While visitors have come to know the festival by talented artists who come from miles away to visit the Grand Old City, the opening act of the 26th annual Dogwood Fine Arts Festival featured the talents of people who call southwest Michigan home.

The 10-day long humanities festival kicked off Thursday afternoon with the first ever Merchant Art Stroll, which took place at various storefronts downtown. During the event, visitors were invited to check out each of the participating businesses, which were displaying art from one or more area artists.

Following the stroll that afternoon, many of the artists and guests assembled at the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival office for an opening night reception. In addition to enjoying some finger food and a glass of wine, visitors to the office that evening got to look at some artwork hanging from the walls of the gallery,
created by Dowagiac’s Sharron Ott, the main organizer of the Art Stroll, as well as by artists with the Cass Area Artists.

Among the people stopping by the Dogwood gallery that evening was Dowagiac shutterbug Suellen Gause. The local photographer was one of the artists exhibiting her work for the Art Stroll, setting up shop inside Vincent J. Jewelers alongside Niles’ Neil Benham, who was displaying his unique wooden bowls.

This was the first year that Gause has had a chance to display her artwork with Dogwood, she said.

The festival previously sponsored a similar event to the Art Stroll, called the Art Walk, where area artists put their work up for display inside downtown business windows. However, by placing the artwork inside the stores, customers could actually meet the artists and possibly purchase artwork from them — as well as check out the goods and services inside the venue hosting them for the evening.

“It was a neat, new experience, not only for the artists but for the businesses as well” Gause said.

The photographer — who received an award from the state’s Pure Michigan campaign several years ago — displayed photographs she has taken from various Michigan locations, including one of Lake Michigan. She also had some pictures of her garden, flowers, bumblebees and other springtime subjects.

“Dogwood is a wonderful event,” she said. “I was honored to have had the chance to participate after so many years of watching from the audience.”

Gause’s photographs were not the only art pieces that stood out Thursday.

Stationed inside Round Oak Revisited was Niles’ Bob Knight, who was showing off his handcrafted wooden toys.

“There is some excellent people there,” he said. “I really liked the building and the facilities. We [the owners] and I really hit it off right away.”

A retired banker and truck driver who worked upwards of 60 hours every week, Knight said he began making toys more than eight years ago as a way to kill time, he said.

“My wife would tell me, ‘You know, now that we are both retired we are going to drive each other nuts,’” Knight said. “So, I decided to spend most of my day out in the workshop. Now my wife is always asking me, ‘When are you are coming back to the house?’”

Starting out making vintage-style toys from the early 1900s, Knight has since moved on to creating more playable pieces, like trains, cars and trucks, he said. He recently finished creating a miniature Chinook helicopter that he mailed to his son, who flew the aircraft during his stint in the military, Knight said.