Author/Writer Artist Categories

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Seth Anderson

Author/Writer; Director; Filmmaker; Media/Visual Communications; Voiceover

A content creator and filmmaker with over 15 years of professional experience, Mr. Anderson co-founded Mountain Media House in 2021 after returning home to Michigan with his wife in 2018. Now that media technology is more accessible, and geographic work patterns are shifting, Seth believes creative professionals will become even more essential for cultural and economic growth in rural communities. Seth has worked in new media since 2005, starting in the audiobook & podcast space as a director, narrator, and content curator. He is the co-creator, writer and director of the digital series NORTHBOUND, a prequel to a feature film called NORTHSTAR, which is filmed entirely in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and utilizes local talent on both sides of the camera.

Jax Caligula

Artist of Color; Author/Writer; Illustrator; Maker; Musician; Painter; Poet; Storyteller; Vocalist/Singer

I personally study a ton of esoteric knowledge and will recall myself as a fellow yogi. I enjoy creating psychedelic and otherworldly creations that bring you to a whole different universe. I enjoy exploring with many different colors as well. Though sketch and comic art is what started me I enjoy painting just as much and I do in fact play guitar and have always been a fan of claymation.

Troy Graham

Actor; Author/Writer; Composer; Musician; Performance Art; Performer and Writer; Poet; Producer; Teacher/Instructor; Vocalist/Singer

Troy Graham, otherwise known as Great Lakes Graham, is a folk singer-songwriter, poet, and children’s entertainer from Marquette, MI. Musically, Troy is most recognized for his original foot-stomping Irish and folk music and as a storytelling songwriter with a flare of bluegrass, old-time and gospel roots. Troy is always creating and has independently recorded over a dozen plus different music albums and has published poetry in four books. Most recently his book, “Freshwater Mermaids,” can be previewed on Amazon. His passion is encouraging youth and leading interactive poetry workshops along with musical performances for all ages. You will find him playing at libraries, schools, festivals and other concert series.

Niikah Hatfield

Artisan; Author/Writer; Ceramist; Dancer; Maker; Mixed Media Artist; Multiple Art Forms; Musician; Performance Art; Vocalist/Singer

Emerging from the wilderness, Niikah is an artist & singer-songwriter from the north woods of Michigan. Dancing between reality and the ethers, her work is in constant conversation with the world. She grew up on a small family farm near the coast of Lake Superior, and between homeschooling, wandering through the woodlands, and working in the fields, she gained a deep appreciation for the cycles of life, hard work, and a deep connection with nature. After studying Ceramics at Northern Michigan University and abroad in Romania, Niikah started Niik Creative Co. in 2020. The small studio, located on Presque Isle in Marquette, is the heart of a thriving business with a mission to bring unique and creative home goods that inspire presence in everyday life. The thread that emerges amid the breadth of her creative endeavors is one of deep inquiry into the interconnectedness of all things. Laced with a desire to better understand the world we live in, her creative expression becomes a way of life. Leaning into the experiences that make up life is the nectar of living, and art is the medium.

Ryota Matsumoto

Author/Writer; Media/Visual Communications; Mixed Media Artist; New Media/Technology; Teacher/Instructor

I explore and am inspired by the role of dissonance and the pluri-dimensional aspect of cacophony as a form of interference in the fidelity of digital communication and a catalyst for undermining the orthographic divide of digital platforms. As probabilistic preindividuation in the form of miscommunication disrupts established patterns and introduces variability, it can lead to the emergence of new images of thought through phase fluctuations in the striated orthogonal system. In this sense, the cacophony can be seen as a source of unpredictability, pushing established systems and individuals to explore the heterogeneous association of socio-cultural actors through the translation process of hermeneutic devices. By the same token, the accumulation of pure potentialities in jitter interference contributes to the complex system of indeterminacy in the socio-cultural domain. It introduces multiple perspectives, unpredictable possibilities, and multivalent interpretations, enriching the overall landscape and facilitating the emergence of new connections in the hybrid network of interobjective entities. The unquantized stream of interference, in this sense, can introduce multiple alternative perspectives, enriching the overall landscape and facilitating the emergence of interconnected assemblages across a variety of creative disciplines through the act of the mimetic adaptation process. Ryota Matsumoto is an artist, designer, and architect based in the United States and Japan.

Charli Mills

Author/Writer; Storyteller; Teacher/Instructor

Charli Mills grew up out west, once winning a rodeo trophy for tying a goat. She’s the executive editor of The Congress of the Rough Writers Flash Fiction Anthology (Vols. 1 & 2) and her writing has been featured in Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine, Keweenaw Now, BadRedhead Media, NaNoWriMo.org, The U.P. Reader, and on stage as a guest storyteller with the Red Jacket Jamboree. Charli writes women’s fiction, recovering forgotten voices from the fringes and frontiers, including the Copper Country. In 2014, she founded an international literary community at CarrotRanch.com, hosting weekly 99-word story challenges. She provides outreach to rural communities, libraries, and veterans to make literary art accessible. She coaches writers in a unique cohort program, leads nature writing workshops and retreats, and teaches college English at Finlandia University. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing.

Amelia Pruiett

Author/Writer; Illustrator; Media/Visual Communications; New Media/Technology; Storyteller

I have drawn as long as I could hold a marker, and have formal art training via an Art & Design minor from Northern Michigan University. Despite several decades of drawing and creating, I have only recently focused my creative energies into a sustained project. I’ve always been inspired by nature and have found a delight in capturing the incredible intricacies and diversity of details. I love to nature journal and humanize the scientific. I grew up as the co-pilot of my father’s Cessna 172 and have dreamed of the freedom of flight ever since. All of this considered, my pursuit of winged things began. I hope to create a portfolio that catalogs the many shapes, sizes and colors of our feathered friends and some fascinating facts about them along the way. As a hunter, I am blessed with the opportunity to study upland birds and waterfowl up close. The way their iridescent feathers gleam with the sun and the astonishing complexity of God’s glorious creations. I am using a process known as digital drawing. An entire studio of colors and brushes to choose from right at my fingertips allows me to take my work anywhere. While I sometimes miss the tactile scratch of charcoal on paper and patiently mixing the correct shade of paint, the artistic process still applies to digital drawing and presents the opportunity to master new skills. My work is currently available at Amelia’s Craft Market and Boutique in downtown Marquette, MI.