Guest Artists - Reminders of Painting What You See

Visitors while painting is part of the pleasure and annoyances of painting in public. When you're in the zone and someone whispers, "what are yodoing?' just over your shoulder is an annoyance, and has caused my heart to stop and my brush to paint an extra long limb. For the most part, I appreciate the visitors. It allows a random moment to step away from my work and look at it from their eyes. I always see something I need to fix. 

Having children as visitors is my favorite. I usually carry a hard cover sketchbook and a marker, and offer them an opportunity to make their own artwork on a page. The deal is, their parent can take a photo of the art, (usually they want the artist and my painting too) and I keep the book.

Some arrive with their own coloring implements, on their way to somewhere their time needs to be occupied. I'm amazed at how much elementary-age kids know about art and color. I don't think I got any of that from Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Green Jeans. They know what the primary colors are, and even more impressive, how to make green, purple and orange - the secondary colors.  

Parents have asked me for my painting schedule, which I don't provide, mainly because I don't have one. I've had parents return with their kids to watch the progress of my painting or to bring me a painting the child has made in the meantime. 

I've worked with children since I had a robust babysitting business, starting as a mother's helper for a neighbor when I was around 10. In high school, I brought flowers with a note, "thanks for the new business", to my favorite families with newborns. Though my credential from college was as a health educator, my first job was as a health coordinator for a poverty agency in Jackson, MI, connected to a family-related Head Start Program. THe focus of my work was to knock away any challenges that prevented preschool children from attending and getting their Head Start. 

Cumpulsory staff training happened every Friday. Employees received GEDs or credits toward bachelor or masters degrees with professors from Michigan State University and the local Community College. My on the job trainging allowed me to observe and interact with the kids intentionally. When I left that position, I was well on my way to a graduate degree and forever respectful and awed by preschoolers. Later jobs took my out the realm of kids, but their visits are always a joy, a reconnection to a much younger me, and a reminder to paint the way I see things... 

Art Collectors - Why They Do or Don't Collect Plein Air

For the last few months, in preparation for the Plein Air Painters Chicago fifth I Heart Plein Air Conference, I have interviewed seven individuals who represent, collect or acquire art. The inteviews have taught me that every person and organization that collects art, has a different reason and aesthetic, and that I, as an artist, can't paint for them. As artists we can paint for ourselves and find kindred spirits. I am honored to say that some of these collectors are my kindred spirits.

Here are links to those video interviews.  

Mary Longe overview of the interviews: https://youtu.be/17eHy45HZBQ

Michelle Strassburger https://youtu.be/TcLSTf9BD3E

Chicago designer Michelle Strassburger has been collecting since the mid-eighties and has amassed collections-of-collections of outsider art, musical instruments, dolls, furniture, crosses and figurative, still life and plein air paintings – 3000 pieces, at least. She sees the Palette & Chisel as the place to find emerging artists and has several pieces by PAPC artists represented. She describes what inspires her, her process for going through exhibits and choosing paintings, and what she plans for the future of her collection. Mary Longe interviews Michelle Strassburger in her Chicago home.

Samantha Michalski https://youtu.be/hHo9cHQ1-h4

A prize for winning best in show at the Cedarburg Plein Air Festival is to have your painting purchased by the Cedarburg Art Museum. The organization’s mission reflects its connection to the community and surrounding areas. Museum Director, Samantha Michalski reflects on the role of museums, and their connection to the community and to artists. She explains why the CAM and other regional museums are partial to plein air paintings. Mary Longe talks with Samantha Michalski via Zoom.

Rick Reinert https://youtu.be/1ScPAq3zpzw

Rick and Ann Reinert founded Reinert Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Charleston, SC, and they understand artists, and after years as a gallery owner they understand the people who purchase art. In this conversation, Rick helps us understand the role and the opportunity of a gallery for an artist. He explains what artists should do if they’d like to be represented, the opportunity for them, and the responsibilities in the relationship between artist and gallery. Reinert Fine Art Gallery represents locals, Errol Jacobson, Mary Qian, and William Schneider. Mary Longe talks with Rick Reinert via Zoom.

Barbara Van Driel https://youtu.be/cR_KO97w3i8

Barbara Van Driel’s three residences have different genres of art. What they share is her love for hanging multiple pieces from masters in the genres. In Chicago, her home has more than twenty paintings by PAPC Master Artist, Nancy King Mertz. Barbara tells us why she collects in that fashion, her relationship to the artists, and to the art. Mary Longe interviews Barbara Van Driel in her Chicago home.

Canice Prendergast https://youtu.be/JaYLZV3YWEw

Canice Prendergast manages acquisitions of art work for the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business along with a team of students, faculty and alums. Here he brings his experience with the global art market and his expertise as an economics professor to explain how and why the UC acquires items for its collection. You;ll be surprised by some responses. Mary Longe talks with Canice Prendergast via Zoom.

