Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.


Healing Colors could very well be the name of an exhibit featuring the artistry of five Michigan-based Latinx artists which will be displayed through the end of July at Commerce Pointe in downtown Battle Creek.
 
The exhibit is actually titled “Los Artistas of the Great Lakes Expo,” but Fausto Fernandez, one of the participating artists, says he keeps gravitating towards healing colors because of the healing properties that are within the paintings that hang on the walls of the common space area at Commerce Pointe.
 
“With healing colors, we’re talking about how there are no compromises. If you have something within you that you want to express I tell people to take it out of yourself and put it into art,” Fernandez says. “I have three people right now who have shared with me that they have depression problems. I have encouraged them to express what they’re feeling through art.”
 
As an artist and a human being who has struggled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, he has an intimate relationship with the power of creativity and how it can transform a person’s outlook on life.
 
Born in the Dominican Republic, Fernandez began drawing at an early age. When his parents separated in 1969, he began drawing using pastels. At the age of 14, he told his mother that he didn’t want her to have to support him financially and he turned his love of creating art into a business enterprise.
 
Fausto Fernandez poses in front of some of his paintings which are part of the LAGL exhibit at Commerce Pointe.“I saw other guys doing painting and I knew I had the drawing skills,” Fernandez says.
 
During time spent at a Montessori school, he learned how to paint which gave him the confidence to proclaim himself a painter.
 
“I wasn’t that good at the time, but I was getting more perfect,” Fernandez says. “I think I have this style to honestly if you see my painting, I’m just trying to express something direct. I grew up doing artisan painting which you have to do fast and serious.”
 
This meant getting up at 4 a.m. to have enough paintings to sell at various art fairs throughout the Dominican Republic. Rather than canvases, he used leaves from a sea grape plant.
 
Eventually, he moved to New York City and employed that same “fast and serious” work ethic to create his art on city streets. By this time he was using acrylics instead of pastels. He chose New York because of its large population of people from the Dominican Republic. By this time his family had relocated to Battle Creek to be near other family members.
 
9-11 would be his reckoning
 
“Before 9-11, I had broken my spine in so many pieces after falling down basement stairs and when 9-11 happened New York was getting kind of spooky and I had PTSD. I knew I had to leave New York and be reunited with my family in Battle Creek,” Fernandez says. He came to Battle Creek in late 2001 and continued to paint and sell his work while also forging friendships with other Latinx artists that eventually led to the formation of the group now exhibiting their work locally and throughout Michigan.
 
He met fellow artists Xenia Rose Shafer, who is of Panamanian descent, and Coco Sweezy, originally from Mexico, during a Spring Into the Arts event in 2022. Battle Creeks’ Latin American Heritage Initiative had invited Latin American artists to participate.
 
“We decided to get together and create a group of artists to do expositions and create a small organization,” Fernandez says.
 
“We both like doing art and we wanted to bring more Latino artists together,” says Sweezy, who lives in Marshall and is a well-known painter locally and nationally.
 
Carol Bueno, an artist and member of LAGL, talks with visitors who came to see an exhibit of LAGL's work at Commerce Pointe.The group grew to five with the recent addition of Carol Bueno, originally from Colombia and living in Grosse Pointe Shores, and George Martinez, who makes his home in Battle Creek.
 
Martinez utilizes human hair cut into tiny pieces and then manipulates them on a ground of felt to create portraits. He views his art as innovative and enriching.
 
“I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. However, due to typical life needs, my art was asleep within me for decades,” says Martinez who has created more than 70 major large-scale works, had six exhibits, several commissioned projects, and has sold 32 pieces.
 
He and his fellow LAGL members say they came together and formed LAGL to inspire everyone who has an artistic vocation or appreciation, and to share their different cultures and inspirations with Hispanic artists and all who love art.
 
“Being part of Los Artistas of the Great Lakes group is especially important to me,” Bueno says. “Because of our shared culture and language, I feel a special connection. I hope I can be of some inspiration to young Latino artists and artists of other ethnicities.”


Linda Tafolla, Curator of the Commerce Pointe GalleryLAGL’s exhibit at Commerce Pointe came together under the direction of Linda Taffola, Curator of the Commerce Pointe Galley. After leaving her job with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 1992, Tafolla, herself a painter, says the thought of moving back to her native Texas was “too much to think” about. She began volunteering with the Art Center of Battle Creek in its membership area which eventually turned into a full-time job. Then she began to think about forming her own business that would focus on the installation of art at no cost to the artists using Commerce Pointe as the backdrop.
 
Her work with LAGL was a natural progression of the friendships she already had with Shafer and Sweezy.
 
The LAGL exhibit is of particular importance to her because, she says, “We have five really great Latino Hispanic artists. I love their collaboration and the variety of their work. Coco and Xenia and I go way back. Xenia’s brother and I share the same birthday and we celebrate together. These two young women are special friends. I feel fortunate to have good friends in the art world.”
 
In addition to the exhibit at Commerce Pointe, the artistry of Los Artistas of the Great Lakes is on display at East End Studio & Gallery in Marshall with an exhibit that opened on Saturday and concludes on July 22.
 
Previous exhibits include one in March at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers.
 
Schafer, who was born in Battle Creek and is of Panamanian descent, says, “People are drawn to our exhibits because of the cultural aspect of it. It’s colorful but also interesting and everyone has their point of view.”
 
