Host: Tessmer Book Bindery

Sponsor: Macomb Cultural and Economic Partnership

The Jian Bird is a Chinese Mythological bird that is born with one eye and one wing. The Jian birds according to the myth are said to be created as pairs and it is believed that they must find their other half to reach their full potential or to fly. The Jian bird also symbolizes marriage. In Japan they are known as Hiyoku no Tori.

“I am Michael Bennett, a 36-year-old metal artist from Wadsworth Illinois. Since I was a child, I have always been interested in understanding how things worked. I would always take mechanical toys apart and then put them back together in a more creative way. 

My Medium

Six years ago, I was in an accident and was paralyzed from the chest down. I had to learn to use my talents in a different way and continue to move forward in life. This is when I started using sheet metal, bolts, car parts, and other interesting metals to create artwork. I use many of the tools that I used as a fabricator and mechanic. I now create metal art in a pole barn in Wadsworth under the name Handicap Made

My Inspiration

My passion is creating and designing customer’s visions and dreams into metal. I have been commissioned to make monogramed driveway entry gates, personalized wall art, metal lettering on private businesses, silhouettes of beloved pets and much more. You can see my work on my Instagram account . My designs are also on display at the Grayslake Farmers Market. I would be glad to design and create your vision into custom metal art!”

You can see more of Michael’s work at https://michaelbennettdesigns.com or on Instagram.

The micro gardener at this sculpture has also been adopted by Tracy Mitchell.  Way to go Tracy!

Stop by our office located at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens and pick up a brochure of all our sculptures in the brochure box located on our front porch or at the Bonior Tree or Pollinator Park. There are now plenty of sunny days where a walk can be exhilarating.

If you want to support our efforts, please send  a small tax-deductible contribution to keep the next show going in  October 2026 – 2027 and be sure to like us on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/MCEP99 

The Bee Reader sculpture at the evolving MCEP Pollinator Park was installed in July of 2024.  It will be open to extend gifts of small paperback books for young readers and mature readers. Each month the Bee Reader will have two paperback books available. One geared for younger readers and one for mature readers. Please come and check it out. Each month’s selection will be available on the MCEP website with the book’s description.  If for some reason the books are not there just call us on 586 783 6008 and we will replenish the stock.

May Bee Reader Books

My Twenty Years in Baseball

By Ty Cobb

Edited by William R. Cobb

Introduction by Paul Dickson

By the time of his retirement in 1928, Ty Cobb had set ninety major league baseball records, many of which — including twelve batting titles and a .367 lifetime batting average — remain unsurpassed to this day. He was also a member of the first group of legends inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fiercely competitive and aggressive in his play, Cobb attracted controversy throughout his career. In this memoir, he reflects on a tumultuous era in baseball history as he recounts highlights from his twenty seasons with the Detroit Tigers.
The baseball legend offers observations and advice to players on hitting, stealing signs, base running, and other aspects of the game, along with assessments of his teammates and other contemporaries. Cobb’s candid reminiscences address his reputation for spiking opponents on the base paths and his suspension for attacking an abusive fan, an incident that led to the first professional baseball strike and the formation of the earliest players’ union. Unlike the usual ghostwritten sports autobiographies, this narrative consists of Cobb’s own words. Each chapter originally appeared as part of a newspaper serial in 1925, while the author was an active player. A rediscovered gem of sports history, this edition is the first commercial publication of Cobb’s recollections in book form.

Reprint of Memoirs of Twenty Years in Baseball, William R. Cobb, Marietta, Georgia, 2002.

African Animals Sticker Activity Book

By Jan Sovak

This entertaining little book puts a world of wild African animals — great and small — at your fingertips. Just arrange the stickers on the backdrop (shown on the inside covers) to create a dramatic African landscape. Thirty-two reusable images of a white rhino, leopard, lions, elephants, giraffes, hippopotamus, ostrich, and other creatures. You can create one exciting scene after another.

