Vogt Art Center, Tinley Park, IL Midwest Collage Society Exhibit

Vogt Art Center 17420 67th Ct, Tinley Park, IL 60477

Exhibit Title: THE VISUAL MUSIC IN OUR SOULS

Judge’s Bio:  Claudia Craemer -Artist and art educator, involved with Tall Grass Arts Association for over 12 years and also with Union Street Gallery for 10 years.  Has exhibited and received honors and awards in many regional shows and has curated or judged nearly 30 exhibits for Tall Grass, Union Street, The Victorian House Gallery, Prairie State College's Christopher Gallery, and others.

JUDGING: (one 1^st place, two 2^nd place, three 3^rd place, four honorable mentions)

1st Place (artist)   CAROL WEBER

Title:                      Bits and Pieces of Us

Comments:   Delightful piece, full of information and a complex mix of images and materials wonderfully arranged.

Lots of “tid bits', mementos, that suggest through the linear movement within the composition and the collection of specific objects, a journey, passage, a reflective moment, harkening back to an earlier shared time.

2nd Place (artist)   NANCY SAVAIANO ROSENBERG

Title:                       Finding One's Own Voice

Comments:   Beautiful, classy, stately, regal.  A powerful piece that doesn't scream.

Fluid and elegant movement and repetition of shapes, forms, patterns. A refreshing place to linger. A calming voice to listen to.

2nd Place (artist)   ELAINE RATH

Title:                       Crescendo

Comments:   Bold, operatic; an engineered, carefully crafted work. A kind of fanfare through precise shapes that rush across the space, that fill, fold back, explode outward.  Visual sound, blasts and beats as color and form.

3rd Place (artist)   JOAN LUCHT

Title:                      Ohmm

Comments:   Restrained. Strength in subtle edges, glimpses, impressions, tiny whispered phrases of color peeking through, marking time.  A meditation, prayer, chant.  An introvert's poem.

3rd Place (artist)    NANCY STASZAK

Title:                        Quartet

Comments:   A vibrant and complex grid work, demonstrating mastery of color

and texture, pattern and movement. These are the elements that command our attention at first, and also keep us returning to discover more interesting areas

with repeated viewings.

3rd Place (artist)     JERRI REIMANN

Title:                         Stream of Consciousness

Comments:   The flow of ideas, energy, confidence, exuberance, through intense color and surface marks. A landscape of thought and emotion, fluid and moving within never-static, ever-changing moments.

Honorable Mention (artist)   RACHELLE BARMANN

Title:                                       Music of My Soul

Comments:   Visual music: meter, rhythm, repetition, punctuation. A kind of steadiness and resolve. Pristine. Such great care in selection and placement of hundreds of elements. Attention given to harmony. Unity. The silent chimes that interrupt the stillness.

Honorable Mention (artist)   ANNETTE PLETTAU

Title:                                        Kentucky Farm, Winter

Comments:   An actual landscape as well as a lush collection of papers and textures. Serene and welcoming, drawing us in to a peaceful hideaway.

Honorable Mention (artist)    CAROL KAZWICK

Title:                                        Homage to Kurt

Comments:   One of the more orderly, compositionally strict pieces. Implies a setting of limits and abiding by principles. A very satisfying work of variations on a theme, repetition of colors and shapes, concern for filled and empty spaces.

Honorable Mention (artist)    VIRGINIA GUZIOR

Title:                                        Birdsong I

Comments:   A departure from many of the other works in the show through its use of surprising fabrics, stitches, applique, the somewhat oddness of colors and texture choices.  The world within the elaborate frame seems of another time,

where brocade and harpsichords might be part of the room just beyond the birds.

Overall Comments on Exhibit: 

The Visual Music in Our Souls Exhibit is a large, diverse, and impressive show of

dozens of approaches to collage. From images that are created primarily from cut and paste papers and pictures, to works that incorporate painting, glazing, textural surfaces and even 3D objects, the range of styles and formats is exciting. The artists demonstrate experienced handling of media, a sensitivity to color and pattern, an attention to contrasts between textures and forms.

Many of the works invite us to keep coming back to explore and enjoy intricate areas of dense detail up close, and some of the works read as bold statements of color and composition from far across the room.

So many of the pieces in the show are worthy of receiving applause and appreciation, and it was extremely hard to determine levels of honors to be

given. Many more works could have received an award.  The exhibit as a whole

is full of joyful and energetic compositions and daring pairings of delicate and powerful, subtle and assertive visual statements.

It was a pleasure to spend time studying all the collage pieces, to see new directions appearing in the works of some familiar artists, as well as to discover

some new artists that are now part of the group.  The MCA is definitely an

organization that continues to grow and improve each year. Congratulations on

another great show!

Claudia Craemer