Northport father and daughter duo Lydia and Tom Woodruff are hitting the road for a “Follow the Art” tour starting next month.
The power team will travel to different states from Michigan to as far as Florida for a film and art tour, sharing art programs as well as interviewing family, friends, and mentors.
The film documentary following the lifespan of the elder Woodruff as an artist originally began in early 2022, however due to personal and health hurdles, had to take a pause in production for some time. Despite life’s obstacles though, the Woodruffs are more than ready to dive into the next phase of their creative project.
“It’s going to be an adventure of a lifetime. This is my dream and since I was a little girl I wanted to do this. Just to see my dad’s reaction when we get down there and to reconnect with the friends and family is priceless,” Lydia said. “That’s why we’re doing whatever it takes to bring it to life because it’s like a story we both know and it’s worth telling, it’s inspiring, it’s a father-daughter road trip around America. No matter how hard of a struggle it is, it’s time I will never regret spending with my dad.”
All tour locations on the schedule are places where the Woodruffs have family or friends, as well as important areas meaningful to Tom’s past that have led him to where he is in life today. Their first stop on the tour on January 24-25 will be near Grand Rapids at Goodwillie Environmental School in Ada, a special place Tom says where he has been able to teach art and connect with students for so many years. The workshops, which are catered to the area they’re in, will be interactive and include drawing, storytelling, and art instruction from Tom.
“This is their (Goodwillie) 25th anniversary and it’s going to be so fun to draw with them. It’s such a wonderful staff,” Tom said. “I basically start off with a dot and it turns into a masterpiece by the time we’re done, and everyone is proud of their work… I tell them to just keep doing it and it changes as you go and grows with each time you try something new.”
At each stop, Tom will have some of his work for sale and events will be donation based with funds going towards the passion project. Supporters like fellow Northport friend and author John Mitchell even donated five cases of Michigan related books for the tour, with illustrations by Tom, to help with marketing and raising funds.
After the first workshop downstate, they will head to Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and multiple stops in Florida. Lydia said while she always wanted to follow through with the road trip, she never imagined it would be on such a large scale with school programs scheduled in every state on the route.
“Now we’re reaching out to art organizations and schools at every step on the way to try to spread the word about this — we’re also submitting press releases and trying to get the word out,” Lydia said. “That’s the whole purpose, to get my dad back into classrooms and get ‘Follow the Art’ out there and make this accessible to people all over the world.”
To prepare for the journey, Lydia said both her and Tom have been going on daily workouts at Leelanau State Park and other trails around the county to get as physically fit as possible. With Tom’s recent health issues, Lydia added that she has already seen improvements in his walking and overall mobility.
“It’s like ‘Follow the Art’ training. Everyday we add a little bit more — you can’t even recognize my dad from the first day to now as far as his walking and ability to get around so easily,” she said. “It’s a work in progress.”
Tom has been working with schools, art programs, and other artists for decades, and said what he does never gets old, especially while working alongside his daughter. Lydia does the schedule, networking, and storytelling with the technology side of the project, while Tom is able to get back into his artistic element and create with others in the room.
“I’m just so thrilled to have this opportunity to work with her (Lydia) and to introduce her to places I’ve been and to relive those moments with her,” Tom said. “The cool thing is we get to share our world as traveling and wandering artists. She’s been doing this recently, I’ve been doing this for decades… a lot of the people I’ve met on the road (when I was younger) have become lifelong friends.”
“Our lineage is all travelers — my grandpa was a documentary filmmaker at the University of Michigan television center — it feels like I’m following this whole thread of travelers in our family,” Lydia said. “My dad just comes to life when he’s working with kids and with teachers, so this is an opportunity to rekindle that.”
While this tour will be a huge part of the “Follow the Art” documentary, Lydia said they’ll be busier than ever when they get back home. In the spring, they will film more interviews and clips in Michigan for the project, and will also be getting ready for a massive art show later in 2024 at the Northport Art Association (NAA). The art show will feature all of Tom’s original works and will be accompanied by stories, Lydia added, playing an equally huge part in the documentary, too. Other road trips are definitely on the horizon, but they expect to wrap up the film by 2025.
“We’re going to take our time and enjoy the process and just give this film the time that it deserves,” Lydia said. “The NAA show is once in a lifetime and has never happened before and we’re still waiting on the dates to get it set in stone, but we couldn’t do this without NAA and all of their help. They have given so much back to the art community and supported us 100%.”
To check for updates on the team’s art tour or if people are interested in supporting the documentary project, donations can be made at https://www. gofundme.com/f/followtheart.
Photo courtesy of Lydia Woodruff
