Support local artists by shopping Nature-Inspired Art Market
Beginning Nov. 27 at 5 p.m., shop local and online for holiday gifts this year at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods' fourth annual Nature-Inspired Holiday Art Market.
You'll find unique art, handmade gifts, jewelry, items for kids, home goods, books, cards and prints from more than 40 local artists and makers.
"Brushwood Center's Art Market is a safe way to shop for beautiful and unique holiday gifts, while simultaneously supporting both local artists and Brushwood Center's community programs," Brushwood Center Executive Director Catherine Game said. "From jewelry to fine art to auction items, we have something for everyone."
Depending on the item, purchases can be delivered directly or shoppers can use the contactless pick up service at Brushwood Center.
Anyone who wants a head start can become a donor and receive a password that lets them shop during donor appreciation hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 27. Current donors will receive an email with the password for early entry.
For more information about Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods, and to view the work of this year's Art Market artists, visit www.brushwoodcenter.org.
Featured artists
• Anna Villanyi: A museum educator, crafter and animal enthusiast with a passion for fostering fascination in the natural world. These paths converge in nature-inspired snowflakes.
Anna uses digital drawings, a laser cutter, and hard materials to make snowflakes into wooden ornaments, coasters, trivets, wreaths and more.
To see more, visit www.annavillanyi.com.
• Raychel Steinbach: Raychel received her BFA in printmaking, papermaking and book arts from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design in 2009. Raychel is the printer-designer behind Current Location Press, and focuses on handset type combined with carved blocks inspired by nature, community and urban horticulture.
She has one foot firmly planted in her Chicago neighborhood and one foot embedded in the larger natural landscape of the Midwest.
Through a series of prints featuring Illinois State Parks, Raychel explores the diversity of nature and terrain through abstraction and simple use of color. She pairs illustrative hand carved woodblocks with two layers of abstracted color fields created from small scraps of type-high wood with some metal type ornaments.
The use of off-cuts from the wood type manufacturing process is an intentional way of reinforcing the environmentalist aims of the work by repurposing industry by-product and highlighting the ways in which the modularity of letterpress type has an inherent longevity.
For more, visit www.CurrentLocationPress.com
• Alexandra Stevenson: Her series of small landscapes was initially inspired by a long commute between Chicago and a far Northwest suburb where she taught art and English classes. To pass time on the way home from work, she tried to memorize particular color combinations in the sky and fields that she would paint on weekends when she retreated to her Ravenswood studio.
"As a Chicagoan, I find repose in a flat, open horizon, the dominant line of my world - the grounding line of the Illinois prairie and the place where water meets sky on Lake Michigan," Alexandra said, describing her work. For more, visit www.astevensonart.com.
• Carrie Carlson: Carrie is a Chicagoland native. She earned a BA in biology and art from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa; an MFA in scientific illustration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and recently an MA in Printmaking from Governors State University in University Park.
Since 2001, she has been a full-time high school educator in the South suburbs, where she has split her years between the science and art departments, teaching drawing, painting and international baccalaureate visual arts, as well as biology, biomedical sciences and horticulture.
She also teaches a variety of adult art courses at the Morton Arboretum, including linoleum block printing, drawing birds, and field sketching. Visit www.cscarlson.com.
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