West Chicago photo exhibit spotlights nature

Gallery 200 member artist Deborah Juzwiak and her friends, Hester Bury and Susan Ericson, display their work in a photography exhibit titled “Nature’s Bouquet.”

Their combined works are on display this month in the Featured Artist Exhibit at Gallery 200, 200 Main St., West Chicago. The three women, who have become friends through their careers in social services, share a love of nature.

The photographs in their exhibit may share a theme, but each artist offers her own perspective on the beauty found outdoors.

Juzwiak enjoys gardening and wanted to find a way to memorialize the plants in the garden at her first home in West Chicago. She began taking close-up images and found people enjoyed her work.

“What makes my florals unique is that I don’t edit my images using computer programs,” Juzwiak said. “What you see is what you get.”

Juzwiak captured her first professional photographs on a manual Pentax camera — she now uses a Nikon digital camera — and considers herself a “semiprofessional” photographer after a number of her images from a Civil War re-enactment 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 re-enactment 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 Railroad Days board and being a member of the first West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission. She currently works in public assistance administration through a local township office.

Bury has always enjoyed taking photographs and visiting gardens. Everyone in England had a garden, she said, and she was surprised to find that was not the case here.

Now she visits local botanical gardens and uses a macro lens with her Nikon digital SLR camera for close-up photography.

“My friends say I never take pictures of people. I mostly take pictures of flowers and landscapes,” Bury said. “I love color.”

Bury has an art history degree and worked in British museums, which led to a job 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.

Later, volunteering at her church stirred a new passion in Bury and her focus moved toward work in the nonprofit 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.

Ericson enjoys taking photographs of nature, particularly of wildlife.

She uses an Olympus digital SLR to capture that “snapshot” of nature’s personality, she said, and 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,” Ericson said.

Ericson’s history as a volunteer with nonprofit organizations led to a career as an executive director at a hunger relief organization in Elgin.

“My heart is in helping people, and I am passionate about social issues, especially hunger,” she said.

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.

Juzwiak and Ericson will be at Gallery 200 to meet patrons from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 21, during Blooming Fest.

The exhibit remains on display through Sunday, May 29. Gallery hours are noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sundays. For details, call (630) 293-9550 or visit gallery200.org.