MEETINGS

October 8 (Second Sunday due to a conflict at the police station) Pam Eberlin, award winning assemblage artist, will present a cigar box assemblage workshop. Artists will create a small assemblage with their own supplies, including a small box of choice ( a cigar Box is suggested) and items from Pam Eberlin's stash of small things.

Artists should have a theme in mind; inspired by life, events, or their own supplies. Pam is sometimes inspired by objects which in turn suggest the theme. Pam Eberlin is a hopeless collector who creates art from found objects, especially vintage ones. She creates assemblages, sculpture, and jewelry, mostly from found objects. Pam is a Studio Artist at Union Street Gallery in Chicago heights. She teaches Art to 1st-8th grade students at St. Agnes School in Chicago Heights. Every year her 8th graders create a shrine for their Saint (Confirmation name) from cigar boxes and found objects. Some of the attached samples are similar to what the students created.

List of Supplies:

1-2 cigar boxes, collage papers, assemblage items, paint brushes, acrylic paint, water and paint containers, tacky glue (or similar) E6000 glue (or similar), "Modge Podge" or polymer medium, objects and supplies that fit your theme for your assemblage box.

Be sure to bring a plastic table cloth to protect the table.

November 5  Tammy Deck, fabric artist, will present a program on felted collage. More details in October.

December 3  Christmas Holiday Party/pot luck /gift exchange

MCS EXHIBITS

Remnants and Remembrances  at the Chicago Cultural Center continues through October 20th. Enter through the Randolph Street side---it takes you directly to our exhibit in the Renaissance Court Gallery.

The show is gorgeous, and the award ribbons are up for the public to see. A list of the award winning artists and the judge's comments are attached.
There is a lot of foot traffic there, and people are really taking time to look at the work!

Our Reception is Thursday, October 5th  4:00----6:30PMMo needs your information on what refreshments you can bring to the reception.  msox@aol.com
ALL refreshments must be store bought and still wrapped.  City of Chicago does not allow home made things! A list of promised refreshments is attached.

Pick up from Chicago Cultural Center will be Monday, October 23rd.
Good news----we have your wrappings if you left them
Not so good news----the wrappings are in large plastic bags with Tania, Margi and Nancy SR---so we will need a strategy to get them downtown ahead of time so work can be rewrapped.
Anyone got any good ideas?  More information to follow---at October meeting.

OPEN SPACES at If These Walls Could Talk (Gallery) goes up in November.
Attached are an information sheet and an entry form to be returned by October 18th.
You will receive more information soon----but get to work on OPEN SPACES now
They would like images for their publicity----so send them something and you might be the featured artist!!!!

MEMBERS 

"The Sisters Project" by Margi Hafer

My sister, Donna Johnston, left behind a stack of unfinished paintings and collages when she died in February 2017. During her last year of life, Donna's eye sight failed her due to radiation that compromised her optic nerve, thus she was not able to complete many of the lovely paintings and collages that she started.

In an effort to honor Donna and her talent, I have created "The Sisters Project".  I am asking fellow artists to help me by choosing one or two of Donna's unfinished works and completing them with watercolor or collage, or mixed media techniques of their choice. Both Donna's name and the collaborative artist's name will be on each piece. Then the collaborative artist is asked to donate the piece/s to a charity of their choice. I am photographing all of Donna's unfinished work, and will want photos of the works completed by her collaborative Artist "Sisters". This special collaboration will be documented in a book called "The Sisters Project" that will showcase Donna's efforts and those of the artists that complete her work. Each artist is asked to write a short artist statement about their collaboration, mentioning who received the donated art. I will photograph the finished pieces, or artists may send me a digital image, for print, for the book. I would like to be able to start work on the book by April 1, 2018. I will be bringing some of Donna's unfinished paintings to the October 8th Collage Society meeting in case some of you are interested in helping me with this project. When the book is finished I will bring a copy to one of our meetings so that you can enjoy this celebration of Donna's art, and the art of her collaborative "Sisters". 

I hope you will join me in this special tribute to my sister.

Laura Lein-Svencner has many classes starting up in October, 1. Collage and Spirit Animals, 2. Artists Way Course, 3. Mind, Body and Creative Spirit 1-Day Retreat- See on www.mayslakepeabody.com. 

Elaine Rath is having a moving sale at 640 W.58th Street, Hinsdale on October 13-14, 9:00-3:00. Some art related items include:

- Complete set of metal smith tools, in a tool box that includes jeweler's saw, extra blades, ring mandrel, many files,  needle nose pliers, sterling stamps, complete alphabet letter stamps, many files, rouge for polishing, wax for casting, some cabochons and sheet metal, Also book, "Design and Creation of Jewelry"  All $20.

