Stop by Blue Moon Gallery, 18620 Belvidere Road in Grayslake, IL, to learn more about these exceptional artists and their inspiring work!
Samira Gdisis (Above: GOLDRUSH)
On View Now Through January 8
Monoprints & Encaustic Collagraphs
Opening Receptions:
Saturday, November 19, 6-9pm
Saturday, December 17, 6-9pm
Samira Gdisis is a printmaker, interdisciplinary artist, community builder, and curator from Racine, Wisconsin. She makes art as a means of documenting life around her or the history of the people in her life. Color, flora, fashion, and figures fill her work. The interplay of disciplines and media permit her to consider the powerful potential interaction of techniques, texture, and color that may mimic or counter life often in abstract land or seascapes. Her current Blue Moon collection is inspired by the light and color of early mornings, open skies, long ambles, and the voyages of her imagination. Each piece shares emotion, color, and composition in a way that makes a viewer ponder or remember. Samira holds bachelor's degrees in cognitive psychology, interdisciplinary art, and printmaking with a minor in arts management. She also earned a Master of Art degree in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University.
Tom Biegalski (Above: COLONY)
On View Through January 8
Science-based Abstract Photography
Opening Receptions:
Saturday, November 19, 6-9pm
Saturday, December 17, 6-9pm
Tom Biegalski's photographic art is an extension of his life-long interest in science. Most of his pieces start with a scientific principle and evolve through experimentation to become the final work. He works with dyes, paints, soap films, and other liquids, including magnetic ferrofluid and often explores the properties of diffusion and magnetism. He also experiments with different types of light, such as polarization, or infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths.
With each subject, he creates a miniature ephemeral painting by adding and manipulating ingredients and lighting and then freezing it in time when he feels it is complete. He often uses high magnification lenses allowing him to explore extreme details of the subject. Though he usually has some idea of what the outcome of a process might be, there is an often an element of surprise.
"These unexpected outcomes give me a sense of wonder and make me want to continue exploring. The completed works often reveal patterns and evidence of forces on a microscopic scale that are reflected in the wider universe. I believe these patterns symbolize the idea that all things are connected. Through my art, I hope to share the intricate beauty that exists all around us." -- Tom Biegalski
Jeanne Garrett (Above: MIGRATION)
On View Through January 8
ELEMENTS: Earth, Wind, Water, Fire – Fraying at the Edges
Photo-based Art Exploring Climate Change
Opening Receptions:
Saturday, November 19, 6-9pm
Saturday, December 17, 6-9pm
Throughout her travels, Jeanne Garrett has witnessed the impact of climate change -- the scars left by timber cuts and charred remains of forest fires in the western United States, the devastation caused by tornadoes in the Midwest, and the battering of shorelines when storms ravage our Great Lakes. Closer to my home, she has seen firsthand the loss of a beloved wetland due to encroaching urbanization. These experiences inspired her to create “ELEMENTS: Earth, Wind, Water, Fire – Fraying at the Edges” to increase and deepen awareness of climate change as something not just happening far away, but also happening right in our backyards.
Garrett combines her two passions – sewing and photography – to create a digital photograph enhanced with texture from stitching and other materials. After selecting the image, she spends quite a bit of time reflecting and contemplating in order to land on the final composition. During this time of contemplation, she makes decisions about how to achieve her creative vision letting the uniqueness of the image determine how she will embellish it. Each work has texture; some have movement from loosely hanging threads and some have shine from metallic threads. Each image is unique and one of a kind.
With this body of work, Garrett invites the viewer to have a tactile and emotionally moving experience with the image that yields a deeper awareness of the challenges we face as stewards of our fragile earth.
Laura O'Connor
On View Through December 18
Embroidery as Dissent
Opening Receptions:
Saturday, November 19, 6-9pm
Saturday, December 17, 6-9pm
"Needle and thread are always in my hands and when using them I join a long and strong tradition of women who have turned needlecraft into a vehicle for political expression and commentary on society." -- Laura O'Connor
Laura O'Connor's embroidery work uses a symbol of domesticity and femininity to challenge those same notions. She works primarily in the needlecrafts of embroidery and cross-stitch, preferring the historical balance they can provide, as well as the flexibility they offer to evolve and change to fit modern times. Compared to the relative quickness it takes to just write a comment on social media, each of O'Connor's pieces takes a good amount of time and thought to create into a tangible product -- complete with pithy, sarcastic, often biting and shockingly honest commentary about our culture at large. O'Connor's Blue Moon collection represents a visual journal of the last two years of pandemic living. Embroidery was how she learned more about craftivism and feminism and how she documented "the funny, little things." It was also her vehicle for working through her frustration and grief related to our changing socio-political landscape and its concurrent threats to women's rights.
Learn more
Learn more
Fine Line Creative Arts Center | www.fineline.org