Meet the Artists
Dorris Akers
Dorris began her love of found objects after visiting an exhibit in the 1960s at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and discovered the world of found objects as art. Dorris taught weaving, fiber, leather and shoemaking at the Chicago Academy of Art and SAIC in the 1970s. In 1980 Dorris worked in non-profit art and museum administration; this career ran for over 30 years. She was also Director of the South Haven Maritime Museum. Dorris has dedicated her life to making art and being creative. She remains actively involved in exhibiting art locally.
Robert F. Battles
The impetus for this gallery, Robert, an artist who worked with many different mediums, ultimately would be known as a sculptor and artist who worked with paper, sharpies and colored pencils. His vast collection of art is a testament to his commitment to his craft - he was a purest in the sense that he was about making rather than selling or promoting himself. Robert worked for the last 30 years of his life as a full-time artist here, on the property where the collective is and we are privileged to have his work to share and show with the community. The resin/fiberglass sculptures from the 1960s were made during his time working at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago when he was an Assoc. Art History Professor, from 1960-1969, prior to moving to South Haven.
Joan Bonnette
A local of South Haven, Joan is a well-established and experienced watercolorist and collage artist who uses many different elements as a source of inspiration: the lake, nature, animals, and the combination of shapes and forms. Joan exhibits in juried shows throughout the mid-west and has sold artworks both nationally and internationally. She is a member of the Scott Club and South haven Center for the Arts.
Steve Brooks
Steve works with high-fire and porcelain clay processes. His creations are functional and designed with a sense of form and color that reflects his curiosity and love of clay, and the journey of learning to glaze and experiment with texture.
Diane Lynne Cheeseman
Abstract landscape and figurative painter from South Haven who passed away in March 2025, Diane has artworks in the collective at the request of her family. These beautiful watercolor pieces are local art treasures. Diane worked “plein air” or outdoors sometimes, and her work is well-known to the local community.
Ellie Dietrich
Ceramist from Glenn, Ellie creates slab work that is both functional and designed from the beauty around her and the property around her; the lake and garden being her inspiration. No two pieces are the same, and Ellie’s unique work stands out as a showpiece for any home.
Stanley Eisenman
Stanley Eisenman was a fine artist based in Westchester County, NY, whose work spans painting, sculpture, and graphic design. Born in Brooklyn in 1935, Stan was mentored by influential artists including Burgoyne Diller, Ad Reinhardt, Carl Holty, Jimmy Ernst, Kurt Seligmann, and Ivan Chermayeff. Stan founded New York design firm Eisenman Associates, creating award-winning visual design for clients including the Museum of Modern Art, Izod, PepsiCo, Philip Morris, Land O’Lakes, TWA, and Mirage Resorts. Stan’s artwork has been featured in Life Magazine and exhibited widely including at the OK Harris Gallery in New York and the Katonah Museum of Art. His art works are in the private collections of PepsiCo, Barney’s NY and the Westchester Philharmonic, among others.
Jim Foster
Jim sites his beginning into art with a project in his parish: to build an altar table, baptismal font and pulpit with repuprosed 100 year old cypress and wood from Heinz pickle barrels. This beautful result encouraged Jim to create more things out of scrap materials and develop a style that works with discarded metal and wood to create something new and beautful and in some cases, functional. Jim has taken classes at Oxbow and Kalamazoo Institute of Art. Jim has also won prizes with his work; 2019 in the KIA’s Western Michigan Area Show and also first prize in the annual Ostego’s Michigan Art competition.
Edward Hoagland
Edward is a South Haven local who lived in Chicago with a career in advertising and illustration for 45 years. He retired last year and is now a full-time artist. His drawings are a reflection of his passions and interests: cartography, astronomy, animals, languages, and symbols that feel very mystical and from an otherworldly time. He uses pen, ink, and watercolor to create beautifully mastered works of art that take the viewer on a journey - he gives you the clues, you take the path you are meant to take to the local community.
Miodrag Mihailovic
Miodrag, or Michael as he was known, came to the US in the 1950s from Yugoslavia as a doctor/surgeon and worked in Chicago. He joined a group of artists in 1969 and moved part-time to San Bar on 74th St. in South Haven to paint, and eventually retired there to build a studio and paint on Lake Michigan full-time. His work is very much about the movement of the Lake, and the precision of the style is both mesmerizing and rich with color and movement.
Lisa Ross Miller
Lisa Attended the Central School of Art and Design in London, UK. She has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and also an MFA from the University of Chicago. Lisa was a teacher at St. Xavier University. Her paintings are in collections nationally and she has been the recipient of several awards, including The Francis Freedman Prize for Excellence in the Fine Arts, U of C., and she also won a summer study grant at Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI. and a CAAP Grant from the Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Chicago.
Georgia Norton
Georgia is an artist from Paw Paw, MI, who welds using a range of found and sourced metal and materials that she fits and welds together to create shapes and forms that function both as decoration for indoor or outdoor use in your garden space. Her abstract and quirky sense of construction makes her work both accessible and very
creative and interesting.
Anne Rivers
Anne’s earrings are made from sterling silver, brass, copper, stones and beads. She loves pounding metal and shaping it into her vision. When making earrings she uses her physical self, creativity and her design sense to put them together in a fun and functional way!
Budimir Tosic
Serbian born, Budimir arrived to the Chicago in 1947 after studying art in Paris at the Ecole Des-Beaux Arts. He also went on to complete a B.S. in Structural Engineering, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL in 1953, and in 1957 he completed his MFA in Art from the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL and in 1957, License in Architecture, State of Illinois, 1966 Certificate of Teaching, State of Illinois. Budimir met Miodrag Mihailovic in Chicago (who he hangs next to in this very gallery) and the two friends came together to South Haven where they both bought places in San Bar as studios. Budimir painted here in South Haven in the late 1960s and early 1970s with not only Lake Michigan but also the group of artists that were here at this time as his major influences.
Carol Unites
Carol has been an artist from when she was little, creating and making beautiful things as far back as she can remember. Originally from the Chicago area, Carol lived in California for about 20 years where she worked as a successful Portrait artist. But she found her way back to the Mid-West and landed in South Haven and in 2007 Carol launched her business - DayDreamers Jewelry.
Lou Wolf
Formerly a potter, Lou has transitioned to painting and uses a technique with hand printed papers to infuse or layer into her paintings, adding and panting on top to create a rich series of pattern and color. Lou’s work is abstract but she does lean on landscapes for subject matter, shapes and forms to guide her process.
