Merril Chase Art Galleries Chicago

Circa 1970

Peter Max Promotional Poster

May is frequently the month that most associate with the time we honor our Mothers, Stepmothers, Grandmothers, Aunts, and special women in our lives both past and present. When I think about my beginnings as an artist, it’s roots branch out from my Mother and Grandmother and Aunt. My Grandmother was a hobby painter and docent at the DesMoines Art Center. My Aunt and my Uncle were big art collector and involved in their local art community on a very large scale. My Mother is an active artist who has practiced in watercolor, needlepoint, sculpting and acrylics, whose now passions is “poured painting". I never think of myself as growing up with a strong influence in art, but perhaps I did. 

In the 70’s my Mother was one of the curators at Merrill Chase Art Gallery in Oak Brook and Chicago Illinois. I had the opportunity to meet Dali, Peter Max and Miro. As a kid I did not appreciate this experience. These were what I thought of as “weird old guys”. Peter Max had an unusually big mustache and Dali in particular I thought was downright scary looking. His companion pet ocelot completed the fear factor. Now as an adult and a painter, it seems to be unbelievable to have seen such culturally iconic artists working the gallery of Merrill Chase prompting themselves as well as their art.  You grow up in the environment that you view as pretty normal, because thats all you know. You really don’t know any different until later in your life when you get an odd look from a friend or associate with raised eyebrows with the expression “WTH”. Very few if any of my friends past or present know about these past experiences with  art greatness that lurk in the dimly lit recesses of my childhood. I have viewed this passing memory as a fleeting moment in time. If I think about what influences my art today, past encounters do play a subtle role. 

I prefer realism over abstracts. I like color true to what nature laid out verses an idealistic pallet. I am drawn to oceans, reefs and shells, not cityscapes, mountains or ice. I like to look at a painting with the appreciation of the skill and labored nuances that results in puzzling your brain of uncertainty if it's a photograph or something else at first glance. These are the things that make me uniquely me. It is what that makes my art my own. I appreciate other styles of what others find beautiful, important messages of thought and feeling, but never compelled to implement on or off my easel. 

With reflection, I am appreciative to have had many out of the box art experiences that I had as a child. I have thanked my family many times for all the wonderful experience that I was afforded. So Happy Mother’s Day, to all the women in our lives, or the various roles they play and their influences on the outcomes in our lives, both past and present. I am including Mother Nature also, for giving constant refreshing daily inspiration to my soul with something new to paint every day.

Sea, Sand and Sky.

Happy Mother’ s Day.  

Happy May.