FUSEDChicago artists offer new encaustic exhibit at Blue Moon Gallery
Blue Moon Gallery is presenting a new group exhibition called "Small Wonders," which features 37 pieces of encaustic fine art created by FUSEDChicago artists. The exhibition opens Saturday, Oct. 28, and runs through Dec. 3.
FUSEDChicago is an organization of artists in the Midwest who share an interest in encaustic, a method of making art using pigmented wax fused to a surface by heat.
FUSEDChicago artists are painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers who bring contemporary sensibilities to their art and use modern technology in creating their work.
Many members are inspired by the qualities of wax itself: the brilliance of its colors, its tactility and malleability, the luminescence of wax layers, and the textural possibilities of its surface.
FUSEDChicago artists are represented in art galleries locally and nationally, have been included in world-class expositions, including EXPO Chicago and SOFA (Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design), and have work in collections throughout the world.
Encaustic consists of natural beeswax and dammar resin (crystallized tree sap). The medium can be used alone for its transparency or pigment can be added. The medium is applied to an absorbent surface and each layer of paint is heated to fuse it to the previous layer.
The "Small Wonders" artists are Dan Addington, Alexis Arnold, Carrie Baxter, Kathie Collinson, Cat Crotchett, Bob Fesser, Alicia Forestall-Boehm, Tammy Haman, Ginny Krueger, Pat Lagger, Laura LaRue, Cindy Lesperance, Jane Michalski, Carol L. Myers, Kathleen Roman, Rebecca Stahr, Michele Thrane, Neli Tzintzeva and Kathleen Waterloo.
Blue Moon also welcomes collage artist Crystal Marie of Gurnee for her third exhibition at the gallery with her newest "Metamorphosis" collection of mixed media collage art paintings and assemblages.
This new series of work represents the artist's own season of metamorphosis, beginning with the onset of the pandemic, when everything she did as a working artist changed, including three years of significant health issues, the navigation of many difficult personal and family matters, and then coming face-to-face with the limitations of her own abilities.
"As I began to emerge from that place, I could see what had been building through it all," Crystal Marie said. "My own transformed way of being as an artist and a human. Each fragment represents a season of loss and discovery. Fractured and fragmented bits of my life brought together to form a beautiful and complete picture. Each work contains, at once, the old that dissolved into the new. Each work is a visual representation of the completion of that process."
On view through Dec. 3, "Metamorphosis" is a highly personal and intuitive collection of works. Each is characterized by combinations of shapes, colors, textures, layers, and forms. Some include found objects.
September guest artist painter Janet Trierweiler of Evanston continues her exhibition of small works on paper at the gallery through Nov. 5. Trierweiler's exhibition features a collection of gestural abstract paintings created in acrylic, watercolor, and gouache.
The gallery's five collective artists - Kathleen Heitmann of Buffalo Grove; John Kirkpatrick of Libertyville; Kendra Kett of Gurnee; Juli Janovicz of Kenosha, Wisconsin; and Michael Litewski of Zion - who show their art at Blue Moon year-round, will also be presenting new works for the community.
Heitmann is presenting "Chromatic Elixirs," a new collection of 12-by-12 abstract landscapes featuring brightly hued oil and acrylic paints. Litewski is showing a new set of work from his "House and Home" series created via CNC machine carving, plus acrylic paint and tinted resins. Kirkpatrick, Kett, and Janovicz are presenting new paintings and drawings.
The gallery is hosting an Opening Reception for all the artists from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28. The event is free and open to the public. Patrons can view the art, meet the artists, and enjoy an evening of socialization around the gallery's fire pit. The gallery is at 18620 Belvidere Road, Grayslake. Parking is free.
For more information, call gallery director Kendra Kett at (224) 388-7948 or visit thebluemoongallery.com.