Insights 2018
Addison Center for the Arts
Honorable Mention
Bewilderment
10″ x 10″
Mixed Media Pastel
By using soulful marks and energetic colors it is possible to feel the joy, the mystery, the whimsy and the enchantment of the everyday people of our time.
Naperville Art League
Hidden Detail – April 2018
What an honor to be awarded Best of Show!!!
Remembrance
30″ x 30″ Mixed Media, oil + cwm
Remembrance of who I thought I would become came back with startling clarity as I read an old story I wrote in second grade. Hidden in that first layer of collage is my handwritten story of my predicted futuristic city. Using the accompanying drawing as inspiration, I play with the contrast of then and now by using multiple transparent layers of paint creating an ethereal wistfulness. Somewhere inside that lost curiosity, the traces of who I was leads me to who I can still become.
Sometimes… things just don’t work out. This painting was first created for a show with The Midwest Collage Society called Remnants and Remembrances. Found lost in a dark corner of a forgotten drawer, I discovered an old story describing my futuristic city. Written when I was about eight years old, it was inspiring to see my handwritting and I was astonished that it was accompanied by a drawing. The first layer of the design used altered copies of the story and the drawing. I threw everything and the kitchen sink into it: molding paste, crackle paste, glass bead gel and oil paint. The finished painting was too wet to deliver to the show so I had to back out. That is when I realized how horribly wrong it had gone. I struggled and fought the nature of the design becoming desperate to make it work. Driven almost to madness, I ran out to the nearest hardware store and bought an oribital sander. Power tools can be quite liberating. Obliterating layers with the sander outside of the studio I felt that fun childlike excitement building when I saw the face emerging from the the shadows. Pleased, I entered it in a show where it was awarded a ribbon. Wow, someone likes it! Casually observing it over months while it hung on wall I grew more and more dissatisfied. I decided to read my story again and let the words and the drawing guide the design. Scratching out layers of oil paint to bring back that first layer of collage I started feeling content. Here is the before and after which truly holds remnants and remembrances.
4th Fridays Art Event at The Starline Factory
‘Furlough’ received the Nancy Merkling Choice Award
It also SOLD!
Coy Response also SOLD!
WOW!
What an amazing night at The Starline!
Thank you to everyone who came out to see my featured artist exhibit!!!
Art in Nature – Plein Air Competition
9.10.17
Crabtree Nature Center Barrington Hills, IL
Crabtree
9″ x 12″ oil + cwm on board
Where Art Lives “Abstraction” Online Juried Show
First Place
Wind & Sailcloth, 30″ x 30″ Oil + Cold Wax Medium
Check out my Solo Gallery Show:
https://www.whereartlives.gallery/solo-show
February 2017
4th Fridays at the Starline Gallery – Harvard, Illinois
National Juried Show
Honorable Mention & SOLD
Inferno – Mixed Media Pastel
What a great time I had teaching a class at Highland Park High School during their April 2017 Focus on the Arts event.
About 20 students followed me through a fast and furious crash course in design with a mixed media collage project.
April 2017
4th Fridays at the Starline Gallery – Harvard, Illinois
National Juried Show
What an honor!
Best of Show, People’s Choice & Core Team Award
Wind & Sailcloth – 30 x 30 – oil + cwm
November 21, 2019
Looking for a unique gift to give this holiday season? You can find my work and JoyKo originals in several Chicago area locations. Fortunate...
May 13, 2019
First event of the year and it was not without rain, miserable weather and lots of fun!!! Artists were invited to participate in the...
May 13, 2019
This is a show you won’t want to miss! The Adler Exhibition Series Open Gallery Viewing May 3-30 M-F 9:30-6:30, Sat 9:30-1:30 This month,...
This month, the Adler Exhibition Series beholds the beauty of artist collage, exhibiting some of the region’s most eclectic artists. This medium inspires the creator to combine disparate elements, multi-media, and varied styles to bring forth new work that is novel and exciting in its layers, nuances, and meaning. Old and new can be fused together; digital and hand-produced can be combined…collage allows your creativity to run riot.
