"DRAW ME IN" another Arts Cool program, sponsored by the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council was a big success with over 35 children in grades 2 through 5 participating. The program consists of children writing their own book and also Illustrating it. They all gathered at the Jodie McCallum Fine Art Gallery in Marblehead, OH. Jodie and her Husband, Grant were on hand to walk the children through the various steps of creating a children's book. Several of the children had ideas as to what their book was going to be about, while others gathered around Jodie after the session, to bounce their ideas off of her.

All of the art supplies, for each child, were available Free, by the Arts Council for the "DRAW ME IN" program.

Carol Morgan, the chairperson of this program, has also arranged a "Meet the Authors & Illustrators" on Monday, August 24th at 7:00pm at the Ida Rupp Library, in Port Clinton. This reception will be for family, friend and the community; to meet these budding young authors and Illustrators, who will be explaining and showing their books. Punch and cookies will be available - so stop on down and meet some of the areas new literary stars.

Our busiest "Art if it All" ever featured the talents of the DBC Jazz Band, featuring Mike Calhoun at lead guitar. Mike is a Grammy Award winner that founded the "Dazz Band" and is now playing with DBC. The overflow crowd ended up watching and listening to the band from the sidewalk and parking lot, after filling the patio seating area. This Jazz group will be performing at our October Art of it All event, scheduled on the 10th 2009.

The Lighthouse Resort's Ritskis Bar & Grill, in Marblehead, did a fantastic job providing an array of mouth watering munchies for the large crowd, it certainly went over in a big way and many people mentioned that they were heading to Ritskis after the event for their evening meal. Mutachs, our local grocery store, also should be mentioned for their suggestion on the wine selection for the event -believe me, there wasn't much of any spirits or food left after the event!

The Visual Arts was also well represented as many of the Gallery Artists were on hand to field questions and explain how they render the wonderful works of art that they have within the gallery. Jodie is presently working on a Christmas Book for 2010, her studio is within the Gallery area, so customers can view the progress of this book. It will be distributed by Borders, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million next year to co-incide with the 3/D Nativity Set highlighted below.

The next Art of it All event is scheduled on the third Saturday of August, the 15th. From 1:00pm - 9:00pm. So mark your calendar. Experience the Performing, Visual and Culinary arts at their best at the McCallum Gallery, in beautiful downdown Marblehead, OH - see you there!

Experience "The Art of it All" stop on down to historic Marblehead, OH on JULY 18th from 1:00pm to 9:00pm and enjoy Jazz and Blues, food and chilled white & red wine while several of our Gallery Artists demonstrating their unique talents on our beautiful Gallery patio. Click on image above to view the details. We'll see you all on Saturday the 18th.

Enjoy the wonderful scenic oil paintings of Donald Boncela, the top painting is named "Tranquility" and the lower one is titled "Monument Cove - Acadia National Park" The exquisite detail and rich colors bring Donald's painting to life. The Artist will be painting a series of scenes of the Lake Erie Islands & Shores, which will include, to name a few, the historic Marblehead Lighthouse and the scenic Cliffs of Catawba Island. Stop in the Gallery to view these wonderful pieces. Gallery hours are from 11:00am - 7:00pm (closed on Tuesdays).

This is a detail of some of the figures in the Nativity Set pictured below. If you would click on these images you will see the detail that the mold makers have achieved, it did however take several trips overseas to accomplish the results. The figures above are roughly 2 1/2" high