Jose Santillan https://youtu.be/0Ul0xgpi_lE

Jose Santillan has favorite types of art and favorite artists but likes to find new ones. He establishes an annual budget and sometimes buys a painting from a recognized artist or decides it’s the year for serendipitous buying. He tells us what moves him to make purchases. Mary Longe talks with Jose Santillan via Zoom.

Elizabeth Murphy https://youtu.be/3Iv1oaLymCk

Collecting Art: Buying Plein Air Online, A Conversation with Elizabeth Murphy, Chicago, IL Beth Murphy combs the internet for art and buys from all over the world. She wanders through craft and fine art fairs, and even renaissance festivals searching out emerging artists. She rarely pays more than $100 and has more paintings than she can frame or hang. She knows what she likes, what’s worth the money, and tells us why. Mary Longe talks with Beth Murphy via Zoom.

The Gangster, the Guest Artist and the Couple Who Cleaned Up

This is Jazzy. She used my sketchbook to draw a statue across the street in Humbolt Park. My deal with my "Guest Artists" is that I get to keep the picture and they may draw in my book while I paint. Parents are invited to take a photo of the Guest Artist with their art. None have refused. As the daughter and mother walked away, Jazzy decided she didn’t like the deal, turned back to me and wanted the book. I told her I needed it. She surprisingly didn’t negotiate and they went on their way.. 

She and her mom arrived just after Jose left. Jose stood and visited with me for more than two hours… that’s long for the usual plein air bystander. He seemed fascinated with the painting process, asked good questions, made comments about the composition and showed me his bullet wounds from a gang fight, that he apparently lost. Painter friends stopped by while he was there and he’d step back while we chatted and stepped closer when they left. Later, I learned that they thought he and I were friends. I suppose we were- for a few minutes. As I finished the painting, I offered it to him. He said, “No, I’m good.” A bit of a blow.

Just as I packed the last bit of equipment in my backpack, a couple stopped and asked to see the painting I'd done. Lucky me. They love art, said that they hadn’t bought anything local since moving to Chicago three years ago, and purchased my painting. 

It was a rich and interesting day to paint.

When A Scene Turns to Love

This is my happy place, Ft. Sheridan, near Highland Park, IL on September 5th, 2021. General Patton lived here for a time, I've heard, it's probably true; a street bears his name. I paint here frequently enough to actually recognize people who also come here regularly. It is a place to appreciate the Lake. You can’t officially swim here because, there might be unexploded ordinants in the water. I always thought that was an urban legend but, only waded a few time, not wanting to tempt fate. Earlier this year, a grenade from a war a long time ago was found a few hundred yards away.

One couple stopped by my easel and commented on my painting. Out of the blue the man said- We are all connected by love. A few hours before, I had found the obit of someone I once loved. With that, this scene, this painting reminds me of that love. (Painting - sold.)

Old Music Heard a New Way

 After a stroke, my dad started using the phrase, “that was the best…  I ever had, or, I’ve never …” While his certaintude made me smile, it also gave me hope that maybe a brain blown, didn’t have to be a complete calamity. Finding new joy in old things sounded okay. While watching Tick Tick Boom last night, I wondered why I didn’t share the love of theater that many friends have. Reading the memories and hearing soundbites of lyrics by Stephen Sondheim after his death and learning he inspired Jonathan Larson who wrote the lyrics and score for Tick Tick and Rent, challenged that thought more.

Lately, I’ve found myself listening to different radio stations when I drive. WXRT for one. I realized I liked it when I was painting a portrait at the Palette & Chisel. It was in the background, but for me background sound is often front and center and I can’t not hear it. The sniffle in a Zoom program, the voice on the other end of a cell call in a hardware store with Silent Night playing, talking about the disappointment in a center piece at Thanksgiving, for instance. Painting usually puts me into a zone where pretty much I have virtual blinders and noise cancelling earmuffs, but that morning up on the third floor with the north light, I found myself making brushstrokes to Peter Gabriel’s Your Eyes and liked the results. Not in the painting but in the feeling that I wasn’t second guessing my strokes, the music nudged a rhythm. I wondered why I didn’t listen to XRT back in the days of a beer after work that accompanied conversations of bands I’d never heard of, that now are oldies.

Once home, I asked Alexa to play XRT. During my visit to Seattle, we listened to KMHD, a Portland jazz station. I’ve never heard so much xylophone or saxophone… and liked it. Alexa has been playing that too. As far as I know, I haven’t had a stroke, but something has happened to nudge me from a rut I didn’t know I was navigating. I feel less hunkered down, like I could tap into courage to do something else new… something bigger than a radio station. Move? Take a long trip alone. Write a novel? Create some other adventure. Now, I wonder if it really was the stroke that caused my dad’s reframing his experience of the world. He may have just heard old music in a new way.