Continuing On

The four of us met because we all rented our studios in the Contemporary Art Workshop. The Workshop housed 22 individual artist studios and was owned by Jack and Lynn Kearney, Jack a well known Chicago sculptor, was one of the original founding members of the CAW in 1949. The building was sold in 2008, and all 22 of us had to relocate our studios, with almost everyone in a different location around the city. The loss of our artist community was hard, and many of us tried to maintain the bonds by meeting together at coffee houses at least once a month. The four of us started meeting regularly, and even though our work varies greatly, we are very similar in many ways - one being a common love for Van Gogh and his desire to create his own artist community in Arles in the yellow house that he lived and worked in.

The title of our show, "Continuing On" was to celebrate our continuing on after the CAW, but I would also like to think we are continuing on, in the teeny tiniest of ways, Van Gogh's dream of artists working together, showing together, and helping each other out. And of course the sunflowers in the entry are for Van Gogh.

Kate has quite a fantastic group of paintings in the show, 4 large canvases and 10 mid to small size. Her paintings show the viewer gorgeous interiors, all with her signature drips and washes of color, and loaded with interesting lines and brushstrokes all over the canvases.

Neha has been working this past year on 3d pieces and what she has in the show are several great new works created while in a recent residency at Anderson Ranch. Through the door you can see a glimpse of her installation of diaphanous forms created from paper which are suspended over a floor of turmeric. She also created several transparent ceramic pieces that are shown with a light box.

Joanne has 4 paintings and one large drawing in the show. I think of Joanne's work as almost dream like, she references and explores ideas of memory. The use of text has always been a key part of her paintings but her new canvases are so highly textured that the evidence of lettering is almost buried, which really pulls the viewer in.

Lots more pictures of all of our work can be seen on our Facebook events page, Our show will continue through the first week of May and will be open during Art Chicago's River North Gallery District Reception and Party Evening, next Saturday, May 1st from 6 to 9pm. Please stop by if you live in the area, should be fun!

Here are a few pictures from our opening reception night.

We were thrilled to have as our very first arrivals Jack and Lynn Kearney, what an honor!

I was so excited to have these four ladies come to the opening. A couple of months ago, I had been invited to speak at New Trier, a local high school, for their annual "Career Day." Mark Bowers, remarkable artist and teacher, invited me to speak with his classes, and at the time, I didn't realize it would be the day before our Friday night reception. The entire career day experience was an amazing honor and treat for me, and these four seniors were kind enough to take time out of their Friday night, to see the show! I was blown away!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the show, and those who emailed congrats and best wishes. I can not tell you how much I appreciate your comments, feedback and encouragement! Thank you!