- Airbrush equipment  includes tool chest, 3 airbrushes, generator and "Complete Guide to Airbrushing".  All $20

 *Block print tools:  5 linoleum cutter with assorted blades,  2 brayers, linoleum. All  $15

- 36" T-square $3

- 32" tall, fully articulated skeleton in stand, $30

If anything interests you, call Elaine at 630-536-4404 and she will bring it to the October 8th meeting  PRE-SALE!!

National Collage Society Exhibit-Union Street Gallery

Mark the Calendar...September 29th, National Collage Society 33rd Annual Juried Exhibition. Information on the site will be posted soon...Union Street Gallery located in Chicago Heights IL. 

Wonderful News to Share~

This exhibit has been judged by Jeanine Coupe-Ryding 

Remnants and Remembrances

August 25 to October 20, 2017

Renaissance Court Gallery

Chicago Cultural Center

1^st place

Mary Corrado Warner, Games We Played

2^nd Place

Carol Kazwick, Voyager

Nancy Staszak, The Mystery of Other People’s Journeys

3^rd Place

Frabra Di Paolo, Good Weather for Everything

MaryAnn Gradisher, Midway Plaisance

Leslie Lenz, Yellow Boat in Woods

Honorable Mention

Laura Lein-Svencner, Flashback

Cynthia J. Lee, Data Transfer

Jerry Reimann, Remembering the Forgotten

LuEllen Giera, Surviving Grace II

Juror's Comments...

Remnants and Remembrances

Chicago Cultural Center, 2017

Juror’s Observations

Making a collage means bringing scavenged paper, cloth, photos, and various 2 and 3 dimensional ephemera together to form a new composition. At the artist’s discretion the pieces are shifted and considered just as placing paint on a canvas would be considered to add to a work. Sometimes in collage, unlike painting, the individual elements are from the time and place that collage is describing or commemorating. Paint alone can’t do that. So both the items chosen and how they are arranged in a collage can affect how we feel about the work.

The craft of collage lies in how the pieces are pasted or attached to the surface; basically how the materials are handled. The art of collage lies in the choices the artist makes regarding the individual elements and composition and how they influence our feelings about the whole piece. I thought of these things as I looked at the work in the “Remnants and Remembrances” exhibition by the members of the Midwest Collage Society at the Chicago Cultural Center. Interpretations of the title of the exhibition spanned a variety of two and three dimensional media and approaches.

I looked for a balance between the art and craft and how the compositions drew me in inviting consideration. Some artists, such as Andrea Fox, MaryAnn Gradisher, Nancy Staszak and Joan Lucht used photos and ephemera from a time period as homage. Meg Guttman created a scrapbook of collaged photos, flowers and text to capture a spectrum of personal and social situations and Margi Hafer used photographs, writing and found text to direct the viewer to the specific person in her collage.

Some other artists, such as Mary Corrado Warner, Jerry Reimann, Carol Kazwick and Carol Weber take an indirect approach using three dimensional materials creating compelling assemblage/collages that create a feeling nostalgia and recognition.

Mary Corrado Warner’s “Games We Played” and Carol Kazwick’s “Voyager” 

are three dimensional collage/assemblages with innovative compositions. Game pieces come together in a rhythmic zig zag and in “Voyager” stacked envelopes invite a peek at a postcard, photo or letter from afar, suggesting a long journey. In Nancy Staszak’s

“The Mystery of Other People’s Journeys”, faces smile at us surrounded by pieces of patterned papers, a stamp and bits of letters as though they are looking at us from afar through the panes of a window. Fabra DiPaolo’s collage, “Good Weather for Everything” draws a face over squares of printed papers creating a strong abstract composition. MaryAnn Gradisher tears through an old newspaper to take us back to the Midway Plaisance at the turn of the 20^th century. The scene opens a depth in the surface that seems to punch through the wall behind the collage. Lezlie Lenz takes us on a relaxing get away to the lake in the woods with her collages titled “Yellow Boat in the Woods” and “Northwoods Angel”.

The quality and variety of the work by members of the Midwest Collage Society is, once again, very high. Spending time at the show was a rewarding experience. Though 10 awards were given, there could have been awards for other categories. There were a number of fine collages that came close to receiving an award. I was glad to see the work of Barb Arntzen, Sylvia Koch and Donna Johnston in the exhibition. Though they are no longer living, however, their collages provide a wonderful memory of them through their art.

Thank you for the opportunity,

Jeanine Coupe Ryding

Photo's of the exhibit