Jodi Adams
Animal
Photograph, Infused on Metal | $180
Jodi began the Car Wash Series in 2007 while completing her degree in photography at Columbia College Chicago. It all began with a dirty car, a camera, and a homework assignment. It has since morphed into a lifelong project...and a very clean car. One of Jodi's teachers, and an inspiration to many, instilled in his students the habit of having a camera on hand at all times - lens cap off, and aperture and f-stop adjusted for proper lighting. True to this philosophy, Jodi had her camera with her at a car wash on Western Avenue in Chicago. As a captured audience, she watched as the fading light of sunset began to play on the glass windshield. This was the moment of inspiration. This dance of liquid light and color symbolizes transformation and impermanence. It's about bringing magic and possibility into our lives. Creating beauty from the mundane can teach us to know ourselves beyond the limitations of one-dimensional thinking. Much like our own fleeting human experience, there is an entire world beyond the superficial when we take the time to look.
Lily Dong
Color Cascade Mandala
Yarn, crochet hook and hoop | NFS
A crochet mandala is a circular, intricate geometric design radiating from a central point. It can be made using various stitches and colors. It symbolizes unity, wholeness, and harmony. The essential materials include crochet hooks, yarn, and patience.
James Dorner
Dancing Rose's
Harley Davidson Motorcycle parts | $650
My Rose's are my staple, my constant that has always been there thru finding myself thru artwork. Using only Harley-Davidson motorcycle parts in my work, I am out to leave behind a collection of artwork from one medium that has sparked a culture. Timeless treasures from the heart, artwork born from benefits.
Marcus Flinn
Ghosts in the Parking Lot
Digital Photography | $300
This photo details a dream where one is trying to escape their personal struggles. Packed with symbolism and laced with themes of mental health, I created this self-portrait by using a Canon EOS Mark IV camera, a 10 second timer, a tripod, fabric, and blending five images in Adobe Photoshop.
Lori Fuller
Napping
Coloring Pencil | $125
Napping is a colored pencil drawing using a minimal color palette to express a deep feeling of peace.
Valentina Grant
Healing
Digital | $100
This work is part of a series that consists of 36 digital paintings. Each piece serves as a story beat, based on an original short story. The story also explores themes/ideas of death, decay, loneliness, the process of grief and learning to move on.
Patricia Monigold
Jason, from the Series The Art of Timing
Oil on Canvas | $1,200
It’s as simple as this— I’m like a crow with a shiny object. Something about a person captures my attention. It may be the way light defines the jaw, the way plaid fabric curves on the shoulder or the unruliness of a tuft of hair ….and I take the hook! The subjects of my portraits are people going about their everyday lives and the detail that lured me now opens the door to exploration of the subject who generously agreed to pose. Working in oil I balance form and color to create a composition that not only defines my subject but does so with directness and nobility.
Gregory Stallmeyer
Four Red Squares
Resin and urethane on wood | $550
Jeannie Vansickle
Where the World is Right
Acrylic | $700
This 30x48 painting was accomplished without paint brushes. But rather, pallet knives, rags and fingers! I paint intuitively without a final product in mind. This one evolved slowly (very slowly) and finally emerged, bringing me to my happy place by the sea "where the world is right".
Shania Wright
Window #1
Photographic Print | $500
Castillo San Felipe del Morro is one of the most recognizable structures in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While exploring the grounds in 2021, Wright came across an old chapel at the citadel that was built between the 16th and 18th centuries. Many questions quickly came to mind. Who else has gazed out this window in the past? How often did they do it? And what were they thinking? Viewers of this photograph may also ponder these same questions, but what others come to their minds?
Leslie Kimble
Let the Adventure Begin
Acrylic on canvas | $1, 350
Let the Adventure Begin encapsulates the artist's (Leslie Kimble) feeling of possibilities in the future. There are many unknowns, uncertainties and challenges that lie ahead of us, yet there is also a vast amount of beauty, excitement and awe in the adventure that surrounds our lives, so..."Let the Adventure Begin!"
