BEST OF SHOW - Scott and Victoria LaCosse of Sanford won Best of Show Saturday during the 47th annual Tawas Bay Waterfront Fine Art Show. Using high fired torch coloring, the couple works in the art medium of medal. - Photo by John Morris

Sanford couple judged Best of Show
by John Morris

TAWAS CITY - A Sanford couple, whose art is self-described as “painting with fire”, was judged Best of Show Saturday during the 47th annual Tawas Bay Waterfront Fine Art Show in Tawas City.

Scott and Victoria LaCosse, who are in their 31st year as artisans, say they work in “torch-colored mild steel.”
“It’s the same material your car body is made of,” Victoria LaCosse said. “The color is created by painting with fire.”

Victoria LaCosse struck her first arc as a welder back in 1974, and began her career in the arts as a jeweler two years later. She said although her love for the metal arts began there, she didn’t return to her metallic roots until the late 1990s.

The 20-year period in-between was spent working in the fiber arts, where her designs in wearable art masks won several awards, and found their way into numerous private collections; most notably the Clinton White House.

LaCosse said she never tired of masks as an art form, but longed to return to a medium that would allow her to hammer, cut and make big noise.

Scott LaCosse joined his wife in 2003 in their newly-built studio after a 25-year career in the telecommunications business.

Today, he prefers the cutting and forming side of the studio; while she, after years of detailed fiber work, enjoys the coloring and finishing aspect of their work.

This year marks the fourth time they have attended the Waterfront Fine Art Show.

“We love the show,” Victoria LaCosse said. “It’s a delightful show with a homey feel.”

Last year’s second place overall winner, Marilyn Bachelor of Hubbard Lake, won the same prize again this year. Her medium is watercolors and she has been painting professionally for 15 years.

Bachelor said her interest in art stems back to Cedar Lake in Oscoda when she was a seven-year-old girl.

This year marks the fourth time they have attended the Waterfront Fine Art Show.

“We love the show,” Victoria LaCosse said. “It’s a delightful show with a homey feel.”

Last year’s second place overall winner, Marilyn Bachelor of Hubbard Lake, won the same prize again this year. Her medium is watercolors and she has been painting professionally for 15 years.

Bachelor said her interest in art stems back to Cedar Lake in Oscoda when she was a seven-year-old girl.

“I remember going out on the lake in my granddad’s wooden boat with a watercolor pan and painting,” she said. “I love watercolors because you can look through them versus using oil paint that you look at.”

Bachelor holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and has been a nurse, teacher and an artist. She has attended art shows in Alabama and Michigan and her works are in personal and business collections.

Nature photographer Howard J. Blichfeldt of Bethel Park, Pa., last year’s Best of Show winner, took third place overall.

Blichfeldt said he has always loved nature, long before he even held a camera. It started with childhood fishing trips with his father and peaked on a hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies as an adult.

After spending 20 years in the managed health care industry, and after a bout with cancer, Blichfeldt said he decided to pursue his hobby full-time. And, as Blichfeldt puts it, photography is his “hobby all begone haywire.”

A self-taught photographer, Blichfeldt began selling his award-winning images of nature in 1989.

His winter photograph of the solitary tree, “A Lone Sentinel”, taken at Tawas Point is among of his favorites.

“It has universal appeal,” he said. “The big tree has been a hit where ever I go. It’s pulled me through many a show.”

Ribbons also were awarded in 10 of the art show’s 13 categories including photography, Blichfeldt, first, Ann Lauwers, Metamora, second, and David Halton, Saginaw, third; oil, Janet Erickson, Williamston, second, and Kim Tabor, Clio, third; watercolor, Bachelor, first, Beverly Chase, Oscoda, second, and Thelma Mitchell, Gladwin, third; 3-D art, Clare Halett, Rose City, first, Betty Fahselt-Senter, Tawas City, second, and Fran Stanoszek, Oscoda, third; metal, Scott and Victoria LaCosse, first, William Sweeney, Oscoda, second, and Heather Barcena, Grosse Pointe, third; wood, Robert Thorne, St. Helen, first, Ken Wagel, Grosse Ile, second, and Paul Hang, National City, third; glass, Tom and Joanne Ritter, Northville, first, Shelly Bird, East Tawas, second, and Regina Greenway, Tawas City, third; jewelry, Susan Selves, Traverse City, first, Ladda Bihler, Delvalle, Texas, second, and R.H. Langnen, Troy, third; fiber, Sidney Inch, Lake Orion, first; and baskets, Rose Golombisky, Saginaw, first.