Bay College will feature the exhibition “Wilderness” with fiber work by Emily Tobin LaVoy in the Hartwig Gallery until March 31.

ESCANABA — Bay College will feature the exhibition “Wilderness” with fiber work by Emily Tobin LaVoy in the Hartwig Gallery until March 31.

LaVoy is a self-taught fiber artist and spinner. Originally from the southern United States, she has embraced the adventure of living in the U.P., a place unlike any she has ever experienced.

After many years as a licensed orthopedic massage therapist, she decided to follow her lifelong dream of pursuing art as an equal part of her career. She lives just a few blocks from Lake Superior, where she is surrounded by beloved family and pets who support, comfort, and inspire her in daily and professional life.

“I have been weaving since 2013, bringing a lifetime of painting, drawing, and sculpture experience to fiber art,” she said. “Natural beauty witnessed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has inspired my work since the summer of 2018. Close examination during frequent pauses reveal textures in tiny ecosystems of dead trees, patterns of roots and bark, and the dizzying multiplicity of colors in plants, leaves and mushrooms on the forest floor, canopy, and waterways. Returning to the studio, I allow these experiences to speak through me in an intuitive creative process, imparting my physical, emotional, and spiritual experience of Wilderness.”

A reception and artist talk that is free and open to the public will take place at 2 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, March 19, in the Hartwig Gallery in the Catherine Bonifas building on Bay College’s Escanaba Campus.