Photographers Merge Artistic Views to Create 'Nature's Bouquet' Exhibit at Gallery 200 in May
Gallery 200 member artist Deborah Juzwiak, along with friends Hester Bury and Susan Ericson, present “Nature's Bouquet”, a photography exhibit exploring the many wonders found in the outdoors. Their combined works will be on display throughout May as the Featured Artist Exhibit at Gallery 200, 200 Main Street, in downtown West Chicago.
The three women share a love of nature and have become friends through their careers in social services. The photographs displayed in their exhibit may share a theme, but each artist offers their own perspective on the beauty found in the outdoors:
Deborah Juzwiak enjoys gardening and wanted to find a way to memorialize the plants in her garden at her first home in West Chicago. She began by taking close-up images with a manual camera, finding that people enjoyed her work. She now uses a Nikon digital camera. When asked about her passion for her art form, Juzwiak said, “What makes my florals unique is that I don't edit my images using computer programs. What you see is what you get.” Her current home garden was featured as part of the winning gardens in the Woodboro subdivision during the Garden Walk in 2010, where an estimated 300 people visited throughout the day.
Juzwiak captured her first professional photographs on a manual Pentax camera and considers herself a “semi-professional” photographer after a number of her images from a Civil War reenactment, held during a past Railroad Days celebration, were published in The West Chicago Press newspaper. Having held several positions at the newspaper, including classified paste-up and proof reading, Juzwiak said, “I was pressed into service to photograph the reenactment when the newspaper was short on staff.”
Juzwiak spent her life surrounded by art and credits her parents with influencing her creative abilities. Her father was a photographer and developed his own images while her mother sold hand-drawn greeting cards and published a children's book. Juzwiak has returned this gift of art to the community through her membership at Gallery 200, by participating on the board for Railroad Days and by having been a member of the first West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission. She currently works in public assistance administration through a local township office.
Hester Bury has always enjoyed taking photographs and visiting gardens. Everyone in England had a garden and she was surprised to find that was not the case when she moved to the United States. Now she visits area botanical gardens and uses a macro lens with her Nikon digital SLR camera for close-up photography. When asked about her favorite images, she said, “My friends say I never take pictures of people. I mostly take pictures of flowers and landscapes. I love color.”
Bury previously worked in English museums and has an art history degree. This led to work in archiving antique textiles for an American-based company. She chose the Midwest as a “hub” when her textile work expanded into a traveling position, visiting United States manufacturers with antique textile collections for use in designing new fabrics, wallpaper, drapery, gift wrap and apparel.
Volunteering at her church stirred a new passion in Bury and her focus moved toward work in the not-for-profit sector. She currently works for an area food bank, writing grants and raising funds through foundations and corporations. Bury is passionate about her work. “It is great to give corporations the opportunity to support the food bank in their area through volunteering and donations,” she said.
Sue Ericson enjoys taking photographs of nature, particularly animals and wildlife. When photographing flowers, she looks to unfold the “inner traits” of the bloom. She uses an Olympus digital SLR to capture that “snap shot” of nature's personality. Her images often include ducks, squirrels or butterflies. “I love the everyday wildlife in my yard. It is just as interesting as some exotic animal,” said Ericson.
Ericson's history as a professional volunteer with not-for-profit organizations led to a career as an executive director at a hunger relief organization in Elgin. She said, “My heart is in helping people and I am passionate about social issues, especially hunger.”
While raising three children, Ericson studied commercial art at College of DuPage, taking courses in illustration, marker rendering and photography. Since then, her interest in photography was rekindled by encouragement from her son, a past student at the School of the Art Institute. “I have always had a desire to do artistic things,” Ericson said.
A free Opening Reception of art on Friday, May 6, 2011 from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. at the Gallery offers an opportunity to meet the artists and includes light refreshments and cello and harp music by Jake and Hannah Muzzy of “51 Strings.” Deborah Juzwiak and Sue Ericson will also be available at the Gallery from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2011 during Blooming Fest. The exhibit will be on display from May 5 – 29, 2011 with framed and unframed photographs available for purchase.
Gallery 200 is a cultural initiative supported by the City of West Chicago and the West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission, and is one more reason West Chicago was named an Illinois Arts Friendly Community in 2007. Gallery 200 is open Thursday and Friday from 12:00 - 8:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. For more information, including a complete list of current art classes, call (630) 293-9550 or visit www.gallery200.org.