Dewey Blocksma: Roundtable
September 18, 2025 ⸺ January 4, 2026
Blocksma’s artwork is a gathering of figures and ideas, real and imagined, informed by medicine and art. Common themes include: puzzle heads, violin women, fake computers, Dutch cowboys, porcupines, voyagers, Lincoln log Lincolns, vintage cameras, angels and ambulances—all within a world assembled and reassembled, juggling toys buffeted by current events.
artist bio
Dewey Blocksma is a Michigan artist who currently resides in Beulah, Michigan. In the 1960’s he attended Wheaton College near Chicago earning a bachelor degree in Chemistry. From there he graduated from Northwestern University School of Medicine and became a doctor. After eight years practicing Emergency Medicine he gave up medicine for a new career — to work as an artist full time.
Travel to Europe, Asia, Africa and South America informs his sculpture, paintings, and drawings exhibited nation wide including shows at Tamarack Gallery in Omena, Xochipill Gallery in Birmingham, and the Judy Saslow Gallery in Chicago. His work is also informed by his own interest in collecting folk art. A recent memoir, Round About Art and Medicine, details this odyssey. His work is currently available at the V Gallery in Omena.
He is also know for his larger outdoor installations including The River Guardian in Traverse City, Wheels of Progress at Legacy Art Park near Thompsonville, Michigan and a Tribute to Migrant Workers near Bear Lake, Michigan.
Artist Statement
Thoughts do not develop without being nourished by the real and imagined - by the ordinary and the bizarre. Unlike the minimalists, I am not proud of distance. My work is about the embarrassment of proximity. Rather than use symbols as easy taxicabs, I try to do my own walking. Most of my work is within reach of my own experience. My work is not efficient. Most of my pieces have been assembled and reassembled. I leave more references than I
erase. In this show a group of my sculptures gather around a table conversing with one another - gossip perhaps or flash back memories or observations about good and evil drones overhead or those ubiquitous cameras on street corners. This show asks us to think about how our brains juggle and store
images. I hope you will be surprised.
Image: Dewey Blocksma, Roundtable.
