Tom Burtonwood Curates In Real Life at Platform

In this conversation we talk with curator and exhibiting artist Tom Burtonwood, about taking things from real life to digital formats and then back into real life in his upcoming show "In Real Life" at Platform in Evanston. The exhibiting artists include Aimée Beaubien, Nick Bontrager, Tom Burtonwood, Assaf Evron, Burton Isenstein, Christopher Meerdo, Rosalie Yu

This conversation goes in many places, walking through the art in the show, and talking about current challenges of how to know what is "real" and playing with what our minds and eyes think is real.

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“In Real Life” is an exhibition of work made by artists concerned with the translation of the physical into the virtual and back again. They are invested in the production of art works and experiences to produce outcomes that probe and examine our relationship to the real and how we perceive it to be. While the pursuit and accordant unraveling of artifice is nothing new the current anxiety surrounding “fake news” and the malaise around what is presented to us as real opens up fertile ground to mine new modes of representation.

Volumetric image capture and reproduction represents an evolutionary moment for photography and other types of technical image making mediums. One that is tied inextricably to the history of the mechanical image but also points to many possible new futures in terms of interaction, and simulation. Central to this shift in types of representation is a set of technologies commonly referred to as 3D scanning.

Quietly and without great fanfare we are seeing image, object and time based media production collapse into singular streams of productive behavior. Scenes and surfaces are being generated from technical apparatus and fabricated without intervention from the hand of the artist. It is within this context that a new form of representation is evolving, a form of volumetric photography, that exists in many different versions congruently – as image, as form, as experience, as data, as transmission, all at once.

Saturday, June 2, 12-5 p
904 Sherman Ave.
platform904.com

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 The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Megan Magill on her Billions of Particles Exhibit at the Saw Room Gallery

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This Saturday, 5-8p, at the Alley Gallery’s Saw Room (1712 Sherman Ave.) Megan Magill and Marc Sirinsky celebrate the opening of their exhibit “Billions of Particles.” The closing reception is Saturday July. 7, 5-8pm. Exhibition runs June 2 – July 14.

Megan Magill’s images use miniscule materials and underlying visual patterns to explore uncertainty. In this podcast we talk about Magill’s attraction to that uncertainty and how she welcomes it into her process.

About Megan:
Learn more at megan-magill.com

Megan Magill is an artist based in Chicago and Maine. She received her BA in Humanities at the University of Colorado, her Masters from Northwestern University and her MFA from Maine Media College. Her work has been exhibited in group and joint shows nationally and she was recently a semi-finalist in the Print Center's International Competition. My Business is Circumference was featured at the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography and The Habit of Winning was featured in F-Stop Magazine’s portfolio issue with an interview by William Cox and in a print publication with LDOC . In the fall of 2017 her work will be published in American: Authors, Interpreters, and Composers a book series created by Patricio Binaghi of Paripe Books and designed by Matt Wiley of the New York Times Magazine.

From Saw Room Gallery:

Megan Magill manipulates found images and vintage snapshots with various printing techniques. Here are Megan’s thoughts on her process behind her series “We Are All Made Of Such Stars”:

“Traditional halftone printing aims to reproduce continuous tone imagery by varying the size and spacing of dots of the same color. This method produces the look of an image that is continuous by “optical illusion”. In this work I am trying to do the opposite. I am making the illusion visible in order to contemplate questions with uncertain answers.

Are we still ok if life is made up of all of these little parts, most of which are out of our control? Can the sum of these parts equal a truth or is this truth constantly breaking up into its parts? Do we in the end have to take this on faith?”

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Lori Osborne Elevates & Celebrates Women's History in Evanston

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Lori Osborne is the Director of the Frances Willard House Museum and the Evanston Women's History Project. In these roles, Lori brings to light the stories of up to 300 Evanston women who made great strides in the Women's Movement.

