The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2024 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Michael Loderstedt
Professor Emeritus, Kent State University School of ArtPrint Media & PhotographyCleveland Ohio 44110 United States Home Phone: 216 219-7568
Bio
Michael Loderstedt’s first book of poems Why We Fished, published by Redhawk Publications, is inspired in part by his upbringing on the barrier island of Bogue Banks, NC. Escaping a failed marriage, his mother moved the family to the island in 1965 to live with his grandparents who’d built a beach house in Emerald Isle. It was remote then, accessible only by car ferry, much of it covered in dense forest and sand roads. Many of these poems explore themes of island life–– resiliency, self-reliance born of isolation, & countless days spent fishing.
Loderstedt’s recent writings have been featured in Muleskinner Journal, the NC Literary Review, Bangalore Review, & Musepaper. He received a 2020 Ohio Arts Council Fellowship in Literature for his memoir manuscript The Yellowhammer’s Cross. His visual art can also be found in the public collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Progressive Insurance, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Summa Health Center, the Akron Art Museum and the Kupferstiche Kabinett in Dresden, Germany and others. He is a Professor Emeritus of Kent State University’s School of Art where he taught printmaking and photography. He currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio near the shore of Lake Erie with his wife Lori and son Ethan. You can follow his projects on Instagram @m_loderstedt.
Artist Statement
My visual work and writing are tied to a sense of place. Using photographic processes, embroidery and fabric collage, I created Garden Archive– a series of fabric pieces that investigates the biome of my yard to get a better understanding of who’s needs it serves. Is there food and habitat for animals? Or is it my aesthetic pleasure that is being addressed.
My writing in poetry and non-fiction investigate the economies, geographies, cultures and biomes of the often invisible or vanishing. They are responses to deeply formative spaces, experiences and cultures. The role they’ve had on my life, my sense of purpose. They are deeply personal journeys that reveal a trajectory toward art from an underclass perspective.