Location: SB Gratiot at Belleview

Host: The Forlini Family

Sponsor: Community Support

Available for purchase by an individual or group.  Purchase price: $15,000

Mike Sohikian, a retired ironworker, has been a member of the Bridge and Structural Ironworkers Local 55 for 37 years.  He has had a lifetime of love and appreciation for art, but did not begin his art career until 1995. Since then, he has garnered acclaim and numerous prestigious awards and recognition for his paintings and sculptures.  Sohikian is best known for taking salvaged steel to new heights with impressive and innovative concepts.  He assembles industrial materials as well as reworks the materials into fascinating forms. 

This sculpture is the third and last of the sculptures by this artist. The others are Confessions and Pescados. When we select the sculptures, we do not know who the artist is; just that we like the sculpture.

Mike lives in Genoa, OH.

Check out some of his work at https://www.facebook.com/russel.sohikian 

The micro garden at this sculpture has been adopted by Tracy Mitchell.  Thank you Tracy!

Stop by our office located at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens and pick up a brochure of all our sculptures in the brochure box located on our front porch or at the Bonior Tree or Pollinator Park. There are now plenty of sunny days where a walk can be exhilarating.

If you want to support our efforts, please send  a small tax-deductible contribution to keep the next show going in  October 2026 – 2027 and be sure to like us on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/MCEP99 

Look what’s growing now.

Quite robust perennial with typical leaf cups, native to Central-eastern Canada to southeastern United States

In average soils reaching 6′ tall x 2-3′ wide, but in moist loam can reach 8′ (in dry soil only 4′). Large yellow flowers (3″) show up from July till September.  This plant grows to 5 foot and is round in appearance. It sends out flower spikes in mid-August. It spreads by seed so if you do not want to spread cut flower spikes after blooming. If you leave spikes, it will be a natural bird feeder, but you will get seedlings in the spring.

Adaptable and tough plant, which will spread some by rhizomes to wide clumps or colonies.

It can grow in any soil – clay, average, with medium, moist, or wet soil. Once established, it tolerates some drought. It can flop when hit by heavy storm or after very heavy rainfall (especially in full bloom with heavy flowers).

Hardy in zones 3 to 9.

Deer resistant plant, very good pollinator plant – attracts Long-tongued bees, butterflies, skippers. But also, some short-tongued bees, wasps, bee flies, and other kinds of flies also visit the flowers for pollen or nectar. Host plant for larvae of two wasps.

Goldfinches and other smaller bird feed on seeds, drink water from cups and hide and rest in colonies of leaves.

We do have seedlings now for those who want to grow this native plant. Just call or email so we arrange that time for pickup. It takes one to two years to bloom. Good in full sun. All vegetation dies back to ground level each year and sprouts each spring with gusto.

If you are interested in receiving seedlings from this plant, please let us know by calling the office at 586.783.6008.

18. Golf Birds

By Jonathan Bowling

Location:  SB Gratiot & Wellington Crescent (NW)

Host:  City of Mount Clemens

Sponsor: Macomb Cultural and Economic Partnership

This is the last of three sculptures by this artist in our collection (Brea and Charleston Horse are the other two). 

Jonathan Bowling grew up on a small farm in Kentucky, where the Appalachian Mountains melt into the rolling hills of the Bluegrass. His first sculptural efforts were the simple games of childhood–fieldstone castles, a bridle of hay twine, a driftwood armada. As a teenager in the late eighties, Bowling lived in Belgium, where he had access to the museums of Western Europe. On his return to the states, he attended the University of Kentucky where he received his BFA in sculpture and a BA in art history. In 1996 he moved to Greenville, North Carolina, to pursue an MFA in sculpture at East Carolina University in 1999. He has been working out of Greenville ever since. Bowling has shown extensively in the Eastern United States, which has resulted in a number of long-term lease agreements and sales to municipalities and private collectors.

