AMak Color

2011 Lakeview East Art festival promotion with "Owls Over Windy City"

Now that the Lakeview East Art Festival is over, I wanted to share all the photos of this year's promo, in which they used my artwork to advertise the 2011 fest. I have been posting many updates about this on Facebook, but for those of you who don't (yet) follow my FB art page (you probably should: https://www.facebook.com/anastasiamakart), here is a little pictorial summary of where the Owls have appeared in Chicago.

I was very honored that the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce selected my "Owls Over Windy City" painting for this year's promotion. The selection of this image, I think, was very fitting with the reason of why this piece was originally created. (read about it here). Anyhow, its been so much fun to spot the Owls around Chicago in various print forms (starting with the Gay Pride Parade in June, which also takes place in Lakeview East). Here's a photo gallery of many places where the Owls have "landed" this summer. And thank you everyone who came out to the festival, and thanks to my customers for all your support!

Owls on Chicago Gay Pride Parade float:

Owls lurking behind DJ of the Pride Parade float:

Owls on Lakeview East street billboard:

Owls on Lakeview East light posts:

 

More Owls on light posts:

Light post banner up close:

Owls landed on the bus stop:

Owls behind stage at the festival:

Pictures from painting workshop in Sacred Art

That was a fun workshop I taught at Sacred Art! Thank you so much students! I am SO impressed with your ability to whip up a palm tree with a personality especially considering that some of you have not painted before at all.

My "example painting" :

High school talk and exhibit in Southern Illinois

On the weekend of March 5th, I drove down to Jacksonville, IL to put up an art exhibit on the walls of Three Legged Dog and to talk to some high schools students about being an artist. My occasional exhibits and art activities in Jacksonville are organized through the wonderful Imagine Foundation. The foundation’s executive director, Clare Lynd-Porter, does an amazing job of bringing constant fresh art into their small town.

Giving a talk to high school students was a new and exciting experience. Aside from myself, photographer Sean Posey from St. Louis was invited to talk to school kids, and together we tried to make it a rater informal but fun presentation. As my paintings were to cumbersome to carry around, I brought some prints for show and tell. The high school where we spoke is located in Beardstown, IL – a very small town in the middle of farmland and cornfields, a half hour drive from Jacksonville.

I love the dynamics of U.S. population shifts. Being an immigrant myself, I always want to know where people in small towns come from, or how long have their generations been here. Hence, it was fascinating to see that tiny rural Beardstown has a very large percentage of Hispanics and French Africans (very large for a small Midwestern farm town, that is). Their high school even assigns French-English translators to go to classes with groups of certain new African students.

Beardstown school is a calm place. Sean and I spoke to 4 different classes, in some - together, and in some – separately. All the kids were so well-behaved, and seemed interested in our stories. However, interactively talking to any group of high-schoolers can be a challenge. Many students don’t want to speak up because of the fear of looking “uncool”. I know I was that way in high school too! But, we still got some good questions – such as “What are your thoughts on censorship in art?”, and “How do your paintings express your emotions?”

And here’s the funniest one. I am talking to a biology class (about my flower paintings, and about how people eat spiders in Cambodia), and two girls are whispering.  I say: “why are you whispering? If you have a question, go ahead and ask!” One says: “Are you a widow?”. Me, trying to hold back laughter: “No, I’m not a widow. But why would you ask that?” Girl: “Well, I wanted to ask you what your husband does for a living but my friend told me – what if she is a widow? Then it would be a very inappropriate question!”