Local artist spreading culture through photography

Natalie LodicoBond is not a photographer - although that may be her profession. She is an artist who works with photography, and one who is passionate about improving and expanding the art scene in the greater Midland area and beyond.

A self-styled philosopher, Natalie was recently featured at the Counter Culture Art Gallery in Saginaw.

The event, titled “Petiole,” was meant to highlight both personal strength and also vulnerability through a series of portraits. It was the natural extension of her first event, “Rachis.” Both words refer to the stem of a plant (Rachis) and the stalk that connects the leaf to the stem (Patiole).

Besides the fact that she almost exclusively deals with human portraiture, the most striking component of LodicoBond’s work is the use of creative and often startling lighting techniques. Natalie says that she became enamoured with the play of light across her bedroom while she was confined to her bed, recovering from a severe bout with Lyme Disease. Both the emotional and physical struggle with the illness, but the gratitude that came with the recovery, helped her in her art.

When shooting the portraits for Patiole, LodicoBond was careful not to be too overt with her subjects, mostly personal friends and past collaborators, and wanted each individual viewer of her portraitry to be able to take something different away from it. Most of all, she wants it to be accessible, “You don’t have to want to be an artist to get into art,” is a personal motto.

The event at Counter Culture is just part of a larger personal goal of helping make the art culture in the area more viable, and most importantly, more local.

“You don’t have to live in New York to be cultured,” says LodicoBond. “It’s right here. It can be.”

LodicoBond also organizes the Gonzo Society, which is dedicated to helping local high school students experience art in non-theater settings. She feels that a non-theater art experience is something that is lacking in the Midland area, and community outreach this is one way to help see to that development.

Natalie LodicoBond's work can be found at https://www.photolodico.com/

Counter Culture Art Gallery can be found at http://www.counterculturearts.org/