Partners Ferrel and Lois Cordle Pursue Independent Creative Expression

4 days ago
2 min read

Married Artist Members Ferrel and Lois Cordle share a home they built together on Crystal Lake but find their own unique expression in their separate studios. Ferrel, an Artist Member since 2009, has had a 40 year career as a Technical Illustrator, and Art and Creative Director for various advertising agencies. Prior to his retirement he managed Ferrel Graphics for 17 years. After his retirement he felt free to pursue painting the subjects that resonated the most with him. Coming from a family of musicians and performing as a singer in many local venues, one of Ferrel’s many painting series featured black and white watercolor paintings of famous musicians such as Mick Jaggar, Aretha Franklin and B.B. King. He is also very fond of nostalgic subject matter, finding a kinship with artist Norman Rockwell and his two uncles Ferrel McDonnell and Michael McDonnell, a well-known watercolorist featured in Artist’s Magazine and in the permanent collection of Grand Valley State University where many of his works are on display throughout campus.

Currently in the ACWL-Nuveen retail gallery, Ferrel has several large, framed original watercolors that show off his skilled talent and his penchant for local White Lake landmarks like Lipkas, the White River Railroad Bridge and the iconic Dog n’ Suds. He also creates smaller print versions of the larger works and sells them for a reasonable $30, giving more customers an opportunity to take his art home.

Lois Cordle has been an ACWL-Nuveen Artist Member since 2014. After a 36-year career in healthcare she now has time to pursue her love of glass. Lois started out by taking a class at the Muskegon Community College to learn the techniques of working with stained glass. This intro to glass as an art medium led to a class at Rainbow Glass in Grand Rapids where she learned all about fusing.

The artwork that Lois has on display in the ACWL-Nuveen features glass vases and tumblers that she has created from recycled glass. The clean elegant forms look simple but involve hours of grinding and finishing. Lois showcases her fused glass technique in the colorful jewelry she has for sale in the gallery and coming soon she will be displaying her fused glass garden stakes. Lois has had a lot of fun figuring out the creative potential of the garden stakes, even consulting AI on her kiln’s firing schedule to maximize her finished results. Lois takes her inspiration from one of the world’s most famous glass artists, Dale Chihuly and the staff of artists he has on hand to create his work. Also inspiring to Lois is the extensive collection of glass at the Muskegon Museum of Art!