In this interview we talk about two very exciting projects happening at the Frances Willard House at 1730 Chicago Ave in Evanston;
1. The She Persisted BicycleTour of Evanston Women's History - pick one up May 27, 1-4p.m.
2. Vanessa Filley's Artist in Residence Photography project - unveiling June 2, 12-5p.m. 

More information below about both projects. Thank you to Lori and all the volunteers at Frances Willard House in Evanston for keeping this museum part of our lives!

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The Frances Willard House will be open for tours this Sunday, May 27th for regular tours between 1-4 p.m. Bring the family and enjoy a tour!

It’s also the debut weekend for our Tour Evanston Women’s History Map, which provides a self-guided tour highlighting fifteen women’s history sites throughout Evanston around the theme, She Persisted.

 

FWHM, in partnership with the Evanston Women’s History Project and Shorefront Legacy Center, is proud to announce the first annual Tour Evanston Women’s History Map. The 2018 map will highlight fifteen women’s history sites throughout Evanston around the theme, She Persisted. It will provide a fun, informative and relevant summer activity as a self-guided walking, biking, and driving tour, with brief information about fifteen amazing Evanston women.

Lori Osborne, director of FWHM and the Women’s History Project says: “We are excited to bring this new way to experience Evanston women’s history to the community. It combines two of our favorite things: healthy activity and women’s history!”

Designed by local illustrator Caroline Brown, the map will cost $10 and will be available for purchase beginning Sunday, May 27th (Memorial Day weekend) from 1-4 p.m. at the Frances Willard House and the Evanston History Center (EHC). It will be available for purchase throughout the summer when these locations are open (Willard House – Thursdays and Sundays 1-4 p.m.; EHC – Thursdays-Sundays 1-4 p.m.). Additional locations to be announced.

Sponsorship of the map comes from Emile Hogan Broker @Properties, The Wellness Revolution, and The Printed Word.

 Click here for more info.

From evanstonmade.com
2018 Visiting Artist: Photographer Vanessa Filley

We are pleased to announce our new visiting artist program. Through this annual program we will partner with a local artist who will create new work inspired by the museum - its story, its collection - and display this new work in the museum. Our inaugural artist is Photographer Vanessa Filley and she will working at the house starting this month. We will be showing her work (in progress) starting Saturday, June 2nd with an open studio as part of Evanston Made from 12-5 pm. Her work will be on display and viewable throughout the summer when the museum is open for tours (Sundays 1-4 pm) and select special dates to be announced.

Vanessa Filley is a fine art photographer whose current work focuses on women's organizing movements. While in residence at the FWHM she will be working on a project that imagines a web of connections bridging the perseverance of women organizing throughout history to women organizing today. Come see what she creates!

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Hope Washinushi Leads YEA Festival into 31st Year!

Hope Washinushi and her enthusiastic group of board members, volunteers and teachers, is part of the new leadership team taking Young Evanston Artists (YEA) into its 31st year. YEA is one of Evanston's longest run arts festivals. "YEA showcases the work and performances of aspiring Young Evanston Artists. It strives to reflect the diversity of the City of Evanston and is committed to celebrate it via the arts."

Saturday, May 19, 10a-3p, Raymond Park in Evanston  (click here to see map) will be transformed into a full-park art exhibit of children's art, Creative Classrooms for making and taking, food trucks, a sensory garden and so much more.

Hear about Hope's plans for this year and next, and what she is believes is the most crucial part of YEA's community arts event!

Learn more at yeaevanston.org

(And yes, that is a power saw in the background for the last three minutes of this interview, we told you it's unedited.)

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Heather Hancock's Contemporary Glass Mosaics at Evanston Art Center

The Lisa D Show podcast was recorded in Heather Hancock's Evanston art studio. Hancock uses glass to create contemporary mosaics to "explore contemporary ideas about mind, place and information."

