Paintings deemed “disturbing” and “satanic” by customers were removed from the walls of the Cappuccino Café, 1500 W. Lake Lansing Road.
The owner, Raeann Vogl, said a handful of customers approached her with complaints about the paintings - enough to persuade her to take them down Tuesday.
“They thought they were disturbing,” Vogl said.
A glow-in-the-dark skull surrounded by rectangles of orange, red and green was painted in honor of the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead, artist Aimee Chorkey said. The painting, “Pardike Sanction,” is priced at $600.
The opponents of the paintings were kept confidential out of respect for cafe patrons.
Scripted in pencil, one anonymously submitted comment card seemed to sum up the feelings of some customers who also filled out cards or expressed concerns to managers and owners.
“Please, please get rid of the pictures of death, this is such a down to see these in a beautiful place,” one patron had written on a card.
Chorkey is a manager at the cafe and has been showcasing her art on its walls since January, but this is the first time she has been forced to take her paintings down. The show opened Aug. 2 and Chorkey was notified the following Monday the paintings needed to be removed.
“I understand it’s a conservative area,” she said. “It’s the ignorance though, people don’t take the time to try to understand them.
“They’re not evil. They’re painted for a reason. When people see something different they freak out.”
Chorkey has another painting in which she is depicted as a deer. She said customers mistake the antlers for horns.
“When people see horns, they automatically think devil,” she said. “Which is ironic since, here in Michigan, one way deer hunters pride themselves on hunting is how many points the deer has.”
The golden halo over the deer symbolizes the sacredness of animals and the hooves shape a peace sign. The piece, titled “Peace Deer,” sells for $625.
“If they have complaints, we’ll change the art,” Vogl said. “It’s that simple.
“Obviously I’m not going to put anything in my cafe that’s terribly inappropriate.”
Chorkey said she has done shows in Lansing and Detroit without incident.
“It kind of woke me up,” she said. “I know I became a painter to say something and not just paint flowers and things people want to see. I’m glad in the end this all happened.”
But Chorkey said she understands why the owners removed the paintings.
“They do have a business to run,” she said. “The majority of the guests are older.”
