Women’s handbags, if all goes to plan. In May, Shinola opened a new leather factory and design studio in Detroit, with plans to break into high-fashion handbags in 2015. Fashionista has the details.
Source: Fashionista
Michigan has a rich history of design, from the auto industry to furniture dynamo Herman Miller. When Chicago residents Keith and Mary Campbell decided to buy a weekend home away from the city, northern Michigan was the natural choice. The Campbells transformed a lakeside ranch home from the 70s into a stunning showcase for their mid-century furniture.
Source: Dwell
Chicago restaurant Girl & The Goat has always served farm-to-table dishes, but now they’re actually bringing the farmers to the table. Farmers who supply the restaurant with fresh produce are visiting with staff this week to educate them about the growing process. The farmers from Three Sisters Garden stopped by to talk about the corn that goes into the sweet corn elote with tempura soft shell crab and shallot aioli.
Source: Girl & The Goat
Can the Motor City become the Bike City? Detroit Bikes’ first model is called the Model A — a nod to Ford’s iconic Model T, a car that shaped the history of the city. Detroit Bikes builds bicycles for getting around; their goal is to keep the price low and the design simple.
Source: Grist
The historical Michigan Theater has been many things, but its latest use is very unexpected: it’s a parking lot. It opened in 1926 as a movie house but by the 1970s it had become a rock venue. The rock’n’roll lifestyle wreaked havoc on the historical interior; much of the structure has now been gutted. But the theater’s not down for the count: it was recently purchased for an undisclosed amount, and rumors are flying about what’s next… We’ll have to wait and see.
Source: Huffington Post
Art is everywhere. That’s the goal, anyway. Museums around the country have banded together for a project called Art Everywhere U.S. They’ve selected 58 iconic works of art and rented out 50,000 billboards and signs across 170 cities. Pictured is Thomas Hart Benton’s “Poker Night” making an appearance in the Twin Cities. What have you seen in your city?
Source: Springboard for the Arts
Eva Duckler’s way ahead of the game. Just 17, she’s already founded a craft soda company to brew her own root beer and ginger ale. It must run in the family, since her older brother David Duckler is the owner of Verdant Tea. Her soda brand started as a school project but is now a full blown business: Tree Fort Soda. According to Heavy Table, the soda flavors comes with a real herbal kick. Can’t wait to try them!
Source: Heavy Table
This simplistic modern home stands out on its 4 acre lot in rural Iowa. The owners wanted a home that echoed agricultural architecture, and Substance Architects brought them this design, which draws on a two car garage for inspiration. Despite these humble roots (garages aren’t your typical dream home), the finished home is a stunner, day or night.
Source: Inhabitat
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is on tour: catch objects from their Modernism collection on display in downtown Minneapolis at the Wells Fargo Center. The objects are commonplace now — toasters, blenders, pencil sharpeners — but you’ve never seen them quite like this. It’s industrial design at its most inventive.
Source: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Sanborn Canoe Co. is celebrating the dog days of summer with a sale — but it ends tonight. Enjoy 20% off everything at sanborncanoe.com. Stock up for your next outdoor adventure or pick up one of their stunning painted paddles. All their paddles are handmade in their Winona, Minnesota workshop.
Source: Sanborn Canoe Co.
The views on Belle Isle have always been beautiful, but now you can take a seat and stay awhile thanks to new chairs recently installed at the Scott Fountain.
Source: Downtown Detroit Partnership
Wish you could go away to camp this summer? Try Camp Wandawega, a 1920s style resort in Wisconsin’s Sugar Creek Township. One of the resort’s main attractions is the tree house, built from mostly salvaged materials, including vintage windows and planks from a demolished dairy barn.
Source: Chicago Home
When you’re on a road trip, every gas station starts to look the same, but the Lindholm Service Station’s architecture might look familiar for another reason. The station in Cloquet, Minnesota is the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed service station in the world. It’s easy to see Wright’s influence on the structure, which is worth a stop if you’re headed up north.
Source: Wikipedia
The arts have played an influential role in the revitalization of Detroit. Pictured is Detroit’s Heidelberg Street, where artist Tyree Guyton has helped transform vacant homes into art installations. The street has since become the third-most popular tourist destination in the city, drawing visitors from all over the world.
Source: Creative Exchange
Chef Paul Fehribach grew up in Indiana, but with some heavy southern influences. His unique take on comfort food and farmhouse cooking quickly became a Chicago favorite after he opened his Andersonville restaurant, Big Jones. Now, he’s spilling his culinary secrets in a new cookbook from the University of Chicago Press. Get ready for great recipes and good stories. “Even pimento cheese has a kind of wild and interesting story,” says Fehribach.
Source: Chicago Reader
“Cabin” isn’t the first word that comes to mind when we see this Wisconsin wonder, but that’s how the architect thinks of it — an utterly modern cabin. Designed by Stephen K. Buetow, the weekend getaway is perched at the edge of the lake in central Wisconsin. Wait ’til you see the inside!
Source: http://stevenbuetowarchitect.com/2011/11/wisconsin-cabin/
The Roy Lichtenstein statue “Five Brushstrokes” was commissioned in the 1980s but never assembled…until now. The Indiana Museum of Art acquired the statue and their staff is currently hard at work unwrapping and assembling it. They shared this snapshot of the process. “Five Brushstrokes” consists of five separate pieces, one of which will hang 40 feet in the air. Can’t wait to see it when it’s done!
Source: Indianapolis Museum of Art
Where to go in Logan Square? Time Out Chicago just released their list of best shops and boutiques in the neighborhood. There’s a little of everything: chocolate truffles, used records and high fashion. Tusk made the list with it’s well-curated selection of apparel, accessories and handmade home goods.
Source: Time Out Chicago
Seth Deysach can’t shake his past as a bike mechanic. His Chicago furniture design studio, Lagomorph Designs, is in high demand, but every once and a while bikes creep back into his projects. Deysach will use bike-specific welds to finish off furniture pieces for a unique look. With this wooden bicycle, he embraced the crossover and constructed this stunning ride.
Source: Swipelife
The craft beer boom shows no signs of slowing down —the number of craft breweries has jumped from a few dozen in the 1980s to over three thousand today. The Pour Fool gives a rundown of the Top Ten Emerging Beer Towns, and three fall in the Midwest. (No surprise there). Columbus, Madison and St. Louis all made the list for their new brews.
Source: The Pour Fool
St. Louis Public Radio recently dubbed De Andrea Nichols an “Art Game-Changer.” The Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Contemporary Art Museum has built a reputation for organizing out-of-the-box public art events. whether its her FoodSpark potlucks or a ball pit built to encourage conversation.
Source: St. Louis Public Radio
Detroit chef Craig Lieckfelt is one of the city’s most celebrated culinary minds, but for the last year he hasn’t had a restaurant. That hasn’t stopped him: he’s been running pop-up dinners all over town in galleries and garages. The time has come to settle down, though. Lieckfelt will open Guns & Butter this summer, and he has his eyes on the prize. “I’m obsessed with Michelin-level dining,” he says. “Three stars. I’m obsessed with bringing that to Detroit.”
Source: Wall Street Journal
Saint Paul is home to a new distillery, 11 Wells Spirits. Their name comes from the old warehouse space they’ve taken over: it has 11 wells on site, one of which supplies the water used in their spirits. The other number floating around is 13, as in Minnesota Thirteen, their signature white whiskey. You can pick it up at liquor stores in the cities or grab a cocktail featuring Minnesota Thirteen at Saffron or Marvel Bar.
Source: 11 Wells Spirits