Hybrid Artist Melds Fine Art with Computer Graphics
According to West Chicago artist Lois Easley, “Art is about risk taking and putting yourself out there. It’s like jumping off a building and enjoying the way down.” The exhibit entitled "Leaps & Longings," displayed throughout January 2010 at Gallery 200, 200 Main Street, West Chicago, exemplifies the artist’s early career in watercolor, acrylic and mixed media pieces and her quest to embrace new technology and art forms.
Easley, a West Chicago resident for 11 years and an inaugural member of Gallery 200, always liked to draw and studied oil painting in her 20s. After a career as a teacher with a Communications degree, she made a conscious choice to change her life’s direction. “In my 40s, I decided it was time to start painting again before I died,” she said. The sale of her first painting solidified her desire to turn a hobby into a business.
Studied in traditional, classical and realistic painting, Easley considers herself a hybrid artist. Over the last couple of decades, her teachers have included Jennifer Hereth at College of DuPage and DuPage Art League teachers Marge Hall and Bill Gant as well as many classes with the late Wayne Atkinson and Calligraphy with Timothy R. Botts. Although she still loves nature, especially close up photos for lines, shapes and color, her at-home studio is complete with a stylus mouse that acts as a paintbrush and computer software that imitates a painting canvas. The Illuminated Alphabet Project illustrates her desire to combine her fascination with typography and the history of print with emerging graphic technologies. Easley admits that her art is heading in this direction, but states, “I will never give up the brush. Getting my hands messy is more human.”
The public is invited to meet the artist at a free Opening Reception of art on Friday, January 15, 2010, from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., featuring professional guitarist Kevin Brown, a recent graduate of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. Refreshments will be served.
Gallery 200, located at 200 Main Street in downtown West Chicago is a cultural initiative supported by the City of West Chicago and the West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission, and is one more reason West Chicago was named an Illinois Arts Friendly Community in 2007. For more information on featured artist exhibits, special events or additional intermittent classes, call (630) 293-9550 or visit the website www.gallery200.org.
Contact:
- Krista Coltrin
City of West Chicago 475 Main Street West Chicago, Illinois 60185
(630) 293-2200 ext. 135
kcoltrin@westchicago.org
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