This month, Heather presents Catching Light: the Art of Architecture at Evanston Art Center

All new work can be viewed at the Evanston Art Center as part of Catching Light: the Art of Architecture through May 26. This is the perfect light-filled space for my Reflect series, exploring urban form and beauty.

As part of the exhibition I'm bringing together a panel of design professionals to discuss how the built world functions as a frame for life.

Reflecting on Light, Architecture and Design
Wednesday, May 16, 6:30-8p, Evanston Art Center
From our individual dwellings to our shared city streets, we thrive in engaging environments. Join Heather Hancock for a conversation with Nate Kipnis, Principal, Kipnis Architecture, Jodi Mariano, Principal Urban Design, Teska Associates, Pam Daniels, Assistant Professor, NU Segal Design Program and Jeff Meeuwsen, Executive Director, Ragdale about how art and design help us live well in the built world.

Heather's statement: I use the ancient medium of glass as a conceptual tool to explore contemporary ideas about mind, place and information. The most compelling aspect of working with glass is the way the material loves light, sparkling and shimmering to engage a viewer. I think a lot about what draws our attention, and why—especially in this world where there are so many things competing for our attention. An element of surprise or unpredictability always makes us notice. Alongside the hard lines and repetitive forms of our cityscape, I notice the fluidity and constant transformations in our natural world. Those moments fascinate me and I try to re-create them in my work to offer a sustaining viewing experience. Making work with glass means that the experience is infinitely variable: changing with lighting, movement, even the viewer’s mood.

See Heather's work at heatherhancock.com

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 The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute,  unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on  purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Pam Daniels wants you to Get Intrigued, Try Stuff and Try Again!

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This morning we talk with designer and Pam Daniels, a Clinical Assistant Professor and Design Innovator in Residence at The Segal Design Institute at Northwestern University. Our conversation takes place in Studio 5, where we talk about Daniels' project MEASURE, the first measuring cups where the shape itself indicates the unit of measure. You can learn more about this project on Kickstarter at http://ow.ly/7ed130jQ4rr which has a funding deadline for May 18.

In this conversation we talk to Daniels about her passion for design and cultivating makers, of all ages, through the work she does at Welcome Industries at Northwestern University with Brandon Williams.

Background

Pam co-founded the not-for-profit DesignHouse Chicago, an organization dedicated to revitalizing local manufacturing through design, and most recently, she has established a design practice called Welcome Industries in partnership with Segal's Maker in Residence, Brandon Williams.  She is active in the League of Women Designers, serves as an adjunct faculty member at Archeworks, and is an advisor to Catalyze Chicago. She has been a speaker at Technori, Chicago Ideas Week, and The International Home & Housewares Show, and been featured in The Chicago Tribune, Core77, Business Week, Design Engine, Modern Luxury Interiors, and Phaidon.

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute,  unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on  purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com 

Joanna Kramer Launches WARE Ceramics Studio in West Evanston (and takes over the Ceramics World)

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Joanna Kramer is a bit of a legend in the ceramics arena and has several exciting projects on the horizon. She's a legend because Chelsea Clinton was recently gifted one of Joanna's "Never the less She Persisted" mugs at an ETHS event (not the F word mug), which her 7 yo daughter helped make happen, so the legendary status doesn't fall far from the tree. And this month she's opening up WARE, her very own ceramics studio in West Evanston where she'll collaborate and share space with artists like Julia Finlayson and Ben Blount.

Listen to a candid conversation with Joanna in her new space on Wesley Ave. as we discuss how each organic step of leveling up has led Joanna to where she is today.

R-Rated warning....Below is one of her best selling mugs, the F word mug, which you can purchase May 5 & 6 at 1100 Florence Ave. in Evanston.

About Joanna Kramer, joannakramer.com

Joanna Kramer makes functional ceramics...pieces to be integrated into everyday life...a bowl for your cereal, a vase for your favorite flowers...She  encourages people to interact with her work and not let them sit on a shelf.  Get to know the intricacies of something handmade  by finding fingerprints, brushstrokes, and other markings. Joanna has developed some deep relationships with a couple of mugs.

