MetroArts Detroit
Featuring a diverse group of artists from the metro Detroit Area
Lindsay Alyssa
Lindsay Alyssa is a Fashion Mentor and Designer based out of Detroit, Michigan. She began taking interest in fashion design at an early age, with inspiration from her mother who also studied Fashion Design in college. During her senior year of high school, she used one of her mother’s designs from the 90s to create her first piece. Since then, Lindsay Alyssa has started her own brand, The Retell Closet, which features collections of statement clothing items. She prides the company on its total in-house operation: “designing, sewing, photography, promotion, marketing, customer care and shipping.” She also mentors young Detroiters interested in fashion with design, modeling, photography, and more
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Visual Artist Jess Fendo and Patrick Norton of the Nice Place
Jess Fendo is a young visual artist that became known through Twitter in 2018. She never took art classes but started making art on her free time while being a student at Macomb Community College. She says she is inspired by cartoons like Futurama. She says she likes caricaturing people, exaggerating their emotions through her drawings and making them look weird. She sometimes sits on a bench and draws random people that pass by her.
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Nice Place, represented by one of its creative directors Patrick Norton, is a hub for artists to connect and collaborate launched in October 2018. Jess Fendo exhibits her art at the venue and also helps put on shows. Nice Place has featured musicians, artists, poets and more. His members say that the hub has no limit and is constantly shifting.
Mark Whalen and the Buttermilk Boys
Mark Whalen & the Buttermilk Boys is a five piece Indie-Pop band from Detroit that consists of Ben Baird, Max Bourgeois, Malcolm Mosley, Colin Takata, and Mark Whalen. They released their first official album, Morning Glory in November 2018. The band circuits local venues and played at Dally in the Alley 2018.