Grand Traverse Bay Monolith
By Leif Sporck
Suttons Bay, MI
Created in 2016-17
Material: ceramic tile
Approximate dimensions: 3’ high, 2’ wide, 1’ deep. 250 pounds
$4,500
Of this piece, Sporck writes, “Grand Traverse Bay Monolith was created in response to the “Ancient Aliens” program found on the History Channel and an episode featuring a mysterious “Stonehenge” like structure found in East Grand Traverse Bay.”
Leif is the son of a potter and a multi-talented visual artist/career woman of Michigan Bell Telephone. Without a formal Art education, Leif graduated from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, in 2002, recruited to play basketball, having scored 1113 points at Suttons Bay High School.
With Leif’s “farmer” type youth, growing up at a Pottery, his ability to create ceramic art, and his tenacity to find a way to live as a full-time resident in the Northern Michigan where he grew up, Leif forged his way into Michigan’s art scene as a Tile artist.
With a love of Norway and fishing, Leif followed in the footsteps of his family elders and purchased a building in Norway in 2018, and became an international artist. Leif is of Norwegian descent and thinks his Viking ancestry may have graced him with the ability to carve designs in clay, but it may also have been the influence of a lifetime spent in Leelanau County.
Sporck Tileart has produced tens of thousands of tiles. They can be installed in an indoor/outdoor tile project and used as accents, spoon rests or hot plates, and most commonly, they are used as treasures—small paintings that are affordable, handmade, and original and can be displayed for all to see on a stand, hung on a wall using a nail, or just sitting on a desk like a paperweight.
With over 500 unique designs, the mission of Sporck Tileart is to make ceramic tiles like no one else -- to push the limits of ceramic tile art in our own unique style. Nature and life in the great outdoors inspires our work.
