kimberly ah

My artist-friend Jackie is showing her latest series of paintings at Gather, an arts and crafts studio/children’s play place in Evanston. On Saturday, Peggy, Naoto and I drove up for Jackie’s opening. Jackie combines painting and mixed media collage in most of her work. This particular series is The Alphabet Series–twenty-six pieces that incorporate objects and animals representing each letter. With few exceptions, Jackie’s work is bright and vibrant and layered with paints, papers, patterns, textures and colors. We had such a fun time walking through the alphabet and finding all of the bits and pieces within each painting to represent the letter. For instance, Party Cat above has carrot cake, candles, cups of coffee, cookies, cupcake, cat…Many of the pieces had a bit of phone book, the Periodic Table of Elements and postage stamps (!!!) worked into them. Hillside House is a great example of these tiny details. The elements of hydrogen and helium are there, plus a tiny map of the hemispheres, some H phone book pages (including  the number for my favorite place, Hala Kahiki tiki bar!!), and the best part….…the vintage cancelled HOMEMAKERS postage stamp!! It was so much fun looking for these tiny details. My pictures really don’t do justice to Jackie’s work. The layers and textures get a little lost on a computer screen. But if you’re in Evanston, go see it in person! Kids or no kids, Gather is a really neat space, and obviously I think Jackie’s work is worth the trip.

From top to bottom: Garden Friends (starring Jackie’s greyhound, Alex), Night Lights, Bluebird & Bear, Party Cat, Hillside House and Red Tent. Jackie has a post on her blog where she shares some details about the paintings and you can see more of the paintings.