For the past 12 years I have been focused on public art, largely farm animals. These pieces are made with the intention of staying outdoors in a public area without the need for extensive maintenance. The materials I use are often from the turn of the last century, which I feel is appropriate for depicting animals so intertwined with our agrarian past. Repurposed steel provides a sound structure which allows me to work on a scale that lends itself to public spaces.

Check out more of his work at: https://jonathanbowling.com and on https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.s.bowling

One of our first sponsors for this sculpture were Sharon and Dana Gire.  We remember them fondly.

Stop by our office located at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens and pick up a brochure of all our sculptures in the brochure box located on our front porch at 92 NB Gratiot, or at the Bonior Tree or Pollinator Park. There are now plenty of sunny days where a walk can be exhilarating.

If you want to support our efforts, please send  a small tax-deductible contribution to keep the next show going in  October 2026 – 2027 and be sure to like us on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/MCEP99

Host: Clinton Township

Sponsor: Private Donations

The Bonior Tree sculpture was initiated by a small group of supporters who conceived, funded, and commissioned the sculpture in 2023.  It was designed and erected by the Nordin brothers who grew up in Sterling Heights.  The tree is a symbol of the Bonior years of passing out seedlings which over the lifetime of the project numbered over a million seedlings.  To this day you can find people who will show you the tree they or their family planted.  Bonior was a key supporter of environmental causes.  In fact, Bonior prevented the banks of the Clinton River from being paved with concrete up and down the river from the very spot where the sculpture now stands.

Next to the tree is a small monument which enumerates the many legislative efforts Bonior worked on during his time in the Congress.  Stop by and read it.

The area around the sculpture is being planted and landscaped by MCEP volunteers.  They were given a raw site that will be developed step by step.  This spring plant signage will appear for visitors’ benefit.  Native plants are a priority even though our friend the groundhog found the first plantings most desirable, and we are now shifting to a less desirable menu of native plants.

You can find out more about the Nordin brothers by visiting their website and Facebook pages: https://www.detroitdesigncenter.com/ and at https://www.facebook.com/nordinbrothers

Stop by our office located at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens and pick up a brochure of all our sculptures in the brochure box located on our front porch or at the Bonior Tree or Pollinator Park. There are plenty of sunny, spring days where a walk can be invigorating.

If you want to support our efforts, please send  a small tax-deductible contribution to keep the next show going in  October 2026 – 2027. 

Be sure to like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MCEP99/

Host: City of Mount Clemens

Sponsor: Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority

Available for sale by a group or individual.  Purchase Price: $19,000

Artist’s Statement – “I am a modern-day street alchemist, making beauty in the rubble.  Salvaging and manipulating cast-off materials, I transform the mundane into neo-surrealist sculpture, drawing characters from my subconscious into the world.  Recycling is important to the process, and I use scrap materials from a variety of sources in my projects.  With each new work I strive to break boundaries.  My art explores expression, gives life to animal and human creatures, and reveals magic and humor.  I want viewers to have reaction, to take a journey of imagination and perspective that makes them feel encompassed by a different work.”

You can check out his work at http://artandsculptures.com 

And on social media at http://Facebook-JamesOleson-Instagram-jamesolesonjr 

Stop by our office located at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens and pick up a brochure of all our sculptures in the brochure box located on our front porch or at the Bonior Tree or Pollinator Park. There are plenty of sunny, spring days where a walk can be invigorating.

If you want to support our efforts, please send a small tax-deductible contribution to keep the next show going in October 2026 – 2027.

These are two of three sculptures by this artist in our show this year. The third sculpture is Golf Birds.

Jonathan Bowling grew up on a small farm in Kentucky, where the Appalachian Mountains melt into the rolling hills of the Bluegrass. His first sculptural efforts were the simple games of childhood–fieldstone castles, a bridle of hay twine, a driftwood armada. As a teenager in the late eighties, Bowling lived in Belgium, where he had access to the museums of Western Europe. On his return to the states, he attended the University of Kentucky where he received his BFA in sculpture and a BA in art history. In 1996 he moved to Greenville, North Carolina, to pursue an MFA in sculpture at East Carolina University in 1999. He has been working out of Greenville ever since. Bowling has showed extensively in the Eastern United States, which has resulted in a number of long-term lease agreements and sales to municipalities and private collectors.

