exhibits
Western AVenue Series
The exhibit, "At the Heart of the City: Western Avenue in 24 Paintings," was a series of 24 watercolor paintings, one to document each mile of Western Avenue, the longest street Chicago. While not considered to be among the most “beautiful” of Chicago’s streets, Western is a perfect place to document the humanness of Chicago, the positive and the negative. In the words of author Stuart Dybek, "Western, with apologies to State Street, is a great street, Unlike State, it is a street that goes to the interior, the heart of the city, as it glides and glows through a United Nations of neighborhoods." The paintings provide glimpses of the neighborhoods through which Western passes, illustrate places which evoke nostalgia, and reveal portions of the street unknown to Chicagoans who live at opposite extremes of the avenue. The painting were exhibited on Western Avenue, of course, at the Beverly Art Center.
this is home
“This is Home” is a series of interviews and paintings. My interest in home and how we depict home began many years ago with a painting my great-grandmother made of my Grandmother’s childhood home. This painting on ceramic hung on the wall in my Grandparents' dining room and I was always very curious about it. In my current painting work, I find myself particularly curious about the ethereal idea of home (what feels like home) and how that relates to a physical place. Through this series, I am interviewing residents across the Chicago and making paintings of their homes. I have chosen in particular to interview people who are long-time residents of Chicago and to create paintings, which reflect what feels special about these homes to their inhabitants. The series was exhibited at Firecat Projects, in Chicago.
this is home: series 2
In the first “This is Home” series, described above, I exhibited a series of paintings, based on interviews In that series I was particularly curious about the ethereal idea of home (what feels like home) and how that relates to a physical place. Through this series, I interviewed residents across the Chicago area and made paintings of their homes, attempting to reflect what feels special about those homes to their inhabitants.
Building on that completed work, I completed This is Home - Series 2. In this second phase I interviewed residents of three assisted living communities to identify the elements of these facilities that resonate with their idea of “home”, and the challenges presented by moving into a more institutional setting. Based on these interviews, I will developed a series of paintings, which attempt to capture elements of the resident’s homes as shared in the interviews. This series was presented under the title of "This is Home; Making Home in Affordable Senior Living Communities," at the Environments for Aging Conference, Chattanooga, TN and you can watch of video of the presentation to AIA Chicago Design for Aging Knowledge Committee.