George Martinez, left, and Andrew Freemire, a Battle Creek-based artist, stand together in front of a painting by Martines titled "Selena."When she was younger, Schafer designed mastheads for the “Battle Creek Enquirer” and was also involved with Junior Achievement where she was part of a team that worked on a publication called “Sunrise News.” She says she knew she could make a steady income as a graphic designer and attended Kellogg Community College and Western Michigan University where she had the distinction of being the first student there to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design with a Minor in Marketing.
 
She held many jobs over the years and spent time in Detroit where she started a family business focused on murals for businesses while also doing marketing for the automobile industry. When her husband retired, they moved back to Battle Creek and she began to concentrate on art.
 
“I started to figure painting with oils and did life drawing with charcoal on paper and started exploring intensely watercolor,” Schafer says. “I’ve always done acrylic which looks just like water and oil and has its own vibrancy. I also use latex paint in some of my more modern pieces.”
 
Locally, her art can be seen at venues including the Kool Community Center where she painted a large mural with over 50 figures.
 
Every brushstroke includes a part of my story
 
For the members of LAGL, their art is personal and focuses on transferring visions of their lives and experiences into paintings and collages for a broader audience.
 
Fernandez says he takes inspiration for his paintings from Cabarete, a resort town on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic which encompasses mountains, lagoons, and white sand beaches. He studied graphic design and participated in several arts courses at KCC in 2003.
 
Schafer says her art is influenced by the Panamanian work ethic, sense of fun, and love of water, nature, and people.
 
Xenia Rose Schafer, a member of LAGL, works on a mural created by her and fellow LAGL members that is located in front of Torti Taco in downtown Battle Creek.“Artistic expressions are varied within the Hispanic community, and we all find our way to express what we value and love,” she says. “I love people and nature, and find that capturing a likeness is fun because it is always a new challenge.”
 
Sweezy says her inspiration comes from her native Mexico. That country’s arts and crafts heritage, her travels, surroundings, and memories are brought to life through her use of pastels, acrylics, and mixed media. She calls her style impressionistic, something she learned through her work toward an Art History degree that she earned in Mexico City where she was born.
 
“I have taken numerous art classes and workshops in the United States where I have lived for many decades. I have learned and continue doing so from many excellent artists,” says Sweezy, who lives in Marshall and worked in healthcare for Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties before retiring.
 
In 2000 she opened her own gallery in Vicksburg called “Coco’s Art.” Ten years later she shuttered it because working full-time and running a gallery was “too much.”
 
“I learned what people like or don’t like,” she says. “It is a  small town and people would come in more than once before buying something. I sold many things to first-time buyers of art,” she says.
 
The learning curve involved in being a gallery owner extended to practicalities and she soon realized that “You can make a living with art in Mexico. The Midwest is known for a very, very little love of art.”
 
“I believe what I’ve seen in some areas of the United States is that there is really no love for art. Even with the galleries people are intimidated and for some reason, if you go all over peoples’ houses it’s very difficult to find art,” Sweezy says. “In other countries, people with money are going to have art. Here you have people with a lot of money, huge houses, and no art.”
 
She says this is the reason galleries in the area have closed.
 
“I’ve noticed that I’ve sold more of my artwork to people who aren’t local,” Sweezy says.
 
As a way to expose more people to art and develop a greater appreciation for various mediums, members of LAGL are seeking more commercial spaces to exhibit their work while also looking for a dedicated space where they can work as a group.
 
Schafer says LAGL has been “very aggressive” in contacting galleries.
 
Los Artistas of the Great Lakes stand together in front of a mural located in front of Torti Taco that they all painted. Standing from left to right: Fausto Fernandez, Xenia Rose Schafer, Coco Sweezy, George Martinez and Carol Bueno.“We want to get out more in front of people to not just sell our art, but we want to be recognized not just as Latinos, but as artists as well,” she says.
 
Whether someone is the artist or the seller, Sweezy says there’s a financial investment saying that “If you love art, you’ll find the money.”
 
As a collector, she says she has purchased art “since forever.” As an artist, she prices everything just to cover the cost of the materials used.
 
Fernandez says there have been plenty of times when he has sold his artwork for less than what it cost him to create it.
 
“In 2018 I did my first art show at a Spring Into the Arts event. I had a painting that had a coconut tree and a little boat which I was selling for $65. This guy came by with his fiancée and she really wanted the painting, but he only had $20 on him. They left and came back and he gave me $20 and I gave him to him.”
 
“We would like people to enjoy more art because it just can cheer you up,” Sweezy says, adding that this most definitely includes children and youth who aren’t getting exposed to art in their schools because of budget cutbacks. She has seen the impact of this in many ways including an encounter with a little girl and her father.
 
“I had a show in Kalamazoo and the girl telling her dad please buy me this painting and they looked well off, and the girl would say, ‘Please buy this for me.’ Her father kept saying no. Many times the kids wanted to come in and see everything and so many times the parents would say, this is not for kids.”
 
Schafer says misperceptions like this are among the reasons that “We want to have a space where people can bring their emotions in and show that they are having fun with art. It’s about sharing art with other people,” Schafer says. If we have a physical space we could run (it). . .and we could co-create.”
 
Until this space is found, Fernandez says he wants people to know that LAGL is open for business and ready to share the art of members with everyone.
 
“We want to get people out of the gray days and open the door to healing colors,” he says.