PAL Board Meeting 06/04/08

General committee news / planning

 

Sheryl has volunteered to do the June demo.  She will demonstrate how to work with fuzzed glass.

 

The park district is having a public meeting Wednesday June, 11^th at 6:00 regarding the park across the street from the gallery.  Sheryl asked if anyone would be interested in attending the meeting to learn about what the park district has in mind for the park.  Colleen volunteered to go.

 

Cruise nights have started up again this summer.  They are held every Tuesday night.  The board discussed the possibility of having the gallery open during that time, but agreed that we need to see if there is anyone interested in being in the gallery at that time first so we will have a sign up sheet at the June demo to see if there is any interest.

 

The member's exhibit will be called "In the heat of the art".  The exhibit will run from June 15^th thru August 12^th.  Drop off will be on Saturday June 14th from 11 to 1:00 at the gallery.  All members are welcome and can bring up to two pieces. Pick up will be at the Wednesday demo in August.  Our July 9th program will be a member's picnic and pot luck with judging, a critique of the members work and awards handed out. Sheryl will put out an email to all the members about the July 9^th picnic.  Tina will update the forms that members will have to fill out for exhibiting in the gallery and she will send the forms out with a reminder of the demo before Wednesday.

 

The next exhibit that will go up in August will be a student exhibit.  Anyone who has taken a class at PAL can exhibit their work in this show. District 202 summer students and JJC students may also be invited.  August 16^th will be the drop off day and it will be on display until Sept 10^th.  The show will be called "Hazy lazy days of summer student art exhibit".  The board agreed that the non-member fee will be waved for the first student show.

 

Future shows will be: 

Fall exhibit, Sep. thru Oct. – members exhibit titled "Fall Forward"

Holiday exhibit, Nov. thru Dec. – members exhibit titled "Celebrate Art"

Winter exhibit, Jan thru Feb. – members exhibit to get ready for AFA Best of Best show titled "PAL Best of Best" This show will consist of all the award winning art from all the previous shows and 10 pieces will be selected by judges to represent PAL in the AFA  show.

 

 

Business was concluded.

Winners of the Alliance of Fine Art 16th Annual “Best of the Best” Fine Art Exhibit

Alliance of Fine Art
16th Annual "Best of the Best" Fine Art Exhibit
Mayslake Peabody Estate
1717 W. 31st Street, Oak Brook, IL
March 16 - May 18, 2008
Reception, Critique, and Award Presentations, May 18, 2–4 p.m.
 
Best of the Best Show Judge
Rolf Achilles
 
Mr. Rolf Achilles, an Art Historian and the Curator of the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows at Navy Pier in Chicago, is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  He organizes symposia, special exhibits and lectures for many agencies and educational institutions, some of which include: the Newberry Library, the Mayor's Office (Chicago), the British Society of Decorative Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, a number of architectural organizations, and several German museums.
 
He lectures on art, architecture, preservation, and stained glass windows nationally and internationally, and organizes exhibitions and coordinates symposia relating to historical art movements, as well as on painters and printmakers  He has written a number of books, pamphlets, and articles including: "Chicago's Architectural Impact on Vienna, Budapest and Berlin," "Pride of Place – The Streeterville Story," and the ongoing Catalogue for "Smith Museum of Stained Glass."  Mr. Achilles earned his PhD in ABD from the University of Chicago, with additional studies abroad in Germany, Rome and the Netherlands.
 
