Blue Moon Gallery launches spring art season

Blue Moon Gallery has kicked off its 2023 spring art season with new exhibitions featuring abstract acrylic paintings and sculptures from William R Weidner of Waukegan; hand pulled linocuts by Racine, Wisconsin, printmaker Samira Gdisis; new scratchboard art by Les Scott of Gurnee; and jewelry designs by Leslie Armstrong of Fox Lake featuring wire-wrapped stones.

The gallery's 2023 Collective Artists will also be showing their latest artwork.

"This month we are excited to celebrate the fourth anniversary of our opening day with so many talented artists showing their work with us," said Kendra Kett, director of the Blue Moon Gallery.

"It has been a wonderful and inspiring journey to work with and support so many artists from across northern Illinois, southeastern Wisconsin and all of Chicagoland these past four years, and to present their beautiful art for our patrons, collectors and community."

William R. Weidner attended Washington University's School of the Arts in St. Louis, where he earned his BFA in painting. He later earned an MFA at the University of Nebraska in painting and drawing. He was a professor of art at Lakeland University in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, for 30 years and has won numerous awards for his artwork.

"It seems to me life is all about relationships. Personal relationships, race relationships, relationships with nature, relationships between countries, political relationships, sexual relationships and more," Weidner said.

"And it seems equally important, even a responsibility, to try and have a positive influence over as many of these relationships as possible in the hope of contributing to a better world. If I may, I would like to suggest that the relationships of the colors, shapes and shared edges within my paintings may serve as potential models for an improved state of relationships on this planet.

"In any case, I am not one to believe the world is fine just as it is. So, I paint."

Weidner is showing a collection of paintings focusing on organic shapes and strong color palettes characterized by hard, clean and precise edges. He paints with solid, opaquely applied colors and an intentional effort to show as little brush strokes as possible. A series of Weidner's companion monochromatic sculptures is also included in his exhibition.

Samira Gdisis is a printmaker, interdisciplinary artist, community builder and curator. She loves making art, often as a means of documenting life around her or the history of the people in her life. Despite being an interdisciplinary artist who loves color, she returns to linoleum printmaking often to interpret the stories, people, flora and animals in her world.

In her new series "Petals & Wings," each piece has an element that is intimate and intrinsically personal, and yet the imagery is relatable.

"In other collections, I often do not focus on pretty work. 'Petals & Wings,' however, is meant to be lived with. I hope these pieces share wonder, emotion, composition and contrast in a way that relates to the viewers," Gdisis said.

Gdisis holds bachelor degrees in cognitive psychology, interdisciplinary art and printmaking with a minor in arts management. She also earned a Master's of Art degree in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Les Scott is one of only three Illinois scratch artists in the International Society of Scratch Artists. He works in a medium using a tool that allows him to create outside the brush or palette knife. Instead of canvas, he uses a scratchboard - a hard, ⅛-inch thick Masonite board of white kaolin clay that's sprayed over with black India ink.

To start, he draws his subject matter on tracing paper and then smears the back of the drawing with chalk. The drawing gets transferred to the scratchboard by using a pencil to trace over the drawing, with the chalked side of the paper facing down on the black side of the scratchboard; this causes a white image to appear.

Then, using a penlike stylus with a metal nib, Scott scratches over the white lines of the drawing that are on the black board. To add color, he uses bluish inks mixed with sepia or specialty inks made just for scratchboards.

"Scratchboard art requires patience. I never hurry, and I believe my discipline is reflected in both the composition and detail of each piece I create," Scott said.

The artist is presenting new scratchboards in this exhibition, many of which feature pebbles and rocks, landscapes and animals.

The gallery is also presenting works by jewelry designer Leslie Armstrong. With an eye for detail and an innate ability to create abstract beauty, Armstrong's jewelry pieces are designed to be conversation starters.

Her playful yet sophisticated approach yields an unexpected combination of both fun and fancy designs. Many pieces come with ink drawings and frames, which elevate the designs to an added level of creativity.

Capturing the essence of modern life, Armstrong's works provide the wearer and viewer with a subtle reminder to embrace every day with peace, love and joy.

The gallery's five 2023 Collective Artists - Kathleen Heitmann, Juli Janovicz, Michael Litewski, John Kirkpatrick Jr. and Kendra Kett - will also be exhibiting new works, including paintings, drawings and assemblages.

These artists show year-round at the gallery and present evolving collections of works in impressionism, abstract expressionism and modern/contemporary genres.

The gallery will be open to the public from 1-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The gallery also ships artwork to buyers nationwide.

Blue Moon Gallery is at 18620 Belvidere Road, Grayslake. For information, contact Kendra Kett at (224) 388-7948 or visit thebluemoongallery.com.

• To submit Your news, go to dailyherald.com/share.