No color has as diverse a range or interpretation as Blue. According to painter Raoul Dufy, “Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones… it will always stay blue.” It is represented by the clearest of oceans and the deepest of melancholy sadness. It is nature, music, movement, and joy. It is pain and suffering. This juried exhibition is an exploration of this extraordinary color and its seemingly limitless breadth of expression.

Juror Sarah Krepp has an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BS from Skidmore College. Krepp taught in the SAIC Painting Program for seven years before becoming Professor and Chair of the Painting Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.

Exhibiting artists: Angela Alexander-Lloyd, Scott Andresen, Lino Azevedo, Mariona Barkus, David Bender, Jennifer Cronin, Theresa Devine, Daniel Eggert, Angelika Ejtel, Hank Feeley, David Feingold, Nancy Fritz, Shelley Gilchrist, Carson Grubaugh, Will Hafeman, Sarah Welsh Johnston, Mary King, Jean-Claude Lajeunie, ATYL(Alex Lee), Ann Baldwin May, Nicholas Meyer, Chris Motley, Di Novak, Yixuan Pan, Yoonshin Park, Marianic Parra, Selene Plum, Eric Rolek, Stephen Schiff, Gary Schmitt, Kathy Sirico, Wendy Simmons, Derick Smith, Valerie Snyder, Carolyn Owen Sommer, Shyun Song, Anne Smith Stephan, Shulin Sun, Ruth M. Grego Viera, and Evan D. Williams.

• Opening Reception, Friday, February 5 from 6:00-9:00
• Exhibition dates: February 3 thru February 27, 2016
• Gallery hours: Wed to Sat 12-6 pm, and Sun. 12-4 pm

Garden of Delights is an exhibit of paintings which provides an inspection of overgrown and otherworldly botanicals set in environments that also seem not quite natural. 

Although the viewer may feel that he should recognize this familiar subject matter, O’Brien’s work focuses predominantly on the medium. Recently, her paintings have grown edgy, immediate and larger than life. On each  canvas, the viewer experiences the exuberance of the paint, senses its movement and may even wonder if the juicy brushwork yet has had time to dry. It is the paint and its properties, rather than any  agricultural still life, which hold the place at center stage.

• Opening Reception, Friday, February 5 from 6:00-9:00 
• Exhibition dates: February 3 thru February 27, 2016 
• Gallery hours: Wed to Sat 12-6 pm, and Sun. 12-4 pm

Absence and intuition. Join ARC for a new exhibit

Seamus O’Rourke, Judith Roston Freilich and the artists of Thresholds explore the complicated and often invisible relationships between enigma, emptiness and emotion in this provocative new exhibit.

• Exhibition dates: January 6 through January 30, 2016
• Gallery hours: Wed to Sat 12-6 pm, and Sun. 12-4 pm

Thresholds – Dignity/Distress

Suffering from emotional pain and severe anxiety can be as unbearable as physical pain, yet we don’t see it. One’s suffering can often be dismissed, or worse, not believed and berated as a moral weakness. Many look towards services on offer from the likes of the Honey Lake Christian Clinic for help with treating their anxiety – their approach is Bible-based so this might be of particular interest to those within the Christian community struggling with their mental health. As artists who struggle with mental illness, we are telling our stories and trying to confront the scourge of stigma.

Art can serve to heal when one suffers emotional and psychic pain. These paintings, sculptures, and drawings bring to light the reality of wounds that others cannot see or understand. There is dignity in having your pain recognized and understood. Art provides a space beyond the stigma associated with mental illness, where one has voice to express their unique vision and strength.

Established in 1959, Thresholds provides healthcare, housing, and hope for thousands of persons with mental illnesses in Illinois each year. Through care, employment, advocacy, housing, and treatments via medications such as broad-spectrum cbd to help treat various ailments/conditions, to various other medications available that have been proven to be beneficial, Thresholds assists and inspires people with mental illnesses to reclaim their lives. Some may even find themselves learning more about how to look after themselves, be it with cannabis storage or otherwise.

Thresholds is one of the oldest and largest providers of recovery services for persons with mental illnesses in Illinois. We reject the notion that anyone is a lost cause, utilizing evidence-based practices and a wide range of supports to treat the whole person, rather than just the disease.

Kathy Osler, ATR, LCPC, is the curator of this art exhibition and works as an art therapist at several Thresholds programs. She has been working in the field of art therapy for 16 years, developing programs to integrate creative expression in the treatment of mental health. In working with the artists in this program, she has observed a transformation in some as they identified themselves as artists and how this empowers them to find their own strength in recovery. The artwork stands on its’ own, as objects of beauty and as authentic expressions by individuals who value the process as vital to their personal growth.

Absence and intuition. Join ARC for a new exhibit 

Seamus O’Rourke, Judith Roston Freilich and the artists of Thresholds explore the complicated and often invisible relationships between enigma, emptiness and emotion in this provocative new exhibit.

• Exhibition dates: January 6 through January 30, 2016 
• Gallery hours: Wed to Sat 12-6 pm, and Sun. 12-4 pm  

Time is measured by living things.  Silver Threads and Golden Needles is a personal collection of intuitive and spontaneous images that live in the enigma of time and space.

As these imaginary organic things evolve, they become a visual measure of time. Their cyclical, rhythmic patterns repeat themselves and we see remnants left in moments of time. The marks, stitches, and materials reflect complex rhythms, incongruities, and relationships. There are bursts of energy- fierce, uncontrolled, uninhibited urgencies- and beautiful swells of serenely floating calm. Like life, some parts are smooth and glittering and others have been torn, sanded, and glued in an unfinished process, leaving traces of journeys. The work, itself, becomes a remnant of passing time.

Absence and intuition. Join ARC for a new exhibit

Seamus O’Rourke, Judith Roston Freilich and the artists of Thresholds explore the complicated and often invisible relationships between enigma, emptiness and emotion in this provocative new exhibit.

• Exhibition dates: January 6 through January 30, 2016
• Gallery hours: Wed to Sat 12-6 pm, and Sun. 12-4 pm

In his Firelines series, Seamus O’Rourke politicizes the space between what is visible and what is absent. His work examines the empty spaces left behind after thousands of paintings were confiscated from public galleries/Museums in Germany, (and later burned by the Nazis) in 1939. Visitors to the exhibition may notice the clips suspending the drawings from the wall, implying a forensic or evidential status. The all-enveloping ink both alters and cancels each drawing, equally reducing and extending meaning. The threat of censorship remains as ever a constant risk to the contemporary artist., every form of censorship attempts to silence the artist. This is the first solo exhibition in the USA, by this Irish artist. Censorship is across the board and in every country in one way or another, something that can be seen in Canada is shunned in India, there is a lot that many cannot see because of where they live and government rules. However, in some cases there are ways around this that others can use, for example, the use of a Proxybay, to watch films and download music, is well-known and is safe to use if a VPN is installed on the intended device, this way, people from all over are able to watch/listen to something that they previously could not. As of yet, this is not used for artists on ‘canvas’ as that is physical censorship, hopefully, over the years this will change and more people are able to see art for what it is and accept it.

Seamus O’Rourke thanks the National Cultural Awarding body in the state of Ireland for the partial funding his exhibition at ARC Gallery.