Congratulations to our
Award Winners
Best of Show     Gaylord Walter              DPAL
1st Place            Dick Shipley                NAL
2nd Place           Tony Armediz              EAG
3rd Place           Diana Nawrocki            WSAG
1st H.M.             Connie Nestler             MCS
2nd H.M.            Jacque France             LGAL
3rd H.M.             Leah Tait                     AAG
4th H.M.             Mike Bessler                PAL       ****
 
Merit Recognition
Honorable Mentions
Maggie Kruser                           NAL
Carol Baumrucker                         PAL       ****
Mike Thompson                         LAG
Bruce Peterson                         AAG
Heide Parks                              NAL
Helen McLuckie                         PAL       ****
Valerie Lorimre                          NAL
Laura Lein0Svencner                  MCS
Yvonne Thompson                      DPAL
Helen Roeder                             LGAL
Joe Hadamik                              PAL       ****
Gregor Maksyhmiw                    AAG
Marianne McKoveck                   EAG
Darlene Hoekstra                       EAG
 
Our thanks to all who made this show so outstanding.
Nancy D'Agostino, Chairman
Zaki Knapen, Graphic Design, Exhibit Layout & Installation
 
Committee
Lee Anderson
Stephanie and Matt Bieniek
Carol Carls
Abhi Ghanju
LuEllen Joy Giera
Sheryl Jones
Karen Magin
Dianne Martia
Lois Martin
Therese Mildice
Mona and Bob Parry
Laura Rivas
Dennis Salaty
Jeanne Sellergren
Nancy and Bill Uznanski
Alice and Gary Wick
Kim and Jon Wilcox
 
And to the AFA Officers
Zaki Knapen, Executive Director
Bill Uznanski, Ex-officio Emeritus
Diana Nawrocki, Vice Director
Abhi Ganju. Treasurer
Kim Wilcox. Secretary
Therese Mildice. Retiring Secretary
 
 
 
Therese Mildice
tmildice@earthlink.net

JoAnn Deck ARTWORKS

By Denise M. Baran-Unland Special to the Joliet Herald News

 

Full Article:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/lifestyles/952336,4_5_JO16_ARTWORKS_S1.article

JoAnn Deck's art quilts are not the heirlooms family members pass down through generations, but brightly colored abstract fiber collages.

"I'm not a person to work on a quilt for years. I like immediate results, to put my colors together and get the thing up on the wall," said Deck, 67, of Plainfield.

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JoAnn Deck

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• JoAnn Deck

"Color excites me, big, bright swashes of color, not little prints and little designs. I'm more into futuristic stuff. I'm not into history and I think it carries over into art."

Having once owned a Harvard, Ill., fabric store, where Deck also taught quilting classes, Deck was familiar with fabrics when she discovered art quilts on the Internet.

Already a collage artist, Deck was excited about the possibilities of creating art on fabric, art that also did not require framing. Deck took a class and was instantly pleased with the results.

"I can create different lines and shapes just by the way I apply the dyes and the paints to the fabric and the way it travels through the fibers," Deck said. "Then there's the tactile nature. If you have a quilt hanging, people want to touch it. But if too many people touch it, they leave oil from their hands on the surface and that's not good for a piece of art."

Deck says she works intuitively, rarely sketching a first design before she begins. Nor is she afraid of experimenting with either color or fabric. She will often just throw paint on cloth just to see what happens. The paint that is available for fabric work is better than ever, she said.

"There are new and wonderful textile paints that do not change the hand of the fabric significantly," Deck said. "The cloth created with these paints, when used according to manufacturers directions, is so soft that you can easily hand-quilt it. For many years, acrylic paints were applied to fabric and, even though marketed specifically for fabric, left it stiff and rubbery."

Although she sometimes melts polyesters using a special gun, Deck nearly always prefers working with 100 percent cotton fabrics. To ensure just the right colors for her projects, she hand dyes and hand paints her work.

"I don't want to limit my choices," Deck said. "I love being able to have the right color I want on hand and not having to run out to the store to find it. I believe God has blessed me with a keen sensitivity to color harmonies, along with the ability to combine many diverse and unusual elements and techniques. My art pieces are built layer upon layer, technique upon technique, with intuitive and spontaneous development fueled by the colors and diversity of materials."

The art experience for Deck does not stop with creating art. Teaching it to others, she said, is a natural consequence of experiencing it.

