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LakeForestLeader.com life & arts
the lake forest leader | October 13, 2016 | 17
“Heart and Soul” exhibit combines love, loss, hope
Danielle Gensburg
Freelance Reporter
“Heart and Soul”, the
newest artist exhibit at
Re-Invent Gallery in Lake
Forest, features the collective
works of two artists,
one a painter, the other a
multi-dimensional artist,
who met serendipitously
and realized their art shared
common themes of love,
life, loss and the power of
art to heal.
The exhibit opened on
Friday, Oct. 7 from 6-9
p.m. and will run through
Nov. 12.
“Both artists are expressing
a shared concept in
different media, and both
of them really focus on
this idea of healing and
celebrating,” said Cecilia
Lanyon, co-owner of Re-
Invent. “They’re embracing
the same concept of using
the beauty of their art to
heal and celebrate life,”
Artists Maureen Claffey
and Diane Feldpausch Tang
first met this past summer
while exhibiting their work
in a small group show at
Urban Edge Gallery in
Waukegan. The curator of
the gallery and organizer of
the show was Lake Forest
resident Vickie Marasco,
who immediately noticed
the connection between
both artists’ work and later
approached co-owners of
Re-Invent, Lanyon and
Kristin Mikrut, about planning
a future show with
both of the artists at their
gallery in Lake Forest.
“I think viewers are going
to sense the passion and the
power that both of these female
artists possess,” Marasco
said. “They clicked
together as two people and
really appreciate one another’s
work. They both have
a story to tell, and I think
it comes across very nicely
together.”
The new exhibit will
feature 15 colorful and vibrant
paintings by Claffey,
some done on watercolor
paper and others on canvas
or custom birch wood
board, made mainly in
fluid acrylic paint and watercolor
with some metallic,
iridescent, binding and
grinding mediums added in
and 10 sculptures by Tang
made from high fire glazes,
stoneware clay and finials
(which are made from
found objects in neglected
places like scrap yards).
Both artists draw heavily
from nature and their own
personal experiences in their
work. Claffey’s paintings are
inspired by her four children,
two rescue dogs, and a recent
divorce that, she described,
allowed her to reclaim her
voice and her ability to make
her way in the world, while
Tang’s hand-crafted, sculptural
“Healing Vessels” are
modeled after the bleeding
heart flower and memories
of her grandmother.
Tang’s vessels also act
as a way to store memories
and feelings while embracing
healing.
“I wanted to make a vessel
to store feelings, and I
thought about what kinds
of things I could use. I love
nature and recalled my
childhood with my grandmother,
who showed me
how to make dancers with
the bleeding heart flower.
It’s a universal shape, and
it’s something that is very
dear to me,” Tang said.
“Heart and Soul”, a new series of artwork from Maureen
Claffey and Diane Feldpausch Tang, is currently on
display at the Re-Invent Gallery in Lake Forest. The
exhibit opened on Friday, Oct. 7 from 6-9 p.m. and will
run through Nov. 12. Photo Submitted
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The image of the heart
is also found throughout
Claffey’s paintings.
“All of the heart images
in the show are so elegant
and beautiful that it really
forces you to question your
own concept of how seriously,
or with how much
joy, you approach love,”
Claffey said. “I think this
show is really a unique
opportunity to get a multidimensional
experience of
the same concept of love;
to see it in sculpture form,
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but also to see it as painting,
it almost compounds
the positive experience of
a joyful, beautiful image.”
This story has been edited
for print publication. To read
the full thing, please visit
LakeForestLeader.com.
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