For the past 12 years I have been focused on public art, largely farm

animals. These pieces are made with the intention of staying outdoors in a public

area without the need for extensive maintenance. The materials I use are often

from the turn of the last century, which I feel is appropriate for depicting animals

so intertwined with our agrarian past. Repurposed steel provides a sound

structure which allows me to work on a scale that lends itself to public spaces.

Check out more of his work at: https://jonathanbowling.com and on https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.s.bowling

Stop by our office located at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens and pick up a brochure of all our sculptures in the brochure box located on our front porch or at the Bonior Tree or Pollinator Park. There are plenty of sunny, spring days where a walk can be invigorating.

If you want to support our efforts, please send  a small tax-deductible contribution to keep the next show going in  October 2026 – 2027.

The Bee Reader sculpture at the evolving MCEP Pollinator Park was installed in July of 2024.  It will be open to extend gifts of small paperback books for young readers and mature readers. Each month the Bee Reader will have two paperback books available. One geared for younger readers and one for mature readers. Please come and check it out. Each month’s selection will be available on the MCEP website with the book’s description.  If for some reason the books are not there just call us on 586 783 6008 and we will replenish the stock.

Our Bee Reader selections for April are:

• Irish Fairy Tales Edited by Philip Smith

The age-old charm of Irish folklore gives special sparkle to this collection of eight tongue-in-cheek tales. Wicked old hags, clever leprechauns, courageous tailors, evil giants, and other characters come to life in such fanciful yarns as “Hudden and Dudden and Donald O’Neary,” “Conal and Donal and Taig,” “The Old Hag’s Long Leather Bag,” “The Field of Boliauns,” “The Sprightly Tailor,” “The Giant’s Stairs,” “The Bee, the Harp, the Mouse, and the Bum-Clock,” and “The Black Horse.” Reset in large, easy-to-read type, with six illustrations, these beloved stories from the Emerald Isle will delight readers of any age with their warmth, whimsy, and sly humor.

• Native American Mazes by Winky Adam

This entertaining little activity book helps youngsters develop their problem-solving abilities as they navigate 33 exciting labyrinths and learn about Native American cultures. They’ll lead a Hopi boy to his lost Kachina doll, show an Apache hunter how to sneak up on a buffalo, and guide a Pequot to his campfire. Brief captions explain each of the mazes. Solutions are included.

We hope you will enjoy this month’s selections!

10. 11. 12

3D Printed Planter Sculptures

By Citizens Robotics

NW Corner of Inches St. & NB Gratiot

This was our first venture into 3D printing. Part of the MCEP Pollinator Park, these three 3D-printed sculptures create an impression of motion when viewed from a distance. While visiting the park, be sure to feel the unique textures.  This year, we plan to add vines to the planters. If you have experience with container gardening or have plants to contribute and would like to help, please let us know.

Citizen Robotics, a pioneering 3D printing company, aims to reduce the cost of housing construction by adopting advanced robotic construction techniques. They raise awareness about the possibilities of automation and showcase innovative solutions from around the world. Through our training center, we bring these cutting-edge technologies to the community, enabling people to build more efficiently using less labor and fewer materials. We are committed to upskilling today’s construction workforce for the future by providing training and hands-on opportunities in new housing developments.

To learn more about Citizen Robotics, visit their website at www.citizenrobotics.org and follow them on Facebook at Citizen Robotics.

Stop by our office at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens to pick up a brochure featuring all our sculptures. Brochures are also available at the Bonior Tree and Pollinator Park. With spring just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to enjoy a walk and explore the park.

If you would like to support our efforts, please consider sending a small tax-deductible contribution to help fund the next show scheduled for October 2026-2027.

Be sure to like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MCEP99 and visit our website at www.mcepmacomb.com