Joanna's background is in Social Work and Art Therapy, but is currently focusing on ceramics. She teaches ceramics at an elementary school, sells work locally, and spends as much time as she can in the studio.  Joanna also teacher clay workshops called Wine, Women, and Mud.  To sign up, go to winewomenandmud.com.

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute,  unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on  purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com 

Beth Adler on her new series of Monoprints inspired by Ikebana

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We visit Beth in her art studio on Florence Ave in West Evanston that she shares with artist Alice George, to talk about her upcoming show at Firecat Projects, where she finds time to make new work and being openness to the randomness in printmaking. Visit bethadler.net for more information.

Show Info: April 20, Opening Reception, “What I've Learned From Flower Arranging,” a show of monoprints by Beth Adler and ceramics by Nancy Gardner, inspired by the artists’ explorations of flowers and plants.

Though she’s worked with natural forms for years, Beth Adler found a new opportunity to explore colors, patterns, and geometry when she happened on an illustrated book about Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. By modifying the book--painting on and adding to the pages--she discovered an intimate visual language that became the basis for her new series of monoprints.

Additional Events:
• Flower arranging workshop by Larkspur Flowers & Design, free and open to the public, with vases by Nancy Gardner available for purchase. Tuesday April 24, 6-9 PM.
• Designer showcase, open to design professionals. Thursday May 3, 2-7 PM.
• Artists talk, Saturday May 19, 1 PM  Exhibition is open during regular gallery hours, M-Sat 10-4.
Firecat Projects is located at 2124 N Damen Ave, Chicago.       

The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute,  unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on  purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

James Deeb on his Upcoming Art Show, The Midnight Broadcast

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James Deeb talks about his upcoming painting and drawing show, The Midnight Broadcast, at 1100 Florence in Evanston, April 13-15.

The Midnight Broadcast, featuring paintings and drawings from his on-going series, Mythic City. The work is made up of tronies (composite faces) pieced together from the artist’s memory, creating a personal and sometimes fantastical record of Deeb’s observations. Infused with pathos and mystery, James Deeb’s art adds up to more than the sum of its parts.

Deeb’s work “shines light into dark places”, which is the risk he is willing to take as an artist.

The Midnight Broadcast Art Show at 1100 Florence, Evanston
Friday, April 13, 6-9p, Opening Party
Saturday, April 14, 12-1p, Slow Art Day Discussion w Joanna Pinsky of Art Encounter
Sunday, April 15, 3-4p, Artist talk/mirror drawing demonstration

Learn more at jamesdeeb.com

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com

Christie Russert's Golden State of Mind and Design

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Christie Russert has long been fascinated by the look and feel of skateboarding culture, leading her into a life of skateboarding, snowboarding and graphic design.

Our discussion follows her career from 13yo on, starting it the DIY screen printing studio in her parent’s basement to exhibiting skate decks on the walls of Brothers K, which is where I was introduced to Russert. Russert’s skate decks are available for purchase at Brothers K (500 Main St.), at Board Pusher (boardpusher.com) and at the Evanston Made Pop Up Shop (evanstonmade.com).

Recently Russert’s day job offered the opportunity for “Leapers” to work on a passion project, with the help of Chicago’s Experience Institute. The Leaps program was the catalyst for her most recent endeavor (using a Leap Kit), launching her online store “Sunshine Canteen” where she sells her graphic designs to shoppers wanting to live among objects that offer a California, Golden State of Mind. Visit sunshinecanteen.com to see her products and learn more about Christine.

What Christine’s reading: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Advice from the book: You have to set a date with your creativity!

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The Lisa D Show is a podcast celebrating creatives, featuring 20-minute, unedited conversations that mimic the live-radio vibe, low tech on purpose. Reach out to host Lisa Degliantoni at thelisadshow[at]gmail.com