Tag: Visual art

Outside the Lines — Manchester’s Jonathan Doyle Follows His Own Creative Instincts and Is The GIG 2026 Featured Poster Artist

Jonathan Doyle with wife Brooke Doyle in 2022. Courtesy photo.

Editor’s Note: Lori Stratton is on the board of GIG: The Art of Michigan Music Foundation.

For one of his latest posters, Jonathan Doyle decided to step outside his musical realm.

The Manchester, Michigan, graphic designer and poster artist took an architectural approach and drew a picture of the Chelsea Clock Tower.

“I love that building, so I took a couple of pictures of it, and I just drew it,” said Doyle, who owns JK Doyle Art & Design and creates concert posters for the Manchester Underground Music and Art monthly concert series.

On the poster, he created a majestic blue-and-purple version of the clock tower against a light blue and white mandala background.

“I tried to keep it as fun as possible, and I didn’t want to go full psychedelic because it’s Chelsea,” Doyle said. “But at the same time, I didn’t want to go mayonnaise, so that’s where I ended up.”

Doyle’s artwork is the featured poster for GIG: The Art of Michigan Music, an annual event showcasing the creations of visual artists, graphic designers, and concert photographers who work in music.

This year’s edition of GIG takes place July 24-25 in Chelsea as part of the city’s Sounds & Sights Festival. Doyle is one of 20 artists featured at the event, which is spearheaded by Ann Arbor residents Chuck and Brenda Marshall.

“Being a musician and an artist, I have been in both realms, and it’s the only place I’ve ever seen where those two groups of people are brought together,” he said.

To support that community, GIG includes a gallery of artwork and photography by the featured artists, a music market filled with prints, photos, records, and merch, and workshops focused on mental health, websites, graphic design, and photography.

“I’m kind of a hermit, and a lot of my artist and musician friends are hermits, so there’s nowhere for us to go,” Doyle said. “The community inside the community [at GIG] is really big for me.”

I recently spoke with Doyle about his background and work as a graphic designer and poster artist.

Continue reading “Outside the Lines — Manchester’s Jonathan Doyle Follows His Own Creative Instincts and Is The GIG 2026 Featured Poster Artist” →

Global Connections — Telephone Inspires Artists to Interpret Creative Works Across Different Media

Nathan Langston, founder and director of Telephone. Photo taken from Telephone’s website.

In 2010, Nathan Langston craved connection after moving to New York City.

The poet-composer wanted to meet other artists and developed an art project called Telephone, which is inspired by the children’s game of the same name.

“The game seemed like a sneaky way to meet other artists,” said Langston, founder and director of Telephone. “It took a long time, but it worked! At first, I was physically taking work from artist to artist around the city on the subway, but that took too long.”

Instead, Langston and other artists started sharing their creative works online for Telephone.

“We began passing works via the internet, which vastly increased the pool size of possible players,” said Langton, who’s now based in Seattle.

“The other thing we did was to assign each finished work to two or three artists, rather than one. That meant that the game branched outward like a family tree, and if any one artist dropped out, the game could continue expanding.”

To participate, artists sign up through the Telephone website, receive an anonymous piece of artwork from another creative to interpret, and then have two weeks to create their artistic response in a different medium. Continue reading “Global Connections — Telephone Inspires Artists to Interpret Creative Works Across Different Media” →