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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 />

ARE YOU READY<br />

FOR THE<br />

SPRING MARKET?<br />

If you’re thinking of buying or selling in 2019,<br />

Contact me to learn how!<br />

847.910.8905<br />

susanbrownburklin.com

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