Since we opened the gallery, we’ve found that our customers have had questions regarding how best to light the artwork they have purchased. The simple answer is, there is not one “best” way. Below, we discuss some options for lighting artwork as well as some other considerations.
Read MoreOur summer intern, Sarah, also analyzed several paintings during her time in the Netherlands. These included Portrait of a Couple as Isaac and Rebecca, commonly known as The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt van Rijn, and Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.
Read MoreThis summer, the gallery had an intern, Sarah, who helped the gallery in a number of different ways. Sarah spent part of June in the Netherlands studying art, and we decided to have her share some of her experiences on our blog. Sarah will be writing two blog posts detailing her experiences on exhibits she saw while studying abroad. We hope you enjoy reading them!
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We’re back for our third and final installment on street art, in which we will be discussing current street art outside of North America. We have already looked at the history of street art as well as its expression in the United States, but street art is truly a worldwide phenomenon. We have based some of this post on our travels abroad, while other examples have caught our eye while researching our other blog posts.
We first encountered extensive amounts of street art in Melbourne, Australia. Influenced by New York’s street art scene, the medium began to grow rapidly in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Stencil art became particularly popular in Melbourne during this time. In fact, Melbourne held the first ever Stencil Festival in 2004, which ran over the course of 10 days in late September and early October.
Read MoreWhat are your earliest memories of art? How did you become an artist yourself?
Matt: My earliest memory of art occurred when I was 3 or 4. My mother hired her brother, my Uncle Phil, to paint my bedroom and I asked him to paint some cowboys on the wall, which he flatly refused.
Read More“I don’t know very much about art.” That’s a comment we frequently hear from customers. We believe that appreciating art does not require knowledge of art, but understanding some art history can enhance enjoyment. So, we would like to provide some context to our customers through our blog posts. Since they are brief, we hope that the blog posts will act as a springboard for those looking for more information. Today we will discuss the Abstract Expressionist art movement, which informs so much of contemporary art.
Read MoreWhat are your earliest memories of art? How did you become an artist yourself?
I was one of those kids that when asked, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I always said ‘an artist.’ There were sketchpads and pencils along on most family camping vacations. And I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have memories of the Art Institute of Chicago. I didn’t necessarily have a wealth of art supplies growing up or a fabulous art program in my early schooling. But I have always been an observer of the world around me and felt a need to record it.
In our last post on Street Art, we discussed a few places in the United States where street art was particularly prevalent or had a significant impact on the surrounding community. Today, we’d like to delve a little bit more into the history of street art and examine how it has evolved over time.
Read MoreWe like to talk with our artists to get a sense of their beginnings and inspiration, as well as their current work and where they see their work evolving in the future. Today, we’re speaking with abstract painter Allison Svoboda, who is the Featured Artist of May.
What are your earliest memories of art? How did you become an artist yourself?
As a child, I was always building things like forts in the woods, exploring the outdoors and collecting objects from nature. I always loved drawing and painting. In high school, I was obsessed with photography. Some kind of artistic expression has always been a part of my life.
Read MoreWe like to talk with our artists to get a sense of their beginnings and inspiration, as well as their current work and where they see their work evolving in the future. Today, we’re speaking with abstract painter Debra Delbecq, who is our Featured Artist in April.
What are your earliest memories of art and how did you become an artist?
I am a twin and one of seven children who grew up on a farm. We had a unique, beautiful thing about how we worked together and played together. If we were canning or if we picked a bunch of raspberries, we always had all these colorful visuals sparking our imaginations. I did barn chores and drove the tractor, always helping my Dad. That’s how I fell in love with the Indiana landscape.
Read MoreWe’ve been putting a lot of street art images out on social media over the last year because, well, we love it! We are interested in its uneasy relationship to graffiti and its links to gentrification, but mostly we are excited about its ability to bring art directly to the people. We will take a quick dive here today into the current street art scene in the United States, with the idea that we will circle back to this subject from time to time as part of a series to explore it more deeply.
Read MoreWe like to talk with our artists to get a sense of their beginnings and inspiration, as well as their current work and where they see their work evolving in the future. Today, we’re speaking with abstract painter Amie Campbell, who is the Featured Artist of March.
We’d like to learn more about your beginnings. What are your earliest memories of art and how did you become an artist yourself?
“My grandmother was a painter and so I remember seeing her painting and I remember seeing her paintings. Most of that was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, so she would paint lake scenes and sunsets and beautiful things like that. I went to a liberal arts college, Kalamazoo College, and at first art wasn’t my emphasis. I got very interested in art history there and I had taken some art in high school but not a lot, and I just got interested in making art. I also did theater, and it all kind of worked together.”
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