Visual Artists

 

 

Deborah Maris Lader

view large image

The objects and images in Deborah's oevre represent a variety of visually distinct, yet thematically related issues having to do with the subjects of healing, embracing our differences, and the celebration of the ordinary. Images of hands, tools, children, and the use of found objects serve as metaphors to explore these ideas and are presented in a "series of series", where sets of works are driven by experimentation with a particular viewpoint and chosen materials. The pieces employ a wide range of techniques and media, including printmaking, drawing, photographic transfer,construction, collage, and casting.

view large image

Artist Statement:
These works came out of a series of interviews I did with family and friends. after photographing each person against the same backdrop, i asked them about their fears, phobias and quirks. The responses were honest, sweet, and often funny. The discussions became a catalyst for everyone present to gain new insights about one another, and for us each to confront and embrace our own differences. For instance, I never knew, before this project, that my very own husband counted stairs. or that my sister had a somewhat obsessive relationship with her neighborhood mailbox. That my good friend was afraid of dragonflies.

view large image

My son, now 13, was diagnosed at the age of 3 with a developmental disability. This project aims to point out the fact that we all have our own learning differences, mental difficulties, and private quirks and obsessions. That we all sometimes suffer. That he's not alone.

-Deborah Maris Lader

Visit Deborah's Chicago Printmakers Collaborative Web site.

 

Mary K. O'Shaughnessy

view large image

Mary's Daughters of Memory series of sculptures depict the torso of a female - the iconic image of the female form - using wire dress forms from the 30's. Intrigued because each form was unique to one individual, but could be altered and recognizing the many women who have struggled with body image, Mary used these surrogates as the basis for a series of sculptures. Encased in wet handmade paper to create the form, Mary expands the traditional definition of sculpture by manipulating form - You Can Never Be Too Rich or Too Thin is for example lit from within - and adding text, which plays an important role in many of her Daughters of Memory pieces.

Mary has exhibited her works at Suburban Fine Arts Center, Columbia College, the Wood Street Gallery (which she founded and directed from 1992 to 2002), the Chicago Artist Month Group, the ISC Board Member Show, the Pittsburgh Sculpture Exhibition, the Sculpture in the City, Group Show (Washington D.C.) and the Pier Walk in Chicago. She is an ISC Executive Committee Board Member, a CSI member, serves on the Advisory Council for the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame and is a Board Member of the Illinois Arts Alliance. Mary has served as a juror for Chicago's Women Made Gallery and created work for the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park.

Artist Statement:

view large image These pieces are part of a series dealing with women's body issues. They deal with the internal dialogue that we, as women, have as we deal with life. On the outside we seem to be fully functional human beings, while inside we are still 5 or 7 or some early age where we became aware that we are not the center of the universe, and that we are flawed. These sculptures bring these internal dialogues to the exterior, and set up a platform for dialogue.

-Mary K. O'Shaughnessy

 

Gabriella Boros

Iwona Biedermann

Peg Lipschutz