For the last six years, Deck has taught a number of art-related courses at TLD Designs in Westmont, owned by her daughter and textile artist Tammy Deck.

Deck also accepts commission work; her pieces hang as part of many private and corporate collections, she said. Nearly everything Deck owns is or can be for sale if the right buyer comes along. There is, however, one piece she will not sell.

"It's a collage I did many years ago as a tribute to my stepmother when she died. It helped me get through the grieving," Deck said. "It's not a fabric collage, but a dimensional collage from things that were hers: a piece of her watch, the mirror from inside her lipstick container and her Washburn School graduation paper.

"I've exhibited it on occasion and for awhile I taught classes on how to make one.

"I told people, 'You bring your important stuff and I'll show you how to make a piece of art out of it.' But people want results that are vintage-looking and vintage isn't my thing."

Mike Bessler ARTWORKS

May 9, 2008

 

By Denise M. Baran-Unland Special to the Herald News

 

Full article:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/lifestyles/939459,4_5_JO09_ARTWORKS_S1.article

 

To fully grasp the immensity of the art pieces fine art photographer Mike Bessler fabricates, click twice on the red and yellow tulips image on his home page online at www.BesPhoto.com.  There, Bessler, 57, of Bolingbrook, stands proudly before the 16-by-6-foot tulips photograph that permanently resides at Naperville's Edward Hospital outpatient center in Plainfield.  "This is my favorite image right now," Bessler said. "I like to keep going back and looking at it and I bring other people to look at it, too."

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To create this wide-angle image, Bessler took 14 different shots of the tulips, cut them into 10 36-inch square images and stitched them together.

He then printed them on canvas and created visible brush strokes on the flowers by painting them with clear acrylic. Because the photograph has so much detail, Bessler said he can print it again in any desired size.

"To me, this brings out the richness of the picture and makes it look more three-dimensional," Bessler said. "Some day -- maybe a long time from now -- I'll be able to print 3-D, but the best I can do right now is to add my texture on the outside."

For other photographs, Bessler "sculpts" them, by photographing many separate pictures of the same object and assembling them into one photograph by layering them. He used this technique with the images he took of his new pink rosebush.

"Sculpture has more depth, more shadows," he said. "Your eye just puts it all together and you don't see the spaces at all."

Bessler has shown his work at the Oak Brook Invitational and he has sold his pieces to both individuals and to corporations. Each year, he teaches photograph workshops at Starved Rock State Park in Utica.

Although both Bessler's father and uncle loved photography, Bessler said his call to the craft came at Lockport West High School (now Romeoville HS) when someone put a camera in his hands and told him to go take pictures.

"I didn't have a clue what I was doing, so I had to learn," Bessler said. "There weren't all those photography classes then." He apparently caught on fairly quickly. "I was the photographer for the 1968 yearbook. Almost all the photographs in there are mine and my friend's and we did all the layouts."

A full-time programmer and a part-time wedding photographer, the nature-loving Bessler evolved into a fine art photographer after he visited and took pictures of the Grand Canyon. He couldn't wait to get those images developed and relive that visual experience. But the resulting pictures disappointed him.

"The awe was just not there and that is when I resolved to learn how to bring home the awe," Bessler said.

He experimented first with enhancing the colors of his realistic pieces and later by creating impressionistic renderings of his images to give the feel of the original scene. Many of those images are quite large and have a sculpted feeling. Bessler now prints those images on either fine art paper or canvas.

Since he retired two years ago, Bessler has limited the number of weddings he will shoot each year to concentrate more on his fine art work. These are mostly nature pieces, especially flowers and waterfalls. The process of creating them gives Bessler immense satisfaction.

"My images are mine from the first look through the viewfinder of my camera, through the enhancing process and the printing," Bessler said. "Now I am feeling the awe."