Aldin Lee
Blue Pond in Autumn
Oil on Canvas | $7,500
I'm a representational oil painter works in traditional method, with influences by Titian, Vermeer, Ingres, Zorn, Sargent and William Bouguereau. My painting reflect idealistic interpretation of nature with scrutiny of color and light with optical sensitivity, to create compositions that are dynamic by the conscious inclusion and arrangement of pictorial elements that complement each other, to achieve supreme poetic expression in a unity through the aesthetic appeal. The Blue Pond in Autumn is one of the landscape painting that I did a plein air study at the Kickpoo State Park, it was quite a challenge in terms of improving the brushstrokes and color blending after studying of Anders Zorn's painting in realistic depictions of water, then later I accomplished the painting in the studio. The visual contrast is made up of a variety of shapes, sizes and proportions in this painting. The vertical pine and shrubs form a triangular focal point, and the duck on the right provides an interesting contrast to the rocks blocking the flowing water on the left of the image. After all, this is a kind of natural beauty worth exploring and depicting artistically.
Christopher Reme
Shattered
Digital | $300
Shattered pieces weep,
Yet hope finds a way to heal,
Strength in brokenness.
Grant Thomas
Belted Kingfisher
Linoleum block print and watercolor on Mulberry paper | $150
This print was the second print I made to highlight the birds that live in and around the rivers of Illinois. Water is essential to all life on Earth and we must do all we can to keep it safe and clean for all living creatures.
Louise Audrieth
Raven
Mixed Media | $250
This is one of a series of works I have done of Corvids (ravens and crows). Corvids are some of the few birds that are intelligent enough to work with tools. They recognize faces, and remember who has been kind to them and who has not. I am fascinated by the variety of colors and personalities inherent in these birds. Ravens differ from crows in size, and habitat, but are every bit as interesting. I worked with several types of media to create this raven. Although I usually work with traditional watercolors, I used watercolor brush-pens, both dry and blended with water, markers, and pencil for this piece. I enjoyed bringing out the many colors that show in his feathers, and putting movement and life into his expression. This raven was shown in the Parkland College Giertz Gallery Around the Block virtual show in 2021, featuring local artists.
Maria Bell
Brown Mirage
Acrylic Inks | $195
"Brown Mirage" - a painting where water and paints "dance" on canvas, a creation born of the quest for inner peace, inspired by the calming embrace of brown earth tones.
Clara de la Fuente
Awakening
Gouache on paper | $399
Awakening is inspired in a sunset walk on a January rainy day in Valladolid, my hometown in Spain. Walking outside of the city with no direction, inhaling the moisture in the air, letting my mind run free, as a reward to my body after a long day working in the studio.
Chosen solitude to reconnect with my soul and the parts of me I almost forgot about. The ambivalence of missing my life in America while enjoying reconnecting with my previous life in Spain. A mixture of nostalgia and inner peace. Time to think, reflect on my life experience and self-care. Small moments that make life big.
Faith Gabel
Spring Fever
Acrylic on Canvas | $750
“Spring Fever” is a meditation on the anticipation of the beauty and bounty of spring after a long winter. Flowers pine for the attention of the sun’s longer days, peeking out from all directions. Buds are filled with hope and and potential. The brightest greens highlight the foliage, and the world is new again.
Lorraine Graham
Sister Peony
Acrylic | $600
The inspiration for this piece was collected at Allerton Gardens while painting at the "Picnic with the Peonies" event in 2023. I call this the "Sister Peony" because this is a different view of the same peony I painted for a Master Gardener. The gardens are an amazing place to go.
Christopher Hendricksen
Little Red
Inkjet Print on Archival Paper | $175
A woman in red walks through the fresh snow on the Schroth Trail at Allerton Park in Monticello.
Michael Holtz
The Angel at Fairfield Cemetery
Black and White Photography | $100
This photo was taken at Fairfield Cemetery in Douglas Co. The tombstone angel looks out over the cemetery and wind turbines. I photographed this scene several times to get the “perfect sky”. The photo is printed on Baryta 310. Baryta is the "old school" way of whitening paper which adds a natural richness to the print. My photo website is bluestemgallery.com.
Satomi Kamei
The Stream in the Meadowbrook
Watercolor | $700
Ever since I moved here to Urbana from Champaign, I've been looking forward to walking through Meadowbrook park. I've painted this park many times over the four years since I moved here to Illinois from Alabama. The natural landscape of the Midwest that can be seen in this park always fascinates and inspires me to draw there.
While creating this painting, I had a rare experience that I would like to share with you. While I was drawing at home, I started to smell park, I felt like the brush was moving on its own without thinking about anything, and in hindsight, I think I may have been in a flow state at that time. As a result of that concentration, it took much less time to complete than usual, and I think I managed to express the natural world more vividly and wildly.
