By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Creekside Greenhouse features Larry Collins' latest piece, a montage of Ray Charles, at a one-man show on Saturday, Aug. 13, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Collins wants to develop an art gallery in the house adjacent to the greenhouses he uses as a studio.
On the easel in his studio is the panel where he's been penciling a trumpet swathed in hosta leaves three times that he will be woodburning during his show.
The genesis of the Charles piece occurred before the rhythm and blues and gospel legend's death with a comment to a woman that he wanted to do a tribute.
He sketches the piece before woodburning the image with a soldering iron.
Collins will be making the Charles homage available as a print.
He wants to make his artwork available over the Internet.
He and Mildred live across Pokagon Street from the business entering its sixth season. She continues to work for Ameriwood and he continues to work for Preferred Printing.
With his one-man show he envisions a layout interspersing his artwork with a leisurely stroll along the four plant buildings that will expose visitors "to our business, to know we're here, and to know I'm here with my artwork as well."
Collins' immersion into wood-burning began innocently enough standing in line in a supermarket.
He noticed a deer burned into a small piece of wood. Fascinated, his immediate reaction was, "That would be devastating on something huge. I never knew anything about it, but I guess people had been doing stuff like that for a long time. I went searching. My father's little soldering iron didn't hold up, so I made one using a light switch.I burned that up. I just kept on refining it. They call me the master in Detroit, but there are others."
He flips one piece over to reveal that his handsomely detailed scene covers an old skid.
"Somebody will still have this on their wall because it's neat," he figures. "With this on their wall, they're going to have a very unique house."
Poplar works well, he said. Birch, too.
Ray Charles took four to five months to create.