Naperville Art League Award Winners for “MEMORIES OF THE PAST”

Best of Show:
Kirk Kerndl —"Portrait of Juan Morales"

Best Theme:
Pat Young —"Past Vacation Memories"

Merit Awards:
Mike Bessler —"Mayan Monkey Pot 400 AD"



Susan R. Wilson — "Iris Gardens"

Marilyn Polivka — "Isabella in the Garden"

Bill Baykan — "Charlie"

Ed Massart — "Mom's Bike"

Judged by George Liebert

PAL Board Meeting 04/30/08

Treasures Report

 

The current checking balance is $3,228.79.  Dick Splant memorial donations totaled $1,145.00 and Tod Schnowske's Art X2 fundraiser brought in $400.00 for the art league.  Tina asked that the board agree on an amount that the board can spend without prior approval.  The board agreed on the amount of $50.00.  A receipt is required for reimbursement no matter what the amount is. 

The board discussed whether a board member could get reimbursed for expenses if that member had to travel far or spend the majority of a day away from home to represent the league.  The board agreed that under very unique circumstances and with board approval first they may be able to receive reimbursement for expenses such as gas or lunch.

 

General committee news / planning

 

Majorie O'Dowd from Markym Interior Designs was in attendance at the meeting to inform the league about the Cavalcade of Homes that will take place this year in Plainfield June 28^th through July 30^th.  There will be 6 builders doing 8 homes.  The home that Majorie will be working on will have a casual family feel and they would like original art from the PAL to showcase in the home.  Installation of the work will take place in June.  Sheryl will put info in the newsletter to let members know about the opportunity.  Marjorie will also be able to view some of the members work at the gallery when the first "member's exhibit" goes up in May.  Sheryl also told her to look at our website to get an idea of some of the members work.

 

Tuesday night May 6^th PAL will host the AFA's board meeting.  Sheryl invited anyone who is interested in coming to join them.  She also mentioned that PAL is still in need of a delegate for the AFA and if anyone is interested in the position they should come Tuesday night to see what their meetings are like and learn more about them.

 

May 7^th Cindy Egizio's elementary students will be at the gallery for a field trip.  The field trip is to introduce them to art in the real world.

 

Leona Kelly will cover the May 8^th "open gallery".  The board agreed to keep promoting the open gallery a few more months to help it get more interest.

 

May 15^th Sheryl will be meeting with Amy DeBoni and Alex Harris to review PAL's business plan and presentation to the Village Board of Trustees.  Sheryl will relay more information later on what time and where.

 

The current exhibit of instructor's art will be removed some time between the 12^th and the 14^th so that the PNHS student exhibit can be hung and ready for the show opening on the 16^th. 

 

Plainfield Spring Fest starts Friday May 16^th at 5:00 in the evening.

 

On May 20^th Sheryl will be heading a meeting with Mainstreet Plainfield called "Merchant's Collaboration Meeting".  It's about ideas on how to become a better buyer.  It will be from 8:30 am to 9:30 am and everyone is invited to attend.

 

Plainfield Park District is planning an event called "chalk it up" on July 5^th from 5pm to 8pm in the PCHS parking lot.  It will be set up for 48 entrants and they would like PAL to provide 3 judges.  It is not approved by the high school yet, but plans are in the works.  Sheryl will put a note in the newsletter for Volunteers.

 

Settler's Part Art Fair has been cancelled for this year.  Sheryl recommends that we prepare a proposal for what our involvement will be for next year.  She plans to meet with the organizers again soon.

 

Gladys Fox Museum will hold its annual event June 16^th from 1 to 9pm.  It will only be a 1 day event this year instead of the 2 days it was held for in the past.  Sheryl will follow up on that and get the info in the next newsletter.

 

The PAL will soon start selling the members art that is on display at the gallery.  Each artist would need to complete a W-9 along with a release of liability.  We will also need a 3 part receipt book.  Joe may have one to donate, and if not, Sheryl will purchase one.  15% of the sale plus sales tax will go to PAL and 85% will go to the artist.  Only checks and cash will be accepted.  If the check is bad the board agreed that the artist incurs the loss and not the league.  All instructors will also be required to fill out a W-9.  Marge expressed concern about where the W-9's will be stored.  The board agreed to purchase a safety deposit box.   A motion was made and seconded to approve the selling of art and the requirement for all artists that have work for sale and all teachers to fill out a W-9.

