By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
mdrahos@record-eagle.com
BENZONIA — Even before you enter the cool wood-and-stone building past the familiar driftwood sign, you can hear it: the elegant click-clack of the old Heidelberg presses that tells you that Gwen Frostic Original Block Prints is back in business.
Indeed, the nature-inspired printing shop that has been a popular stop for generations of visitors to Benzie County is about to undergo a gradual restoration that will preserve it — and Frostic's artwork — for future generations.
"This is Gwen and this is everybody's memories," said Kim Forshee, who recently reopened the business and tourist attraction with husband Greg after it closed last fall following foreclosure proceedings against the previous owners. "Gwen Frostic is more than cards. Everybody has an emotional attachment: their grandmother brought them here and she's no longer alive, or they came here every year on vacation. There are traditions around this."
Kim was among those who lost their jobs when the business closed. Now the sales and marketing director is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Frostic, a Michigan artist, poet, educator, philosopher and naturalist known for the simple lines and delicate colors of the native trees, flowers and wildlife depicted in her images.
"We very much want to bring Gwen back to the community," Kim said.
"The simplest things here inspired her to do beautiful, creative work, to take one flower and put in all the detail," said Greg, a machinist and engineer whose small Frankfort manufacturing company has created many of the parts for the 19 printing presses. "What she did inspired so many people, and the proof is in all the gifts they gave her."
But Frostic's art isn't the only draw for the couple.
"It's quite a story, what she did, what she accomplished: a single woman back in the 1950s and with a handicap on top of it," said Kim, who has researched the artist's life extensively. "What she accomplished is amazing."
Just as they were in Frostic's day, visitors are welcomed to the shop under the signature heron logo by the trickle of a stone fountain into a fish pond. Chipmunks scurry across the cement floors. Driftwood, framed prints and fan letters adorn the walls while wildlife sculptures and deckle-edged notecards with hand-mixed soy inks line the dozens of driftwood display stands.
In the pressroom below, Frostic's nephew, Bill Frostic, can be seen again behind the 60-year-old Heidelberg presses.
Restoring the presses and the 23,000-square-foot building's leaky roof and windows are part of a five-year business plan, Kim said. Starting next year the couple will send out one or two plates at a time to be rebuilt.
Frostic's living quarters upstairs will be renovated into an office and studio, while the overgrown woods and ponds beyond will be turned back into a preserve where customers again can sit to enjoy nature and picnic lunches.
The couple also plan to create a museum that will honor Frostic and her career, including her early metal work. It will contain photos and artifacts from her personal and professional lives, from her old manual printing machinery, to her rocking chair and hand-carved furniture, to her outdoor sketches.
"We've been finding her treasures everywhere," Greg said, pointing to an old phonograph in a storage area.
While Frostic's original card line and books will continue to be the backbone of the business, the couple plan to develop new lines featuring her prints — like the rubber stamps, pillows and throws, cross-stitch patterns and kits that were created after her death in 2001.
Already there's a newer line of boldly colored cards with simple messages featuring letters Frostic chiseled for her books. Printed on 100-percent grain paper, they were designed digitally with the help of son Nick Forshee, a graphic artist who worked on the backdrop for a Carrie Underwood tour.
Also newer are handcrafted pendants and earrings featuring Frostic's designs in high-quality sterling silver, bronze and 24-karat gold. Still to come are an organic clothing line that could feature bags, cotton T-shirts and onesies; a dish line; and a children's line that might include stamping kits, coloring books and storybooks.
The couple hopes to involve local schools by donating linoleum blocks for art students to carve and print some of their best work. Also in the offing is an art internship and other collaboration with Western Michigan University, which inherited $13 million from Frostic's estate.
They're changes the couple feel Frostic, who once dabbled with incorporating plastics into her art, would have embraced.
"If Gwen were alive today, a woman in her 40s, I think she would be sampling with different art. She was an innovator," Kim said.
The shop was the first stop of Charlie and Brenda Roush after arriving in northern Michigan on Monday for vacation. The rural Nashville, Ind., couple stumbled onto the business several years ago and have been back every vacation since.
"It's terrifically unique," said Charlie Roush, who learned of the business' closing after the couple's standing order for calendars went unfilled. "I have two degrees in biology, and my wife is a gardener, so we love nature. I'm happy it's reopened. I hope they're able to make a go of it."
Kim said the couple's enthusiasm is typical of the customers finding their way back to the shop again.
"It caught me off guard how grateful people were," she said. "We were inundated with e-mails from people thanking us. I had a lady come in the other day who has bought her Christmas cards here for 30 years."
Kim said bringing the business back to life would have been impossible without the help of State Savings Bank in Frankfort and long-time Gwen Frostic employees, most of whom have been rehired. Many, like sisters-in-law Nancy and Betsy Dyrdal, who started working there on the same day back in 1969, volunteered to help clean up and reopen.
"We'd been here too long just to let things slip by," said Nancy, who started her career as a boxer and now is in charge of the greeting and Christmas card area. "It's great to have things back."
