Lisle art exhibits showcase New Orleans, apple orchard
Art student Karen Gehse saw a TV program on an organization building homes in hurricane-devastated New Orleans and wanted to help.
Art professor Charles Boone walked through an old apple orchard in Michigan and was stirred to explore questions about aging and family ties.
The results of both their inspirations now hang in exhibits open through Feb. 26 at Benedictine University in Lisle.
Imagine New Orleans"Imagine New Orleans" - containing about 70 pieces of artwork celebrating the life, culture, music and vitality of The Big Easy - is on the second floor of the Joseph and Bess Kindlon Hall of Learning on the Benedictine campus, 5700 College Road, Lisle.A Mardi Gras-style party and reception for the exhibit will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5.Shown only once before, "Imagine New Orleans" was on exhibit last summer at the Bloomingdale Park District Art Museum.The prints of the pictures by 51 artists, many of them students and instructors at College of DuPage, will serve as welcoming gifts to New Orleans residents when they move into their new homes. The originals and prints also are for sale to raise money to do the reproductions.Gehse said she got the idea for the project after seeing actor Brad Pitt talk about his plans for building 150 homes in New Orleans through the Make It Right foundation.The Lombard resident wasn't the type to hammer nails, but she could use a paint brush."These families love their city so much - they want to stay there and rebuild," she said.The COD student shared her desire to create artwork for the new homes with fellow student Karl Arntzen and the project was on its way. More people got on board and Gehse founded IArtists, a nonprofit organization, to make artwork to benefit residents of New Orleans."It's just been wonderful," Gehse said. "Our first box is on the way as far as those going to (New Orleans) homeowners."Gehse said a total of about 90 paintings, collages and photos have been created. They are being distributed through Lutheran Church Charities and also will be distributed through the homeowners' association formed for the Make It Right homes.Homeowners receive a 12-by-15-inch giclee print. To raise money to make the prints, IArtists is selling the 24-by-30-inch originals for $500 and up. Full-size prints cost $250 and half-size prints $95."We do hope this to be an ongoing project," Gehse said. "There are thousands and thousands of families rebuilding homes there."The Orchard ProjectCharles Boone's inspiration for doing "The Orchard Project" came about in a backdoor kind of way. His pastor had asked him to make a drawing of a tree in an orchard to use as an illustration.The illustration never was used. But the request caused Boone to take a walk in the 247-tree apple orchard his wife's family owned in south Central Michigan for three generations.He photographed each tree - lining their pictures in rows like a class portrait. Impressed about how each tree had its own look and characteristics, Boone set out to draw each one.During the past year, he's done lithographs, etchings and charcoal drawings of individual trees in the orchard. An exhibit of the work is hanging in the lower level of the Krasa Center on the Benedictine campus."I'll be drawing these trees for the next three or four years," said the Batavia resident and COD art professor."What's really fascinating is to see a tree that has just been pruned and one year later that's where the branches are shooting up and that's where the apples are."The orchard contains about a dozen varieties of apple trees, including some antiquated varieties of hybrids.As he became familiar with the trees, the orchard began to take on a deeper meaning for Boone. His wife's grandfather, Harold Wilkinson, had purchased the orchard in 1929 right before the stock market crashed. It is now cared for by Wilkinson's three aging children and their spouses.What would happen to the orchard when they are gone? Should the old, but still productive trees be torn up?"It caused me to think about what actually matters, what's important," Boone said.The trees serve as metaphors for how society treats the aged, outdated and antiquated. In asking the questions the trees raise, Boone has found an answer for the future of the orchard itself."The resolution is I expect to retire and take care of the orchard," said Boone, 51. "It is so much a part of the family. It will go on in some fashion."For information on either exhibit, contact Benedictine University curator Teresa Parker at tparker@ben.edu or (630) 829-6270.False20001298Benedictine art curator Teresa Parker, left, and Karen Gehse of Lombard, founder of the "Imagine New Orleans" project, stand with a painting done by Gehse and Karl Arntzen of Naperville.Tanit Jarusan | Staff PhotographerFalse <p class="factboxtext12col"><b>If you go </b></p><p class="factboxtext12col"><b>What:</b> Mardi Gras-style party and reception for "Imagine New Orleans" exhibit; costumes welcome</p><p class="factboxtext12col"><b>When:</b> 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5</p><p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Where:</b> Second floor of Kindlon Hall of Learning at Benedictine University, 5700 College Road, Lisle</p><p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Cost:</b> Free, donations welcome</p><p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Info:</b> <a href="mailto:tparker@ben.edu">tparker@ben.edu</a> or (630) 829-6270</p>