 

The board approved the spending of $320.00 for the purchase of a storage unit and a water dispenser.

 

Sheryl announced that there are 5 people interested in teaching youth art classes.  Sheryl and Marge will set up an instructors meeting.

 

Business was concluded.

In search of beauty

Published in the Naperville Sun

April 24, 2008

Recommend

By KATHY MILLEN kmillen@scn1.com

Love at first sight may not always go the distance in a relationship, but it could be a great way to choose a work of art.

The good news is art lovers don't have to look far to find galleries and exhibits in the Western suburbs. In addition to those that sell reproductions of well-known art, local communities often spotlight the creative talents of both professional artists and home-grown amateurs. Organizations like the DuPage, Naperville and Plainfield art leagues operate their own galleries featuring rotating exhibits of members' work. Others, including the Aurora Art League, display their pieces locally in buildings open to the public.

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DePaul student Aileen Decourcery looks at the Michael Piazza exhibit College of DuPage's Gahlberg Gallery.
(Brian Powers/Staff photographer)

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Brian Powers / Staff Photographer Hozhoni Gallery owner Janet Smith talks with James and Annie Chao of Naperville about buying an authentic Native American print. Smith goes to reservations to find authentic pieces of Native American art to bring back to her gallery in downtown Naperville.

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Brian Powers / Staff Photographer Authentic Native American necklaces are shown at the Hozhoni Gallery in downtown Naperville.

Establishing a showcase for local, original art brings a sense of pride to a community, said artist Fredericka Howard, of West Chicago. She saw that happen in recent years when West Chicago bought and restored the historic Ripley House Hotel, located in the city's downtown, and converted the first floor into an art gallery. Now in its third year of operation, Gallery 200 features the work of some 30 local artists as well as jewelry made by clients of The People's Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that assists DuPage County residents living in poverty.

"I've always thought it was important that neighbors know about (the gallery), that they know what could be done and could be proud of their town because of it," said Howard, a member of West Chicago's cultural arts commission. "For so many years we've been sort of a backwater community of the western suburbs. Now I think people are taking a bit of pride in the idea that we can afford a gallery."

Many local schools have galleries and exhibit areas that showcase visual and cultural arts including College of DuPage, Aurora University, Elmhurst College, Wheaton College, Benedictine University and Marmion Academy. In addition to the gallery at its Oesterle Library, North Central College is including the Gus and Connie Schoenherr Art Gallery as part of its new concert hall and fine arts center currently under construction.

Debbie Egizio, a former designer for decorating magazines and Home and Garden TV, opened The Beat of My Art in August. The Naperville gallery and gift shop features her own artwork as well as that of 20 local artists. Art, she said, does more than decorate a room. It makes life a little bit brighter.

"Design and art and anything creative is important to us psychologically, too," said Egizio, who teaches classes at College of DuPage. "I think it's important for us to have galleries and to be able to appreciate and share (art) with every generation." While Egizio offers a variety of works including paintings, jewelry, soaps, purses and three-dimensional pieces, other galleries have found a niche specializing in a specific type of art. Janet Smith, owner of the Hozhoni Gallery in Naperville, deals exclusively in Native American pieces. A judge for American Indian art shows, she is active in Indian charities and donates a portion of her sales to the Indian community. She travels frequently to the American Southwest and the Northern Plains to hand-select her inventory, which includes carvings, pottery, baskets, drums and her biggest seller - jewelry. Smith said these pieces, especially the jewelry, are more than objects of beauty. Like most art, they have a story to tell.

"More people appreciate the handmade quality of jewelry," she said. "There's not really anything like it. It stands alone in history and design. Many people embrace it as being part of our country's history."