Thirty-three artists will exhibit work in a diverse range of mediums at the annual Adler Artist Member Exhibition Feb. 11-March 31 at Adler Arts Center in Libertyville.
Gallery hours are 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays; 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays; and 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays.
“It’s awesome because we’ve got such a variety,” said Program and Marketing Director Ellen Williams. “We have a couple of really great sculptors and ceramicists who are going to be doing some 3D works. We have oils and acrylics. We also have a couple of really fabulous photographers. This year — which is new — we are incorporating the art of handmade jewelry.”
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Williams reported that anyone can be an Artist Member by paying an annual fee of $50. “What we’re trying to do with the Artist Member program is encourage people to make and create art,” she explained. “We are trying to open our doors to a lot more artists.”
Artist Members can have one artwork in the annual member show, they get a discount on a booth at the Festival of the Arts, and are listed on the Adler Arts Center’s website. “We do a lot of promotions throughout the year to try to support them the best that we can,” Williams said.
“I wanted to be a member of the center because it’s an artists’ community,” said Grayslake artist Roberta Ulrich-de Oliveira. She appreciates “the chance to exchange ideas, talk about work, to think about concepts to art expression,” Ulrich-de Oliveira said.
“Intimacy No. 4? is the title of the sculpture that she is submitting to the show.
“I’ve been working on a series about intimacy and how that’s been expressed in different ways and have different consequences,” Ulrich-De Oliveira noted. “It has aspects of challenge and comfort. This one is more about the challenge of intimacy.”
This piece is constructed of wood-fired stoneware. The artist prefers that method because “I like the serendipity of the surfaces that you receive from the wood ash,” she explained. “Sometimes it yields beautiful surfaces that cannot ever be duplicated because it’s dependent on the heat and the movement of the ashes in the kiln.”
Ulrich-de Oliveira has been creating ceramic artworks “off and on,” she said, for nearly 40 years. She sells her work at art fairs and through direct sales.
Jim Brooksher of Grayslake first participated in an Adler show in 1981.
His piece in this show is a transparent watercolor painting titled “Lake Erie’s Marblehead Lighthouse.”
Brooksher said he likes to work in that medium because “you don’t have to worry about chemicals and odors,” he explained. Brooksher has been working in transparent watercolor since the late 1980s. He also works in oils, using the low-odor variety.
“There’s no white paint in transparent watercolor,” he noted. “The white is the white of the paper.”
Brooksher’s artwork is inspired by “the beauty of things I see when I drive by during my travels. I like lighthouses, I like Chicago scenes, and I like the Midwest barns,” he said. When he paints those things, “I’ll add accentuated color and make things more brilliant and make the shadows more striking. I’ll make the lights lighter and the darks darker, then add a little more pop to the color.”
Brooksher primarily sells his work at art fairs. That includes one at Adler; he said last year’s was his most successful Adler show because he sold 11 paintings.
“Snow Bird,” a work in colored pencil, pastels, and ink, is Phil Schorn’s submission to the show. The Grayslake resident, who is a professional colored pencil artist, has been teaching colored pencil drawing at the Adler Arts Center since 2017. He teaches at several other places and gives private lessons. Schorn is also a self-employed graphic artist.
Colored pencil is Schorn’s preferred medium because “It’s clean — I don’t like a mess,” he said. “I like control. I like details. I really like that it makes it look lifelike. I’m a realist. I don’t do abstract.”
Schorn likes to participate in Adler’s shows because “it’s an opportunity to be seen — to get your artwork out,” he said.
He chose to exhibit “Snow Bird” this time because “it makes a statement,” Schorn said. “Plus, it’s wintertime — I thought the theme of it would fit in a little better. My work is normally much more botanical.”
Schorn sells his artworks from his website and also at summer art fairs.
Adler Artist Member Exhibition
When: Feb. 11-March 31; opening reception is 7-9 p.m. Feb. 11
Where: Adler Arts Center, 1700 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville
Tickets: Free admission
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Information: 847-367-0707; adlercenter.org/exhibitions
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.