I usually express my watercolor using transparent paints but recently I started putting some opaque colors on my paintings to express more vividly. I hope this painting takes you to Meadowbrook park.
Shelia Parinas
Koi Pond
Acrylic on Canvas | $400
A study of koi, light reflections, and movement at Lake of the Woods in Mahomet, Illinois.
Vicki Patton
Perplexed
Acrylic/mixed media | $350
Acrylic paint and collage on canvas, layering with a blend of various materials, colors, textures & shapes.
Shannon Percoco
Circles of Time
Acrylic on canvas | $850
This piece was inspired by an old photograph I found from my father's camera. He passed away suddenly and peacefully and that moment changed our family forever. Painting his lens capture or vision in that singular still has been cathartic-as a working meditation on the idea that time is nothing but a stream of circles or moments that we can choose to capture, remember, and store to help us process our own mortality and grieve those who have gone before us.
Michael Tankersley
At Sea
Watercolor/Ink | $250
‘I love the rigging, the wind in the sails, the sky darkening. Will it outrun this storm?’
Michael Tankersley
Boats in Port
Watercolor/Ink | $500
‘I enjoy the challenge of trying to capture the colors of the boats and reflections across the water. Oh the stories these boats could tell….’
Grant Thomas
Poo-tee-weet
Two color linoleum block print on mulberry paper | $150
As I was driving home from a funeral in rural Illinois, I saw many Red-winged Blackbirds perched on reflectors near the highway that I was travelling on. I could hear their iconic song and it reminded me of the birdsong described in Kurt Vonnegut's book, Slaughterhouse Five.
The phrase "poo-tee-weet" is repeated throughout the novel and represents the sound of the birds singing. By the end of the narrative, the protagonist realizes that the war has ended and it is now quiet enough to hear the birds. The birds' song is all there is left to say about all the senseless death.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I lost many neighbors and family members. Some died of COVID-19 and others died from other illness. The world watched as George Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin.
Some days, when faced with the insurmountable cruelty of police violence in my country and a disease that killed millions of people around the world, all I have is the beauty of the birds singing.
Chen Wang
Zodiac Symphony: A Journey Through Time
Digital | NFS
This artwork invites you to a captivating journey through the Chinese zodiac which weaves together the symbols of the Year of the Ox, Year of the Tiger, Year of the Rabbit, Year of the Dragon, and Year of the Snake. The first piece was crafted on the Lunar New Year's Eve during the Year of the Ox and continued to evolve over the years, becoming a meaningful tradition that deepens my connection to my Chinese heritage.
While many zodiac-themed artworks focus on the animal of the current year, this collection goes beyond by exploring the interconnectedness of these animals.
The interaction created by every pair of the distinct animals embodies a metaphor. It underscores the idea that time is not a static moment but a fluid, perpetual flow. Each animal represents a unique moment in the grand dance of time, yet they coexist, interact, and transition into one another. As you explore this artwork, I invite you to contemplate the rhythms of life, the continuity of time, and the ever-changing cycles that shape our existence.
Rachel Weber
Trip Transforms The Traveler
Acrylic & Ink collage | $200.00 for the
set of 4 or $50.00 individually
Trip Transforms the Traveler is a series of 10 collages whose pieces came from one large painting completed in early 2020. The painting, unfortunately, was damaged and could not be repaired. Knowing that sometimes you need to destroy to create I decided to venture into new territory, transform the work into pieces, and from there create new works. In the end, the process helped me reimagine my original vision into new ways of combining shape, color, and texture.
Martha Willi
Outside Allerton
Pastel | $350
Outside the main area of Allerton Park are old barns and buildings that now serve Allerton for storing various equipment and materials. This area is a great location to paint en plein air due to the warm and varied colors of the buildings and the quiet out of the way location. This pastel painting was started on location, and then completed in my studio from sketches and photos for reference. I enjoy the way pastel can be used to capture the color and texture of the old barn and surrounding landscape.
Charles Wisseman
Block Circle Print
Linoleum cuts and prints, pvc pipe | $350
This piece pairs carved linoleum printing blocks with prints from these same blocks. Contrast of circles vs rectangular grid, light vs dark, block vs mirror-image print, patterns of central order vs randomness. Duality is the fabric of life.