Inside the Booth: Dana Bustamente and Becca Schlaff

At left, painter Becca Schlaff at work in her East Lansing studio.
Thursday, May 19 — A college semester in Kenya brought East Lansing artist DanaBustamante’s pen to life — along with her watercolors, oils and anything elsethat was lying around.
One of seven Emerging Artists in the 2011 East Lansing ArtFestival, Bustamante found the subject of everyday life in Kenya more importantthan the medium.

She experimented with many media, including oils,watercolors, pen and ink and recycled surfaces, like cupboard doors andwindows.

“They recycle everything there,” she said. “I was inspiredby that.”

The pace of life in Kenya fascinated her.

“There’s a feeling of community, comfort and interactionbetween people that is a little bit lacking here,” she said. “People would justsit around, talk to each other, basically just hang out together.”

The most spectacular product of her trip is “Swahili Old Town,”a mixed media, 4-by-17-foot panorama. It doesn’t look crowded, but it’s filledwith more than 50 figures, caught in the midst of ordinary bustle.

But most of her sketches are small vignettes.

If her pen-and-ink style recalls the rustic etchings of Rembrandt,it’s no coincidence. She has a print of Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a Fat Man”hanging at home.

“That’s definitely something that’s influenced me,” shesaid. “I lean toward that when I’m doing sketches of people.”

A native of East Lansing, she knows the art festival well.The Emerging Artists program sets aside booths for artists who have neverexhibited at a juried show.

“I’ve been going to the festival my entire life, and it’sreally fun now that I’m going to be a part of it,” she said.

Give some people a trout and they’ll reach for a knife, afork and a lemon wedge.

When East Lansing painter Becca Schlaff saw a brown troutand a rainbow trout for the first time, her life changed.

“I never realized how beautiful these fish were,” Schlaffsaid. “This is real? I was blown away.”

Schlaff’s expansive, semi-abstract riffs on the colors andforms of fish landed her a return invitation to the East Lansing Art Festivalthis year after being named an Emerging Artist in 2010.

Schlaff grew up in rural Pinckney, on the Huron River. Shewas fascinated by animals, and started sketching horses as a young girl.

“I’ve always been an artist, but was pushed in differentdirections,” she said. “I went to Michigan State University in pre-vet, bounced around, did businessfor a year, just trying to figure it out.”

She did pet portraits, including horses, but found the workunsatisfying.

“I would spend hours on them,” she said. “I could capturewhat I was looking at, but there was no emotion to the work.”

Two years ago, Brian Bielecki, owner of Nomad Anglers inOkemos, showed Schlaff the fateful fish. Bielecki is a fly fisherman andcollege friend of Schlaff’s.

All at once, a more expressive, open-ended way of paintingfrom nature opened up. Schlaff was deeply moved by the colors and textures inthe skin and scales. Perhaps just as importantly, she didn’t know why.Mysteries almost always kick art up a notch.

“As an artist, it’s great to have a question for yourself,”she said. “Why do I react that way? From that first picture to now, I still seepictures now and gasp and get excited.”

Her first painting, for Bielecki’s shop, was the browntrout.

“It zoomed in on the skin, the colors and spots,” she said.“It was pretty abstract.”

People began to notice.

“I would get phone calls from fishermen,” she said.

Anglers appreciated her accuracy, but Schlaff got a biggerkick out of showing her work to “normal” people and waiting for the “a-ha”moment.

“It makes somebody stop and say, ‘Oh my God, I’m looking ata fish,’” she said.

For Schlaff, the reaction is a lot more fun than hearing“wow, it looks just like a photograph” for the umpteenth time.

“It’s important to take that step back and think, ‘Wow, thisis in our world, and it’s important that we recognize this beauty,’” Schlaffsaid.

In addition to the Finnish painters, German abstractexpressionist Gerhard Richter is an inspiration.

“His paintings kill me – squeezy bands of paint, drips,”

Schlaff said. “Maybe it’s me, but I see the river, water,and that drippy effect.”

Now that Schlaff’s fish fantasia are in demand, she doesn’tmiss the pet and horse portraits at all.

“I can draw photo-realistic images, but when it comes to thetopic of nature, I feel so passionate about it,” she said. “Through theabstract mechanism of painting, that emotion comes out.”

In fact, the abstract-fish theme seems to weave togetherevery strand in Schlaff’s life, from her river-loving youth in Pinckney to herlove of drawing and painting and even her degree from MSU in apparel andtextile design.

“It’s the trifecta of awesomeness!” she said. “We all getwhere we’re supposed to be somehow.”

There’s only one catch: big passions require big canvases.