Post-Consumerism at The Harold Washington Library

I've always been fond of libraries. When I was in high school, we had to work for three hours a week on campus. I worked in the library. We also had to complete several hours of community service as a graduation requirement, and so I worked in my neighborhood library. At one point, I even considered going back to school to get a degree in Library Science. Now that I've started working on a research-intensive fiction project, I've come to rely on the library as a source of research materials. And so I am honored to also have my artwork on display there. The library I'm talking about is the Harold Washington Library, the main library of the Chicago Public Library system.

You can find my paintings on the 8th floor, which is where they keep the art books. All of the paintings are in a glass case near the elevators.

I will be giving an artist talk there tomorrow. It will be held on the 7th floor, in the Chicago Authors Room. Here's more information:

Artist Talk
Saturday, March 30th, 2 p.m.
Harold Washington Library
400 S. State Street
Chicago Authors Room, 7th floor
Chicago, IL


And if you can't make it to the artist talk but still want to see the art, it's on display until April 26th.

Post-Consumerism with Pint Sized Artists

This past weekend I had a very exciting opportunity: I got to teach art workshops to kids at the Chicago Children's Museum. If you've been keeping up with my blog, then you may have already known that I have a painting on display in the Children's Museum's Unboxed: Adventures in Cardboard exhibit. The weekend workshops were a part of that exhibit.

I brought in two paintings to show the kids, Untitled (Blue and Green) and Untitled (Red).  I allowed them to (gently!) touch the paintings so they could learn about texture in artwork. I also brought a few copies of my book for them to look at.

The museum staff was prepared a fun array of textures to work with. There was honeycomb cardboard, cardboard tubes, and even some pieces shaped like slices of pizza.  The children were provided with various types of glue, scissors, and washable tempera paints.

Of course, we didn't have every color of tempera paint so I had a chance to teach some kids how to make the color brown from the primary colors.

I was amazed at their creativity. They made houses, cars, robots, and spaceships, as well as some non-representational works that defy categorization.

I had such a great time, and I think the children did too. Though my workshops are over, the exhibit will continue until May 5th. For more information, visit the museum's website.