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4 | January 24, 2019 | The highland park landmark news<br />
hplandmark.com<br />
Artwork on display at HP City Hall<br />
Hilary Anderson<br />
Freelance Reporter<br />
Everyone talks about the<br />
weather. Some even express<br />
their feelings about it<br />
through art forms.<br />
Highland Park residents<br />
had the opportunity to see<br />
the opening of its latest<br />
art exhibit, Weather the<br />
Weather, throughout city<br />
hall last Monday, Jan. 13.<br />
The exhibit features<br />
a display of art and poetry<br />
— all relating to the<br />
weather.<br />
Guest curators Jennifer<br />
Dotson, executive assistant<br />
to Highland Park<br />
Mayor Nancy Rotering<br />
and Catherine Schwalbe, a<br />
visual artist, proposed the<br />
concept of the exhibit to<br />
The Art Center.<br />
“The TAC contracts<br />
with the City of Highland<br />
Park to provide and rotate<br />
art displays throughout the<br />
year,” said Dotson, who<br />
also is the founder and program<br />
coordinator of Highland<br />
Park Poetry. “TAC<br />
liked our suggestion. Artists<br />
and poets were solicited<br />
to participate. We were<br />
impressed with the strong<br />
response we received.”<br />
The exhibit features<br />
paintings and poems about<br />
all seasons, climates and<br />
weather conditions.<br />
One of them is the heartfelt<br />
“Remember Me When<br />
I Am Gone,” an acrylic on<br />
canvas painting by Meredith<br />
London. It shows a<br />
polar bear sitting on what<br />
looks like an iceberg that is<br />
melting.<br />
Another is Kerryann<br />
Leaf’s bilingual poem “El<br />
Presidente Visita a Puerto<br />
Rico.”<br />
“I was influenced by the<br />
storm in Puerto Rico and<br />
the visit by the U.S. States<br />
president who threw paper<br />
towels at the crowd,” Leaf<br />
said.<br />
She was one of 14 individuals<br />
whose poems also<br />
hang in the city hall gallery<br />
along with the various<br />
pieces of artwork — paintings,<br />
photographs and<br />
haiku.<br />
On a similar vein, Charlotte<br />
Digregorio’s visual<br />
haiku “Homeless” gives<br />
a window of thought and<br />
mental picture into the<br />
harshness of cold winds<br />
faced by the homeless.<br />
Cathy Schwalbe’s<br />
unique “Polar Vortex II”<br />
attracted attention for her<br />
creativity in showing her<br />
love of the Midwest’s five<br />
great lakes, each made out<br />
of porcelain in the shape<br />
of one of the bodies of water<br />
and attached to a walllike<br />
board with her asemic<br />
writing with oxides. On a<br />
table next to the five lakes,<br />
which resembled huge<br />
puzzle pieces, were five<br />
jars — each with melted<br />
snow and ice from one of<br />
the five great lakes.<br />
“I feel as though the arts<br />
and sciences are connected,”<br />
Schwalbe said. “I love<br />
the Great Lakes and am a<br />
true Midwesterner.”<br />
She gathered the ice<br />
and snow herself with one<br />
exception.<br />
“A friend got me snow<br />
and ice from Lake Superior,”<br />
Schwalbe said.<br />
Melanie Brown<br />
and her “Layered<br />
Poet Kerry Leaf discusses her poem, “El Presidente<br />
Visita a Puerto Rico,” on Jan. 14. The poem is hanging<br />
in the City Manager’s Office at the exhibit’s opening.<br />
Nicole Carrow/22nd Century Media<br />
Sounds:Weather” acrylic,<br />
powdered pigment and<br />
charcoal, represents the<br />
sounds created while she<br />
was painting with different<br />
media.<br />
“I put small microphones<br />
behind my easel<br />
to capture the sounds each<br />
of my strokes made with<br />
different types of media,”<br />
Brown said. “I did it in a<br />
recording studio. I like<br />
combining art with music<br />
and poetry. sometimes<br />
with another person.”<br />
Hallie Redman had her<br />
photograph “Rosewood<br />
Beach” in the exhibit<br />
showing one of the beautiful<br />
sunrises so often seen<br />
there while Peggy Shearn<br />
had two Silver Gelatin<br />
prints of Ravine Beach.<br />
The Art in City Hall exhibit,<br />
“Weather the Weather,”<br />
will continue through<br />
Feb. 28.<br />
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