About Us / Artists
Luca Cruzat (printmaking)
Stephanie Dillard (stained glass)
Sue Gindlesparger (metals, jewelry)
Darby Ortolano (ceramics)
Cathy Schmidt (leather)
Oak Street Art Printmaker Luca Cruzat's "Birthplace" Installation at Gen. John A. Logan Museum
Beginning March 7, Oak Street Art printmaker Luca Cruzat has all-new work on display at the General John A. Logan Museum at 1613 Edith Street in Murphysboro, Illinois.
Cruzat's site-specific Birthplace installation will run through April 30, 2020. A number of visitors joined Cruzat for the reception at the museum on Saturday, March 14, from 3 to 6 p.m. See photos below, courtesy of George Mendez.
Cruzat offered the following statement about this unique exhibit: "The environment shapes my artistic practice. Since 2017, my current studio is located in the land of John A. Logan's birthplace. The museum and the archaeological site are dedicated to research and to preserving the history of the Logan family, owners of the land. John A. Logan made history at a national level by his involvement in the civil war and politics. At this moment, efforts are being made by the museum to excavate the foundation of his home. All of this motivated me to work on the Birthplace installation at the General John A. Logan Museum."
For more about Cruzat and her work, see her Oak Street Art page here or her website here.
Second-Graders Make Quilt Square Maps with Oak Street Art Metalsmith Sue Gindlesparger
Second-graders at the General John A. Logan Attendance Center in Murphysboro created their own quilt square maps with Oak Street Art metalsmith Sue Gindlesparger on February 26.
Gindlesparger designed the project to complement students' other lessons for Black History Month. After reading the book Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson (illustrated by James Ransome), students created their own maps in the style of quilt squares.
Using paper of various patterns, textures, and colors, students used scissors to cut out shapes representing key aspects of a place special to them. They learned how to layer and overlap the different pieces to create a unique collage resembling the kind of quilt square Sweet Clara made out of fabric scraps. Clara stitched the squares together as a guide for her and other enslaved people to escape slavery along the Underground Railroad.
Gindlesparger was assisted in the classrooms by Oak Street Art members Ann Fischer (photography) and Luca Cruzat (printmaking).
Please see photos below of Gindlesparger introducing the lesson, of creative students at work, and of a completed all-classroom "quilt." The final image is made up of the squares made by each of the students in teacher Tabitha Harris' second-grade class. Thank you, Mrs. Harris!
Printmaker Luca Cruzat's Work Featured in Four Rivers Print Biennial at CCA in February and March
Work by Oak Street Art printmaker Luca Cruzat has been selected for inclusion in the Four Rivers Print Biennial exhibition, running February 5 through March 27, 2020. Luca's piece Antipodal: I Am South and North (pictured below) was selected by juror Mark Pascale from among 229 pieces submitted by 87 artists. This was truly a national competition with entries coming from across the United States.
All are welcome at the First Friday reception for the exhibit on Friday, February 7, 2020, at 5 p.m. at Carbondale Community Arts' Artspace 304 at 304 W. Walnut St. in Carbondale, Illinois. A closing reception will be held Saturday, March 21, 2020, from 3 to 6 p.m. From 3:30 to 4:30, Pascale will give a lecture, with juror awards announced afterward. RSVP for the closing reception here. The gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday from 12 to 5 p.m.
From the opening reception invitation: "The juror for the 2020 Four Rivers Print Biennial is Mark Pascale. Pascale is a lithographer who has been active in the Chicago art world for nearly forty years, as a curator, researcher, and professor. Pascale is the Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator of Prints and Drawings at The Art Institute of Chicago, and concurrently Senior Lecturer in Printmaking, at School of the Art Institute."
For more about Cruzat and her work, see her Oak Street Art profile and lucacruzat.com.
Oak Street Art
Categories (Alphabetical)
Ann R. Fischer
Art: Thoughts & Process
Darby Ortolano
Exhibits And Sales
Luca Cruzat
Oak Street Fine Arts Fair
Rachel Malcolm Ensor
Shirley Krienert
Stephanie Dillard
Sue Gindlesparger
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