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Advertisements pushing wrinkle creams and age-defying makeup are multiplying, but this month’s exhibit at Glencoe’s Gallery 659 celebrates the “Appearance of Fine Lines” with the works of four female artists.
Anyone beginning to notice those fine lines that advertisements like to vilify may feel an affinity towards the exhibit’s title. Northbrook artist Judith Joseph said the title, “Appearance of Fine Lines,” came from the fact that all the artists showing are women of a certain age who are noticing their own fine lines and the lines created through their work.
Since opening in December 2006, Gallery 659’s mission has been outreach, working to attract the art world as well as art lovers through its exhibits, such as “Appearance of Fine Lines” which closes Sept. 29.
“We’re trying to make this not only about the artists that are here, but an outreach to the community so it enriches the cultural life of Glencoe and the North Shore,” Joseph said.
The artists have the freedom to use any medium they choose. “Appearance of Fine Lines” features painting, ceramics and off-loom bead weaving.
Joseph specializes in artwork utilizing the Hebrew marriage contract: The Ketubah. In this show, she exhibits three pieces.
“I don’t have Ketubot on hand. For me to exhibit is hard because I make them and they go out,” she said. “They are all commissioned works. So for me to hold on to three, these have not been taken by the client yet.”
Joseph also shows several other pieces of work which use some aspects of her ability to write in Hebrew. All of her work has brilliant coloring, which she attributes to her use of egg tempera paint, made by mixing the yolk of an egg and colored pigments.
“The reason it’s so brilliant is just the qualities of the paint,” she said. “Acrylic looks plastic-y and I use it, I love the textural stuff that it does, but the colors just aren’t as beautiful. Egg tempera has a beauty of color that I can’t get in any other medium.”
Glencoe artist Pamela Louik said that Joseph knows that there’s more to art than putting paint on a canvas.
“Her work has a lot of symbolism there are words, verses, emotions that run through not just with color,” she said. “Unless you see it, you can’t really engage into it. This is a lot of work. I don’t read Hebrew, but this is extreme and there are very few artists who can do this.”
Louik loves to talk about all the artists work, but when it comes to her own, she’ll be brief.
“The ceramics are mine and that’s it,” she said laughing.
Louik said that she took a different approach with her ceramics for this show.
“I didn’t want to throw, which for me is the easy way out,” Louik said. “You sit at the wheel and you just throw. But all of these pieces are hand constructed. So you touch every single piece of clay, there’s not one piece of clay you don’t touch.”
The two other artists in the show are Ann Patrick O’Brien and Joann Baumann, both Glencoe residents.
O’Brien, Gallery 659 chairwoman, found a chance to focus on specific items for “Appearance of Fine Lines.”
“She’s focusing on her botanicals and also doing a series of bicycles, different parts of the bicycles,” Louik said. “Ann is always moving so it’s sort of appropriate that she would pick a tool to move.”
Baumann worked with two different mediums for this show: Off-loom bead weaving, where beaded sculptures are created one bead at a time, and artwork that is painted or embroidered.
Baumann’s beaded pieces “are very intricate -- lots of work,” Louik said. “She’s also very political besides being a very elegant artist. She is a breast cancer survivor and what she has done is sort of put her feelings about that into (her art).”
While Gallery 659’s exhibits feature only a few artists at a time, the gallery’s boutique offers artists the chance to sell some of their pieces without a show.
The boutique’s pieces begin at the $20 range. Artists take turns gallery sitting, helping patrons if needed. Joseph said she gallery-sits at her own peril, she usually ends up buying something before the night’s end. She said she has her eye on a ceramic bowl at the moment.
“Even though we change our exhibits every month this area can change more frequently and it allows our members to get work out on display,” Joseph said. “They may need to wait a year to get a show but we have a lot of jewelry artists, some ceramic artists.”
With “Appearance of Fine Lines” closing on Sept. 29, the newest crop of artists will get a chance to show on Oct. 5. “Viewpoints” will open with a reception at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 5. The latest Jazz at the Gallery event will be held Sept. 28 featuring The Oakton Community Jazz Ensemble Trio. For more information on Gallery 659 visit gallery659.org or call 847- 835- 0659.
Read one bloggers response to our story and the show here. And, share your own thoughts.
