Miller Art Museum Debuts “Vestiges of the Tide”
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This month, Sturgeon Bay’s Miller Art Museum will debut its first exhibitions of 2024: Vestiges of the Tide in the first-floor main galleries, and Charles L. Peterson in the Permanent Collection on the Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine.
Support that Remains, oil on Dura-Lar film by Mary Porterfield. Submitted. 
The Concert, watercolor by Charles L. Peterson. Submitted.
Vestiges of the Tide features drawings and paintings by Chicago-based artists Mary Porterfield and Ellen Holtzblatt.
Porterfield is an occupational therapist and portraitist who renders her elderly, infirm subjects with images that address recurring struggles in healthcare.
Her figure drawings on transparent Dura-Lar and glassine papers are progressively layered, creating images that address the internal struggles experienced by patients and caregivers that are outwardly hidden or forgotten. Using family members as models, she conveys the loss of identity that can occur as degenerative illnesses affect one’s ability to complete self-care and functional movement.
5 Years Adrift, oil on Dura-Lar film by Mary Porterfield. Submitted. 
Beyond Reach, oil on layered glassine by Mary Porterfield. Submitted.
“My drawings are influenced by my work and my interactions with patients and their caregivers,” Porterfield said. “Recently, my drawings have become more personal as they depict my mother’s struggles to care for my father who has Parkinsonism.”
In unison, Holtzblatt presents works from her Song of Songs series, a collection of portraits of her elderly mother that convey the universality of love, desire and the need for human contact.
My Beloved, oil on linen by Ellen Holtzblatt. Submitted. 
Like a Lily Among Thorns, oil on linen by Ellen Holtzblatt. Submitted.
The emotive works vary from large-scale to very small and intimate. Her paintings are infused with a sense of this timeless world that her elderly subject lives within.
“In my art, I seek connections between the physical and spiritual,” Holtzblatt said. “Through the process of painting and drawing my mother, I explore the power and vulnerability of mind, soul, and the passage of time.”
Alongside Vestiges of the Tide, the work of Charles L. Peterson will be featured on the mezzanine in an exhibit that pays tribute to the Door County legacy artist and long-standing contributor to the Miller Art Museum.
Peterson, who died in 2022, is a fundamental part of the history of the museum. He’s represented in the collection with a total of 35 paintings and drawings in watercolor, oil and graphite. Among the works are maritime scenes; Peterson’s Memories paintings, which depict ghost-like individuals of the past against a backdrop of an aged setting; and works that depict parts of the Miller Art Museum’s past.
The exhibits open to the public at 10 am, Jan. 20 and remain on view through April 6.
