OUR PLANET: OURSELVES

OUR PLANET: OURSELVES Opening Reception  Fri.  June 25, 5-8pm / Virtual Opening Sat.  June 26, 4pm

JUROR: Jane Stevens

The beauty of our natural world is apparent. The earth is warming in the sun. However “the warming earth” carries a more somber message as well – a reminder of the fruits of our greed, the fragility of our planet, the reality of our losses. And, as we face the urgency to respond, we raise our artistic voices – to celebrate, to mourn, to activate, and to contemplate how we live together in relationship to this one planet we must all share and nurture. “Our Planet: Ourselves” addresses nature in all of its complexity — its beauty, its fragility, its ubiquity to everything else that we are.

Exhibiting Artists: Alice Becker, Denise Bellezzo, Rose Bonacorsi, Laura Cerf-Dahl, Joelle Dietrick, Jeffrey Doyle, Leslie Ann Eliet, Donna Fleetwood, Jane Flynn, Donna Hapac, Bob Hilger, Margaret LeJeune, Nora Moore Lloyd, Julie Mars, Jeane Kat McGrail, Jane Michalski, Jacqueline Moses, Lucy Mueller, Louise Pappageorge, Adriana Poterash, Linda Robinson Gordon, Cherie Sampson, Autumn Schaefer, Beth Shadur, Michelle Shipka, Juliane von Kunhardt, Brooke White, Marjorie Woodruff, , Ryan Zoghlin

ABOUT THE JUROR:

Jane Stevens is Curator of Art, Emeritus at the Illinois State Museum. as well as an art educator.  She curated over twenty-five exhibitions of Illinois artists at the Illinois State Museum. She is interested in documenting the art of Illinois artists and has published five books on Chicago artists including: Don Seiden: An Artist’s Life; From Light to Dark: The Life and Work of Ellen Roth Deutsch; The Legacy Continues: The Chicago Society of Artists; Barbara Aubin: A Life of Art 1928 – 2014; and Dusty’s House: A Victorian Treasure. She is currently working on a new book that is scheduled to be released in early 2022.

She received an MFA from the State University of New York, Buffalo and studied at the School of the Art institute of Chicago.

 

Opening Reception  Fri.  June 25, 5-8pm / Virtual Opening Sat.  June 26, 4pm

  • Exhibition dates: JUNE 25 – AUG 14, 2021
  • Gallery hours: Thurs & Fri – 2-6 pm,  Sat & Sun – 12-4 pm  

 

Monica J. Brown

Roots, Branches: Ancestor(s) Stones: Opening Reception Fri.  June 25, 5-8pm / Virtual Opening Sat.  June 26, 4pm

This journey has its beginnings in a seed that was planted in a seed, that was planted ages ago, across the oceans of time and space, in the land that birthed the first mother. When her firstborn daughter came of age, her mother asked her to remember. “Remember what?” her daughter asked. “Remember this.”

Still not comprehending, though understanding the depth of what she was being asked to do, those words resounded in her spirit, and so, almost without knowing why she did it, she passed this message on to her own daughter: “Remember.” And so, it was passed down through generations, across continents, over oceans, through rivers, atop mountains, written on clouds, intertwined in tree branches, and encoded in dreams when those memories had been forgotten. And so… I heard my grandmothers speak in a whisper, softly, yet firmly: “Remember.”

Ancestor(s) Stones are intuition mining tools. They represent ancient wisdom, antiquity. They are the knowing inherent in having bourn witness to the ages. They align with the string of memory that lives in DNA, passed down through generations. They represent grounding, leverage, or steps to take. The stones have taken many shapes.

Sticks are fuel for flame. They feed the fire. Inspire it to burn. They are motivation for the fire to continue. They are place markers. They are divination tools used in the location of underground water. They are broken branches: once connected to the tree.

I am the branch, extending back, resting on the bough of my mothers. I am the daughter of Elizabeth, Flora, Grace, Ora, Parthena, Zilpha, YOMHN… and her mother, and her mother, and her mother…

Opening Reception Fri.  June 25, 5-8pm / Virtual Opening Sat.  June 26, 4pm

  • Exhibition dates: June 25 – July 17, 2021
  • Gallery hours: Thurs & Fri – 2-6 pm,  Sat & Sun – 12-4 pm