appreciation and another loss

Posted on May 5, 2024 by bert leveille blog

Eldon Carl Schulz (6-20-1948—4-01-2024) is the husband of an artist friend, Jeane Kat McGrail. Jeane and I had concurrent solo exhibitions sponsored by E* (E-artgroup) at the Old CourtHouse Gallery in Woodstock, IL in 2018 — “Streaming Reflections”. When I learned of Eldon’s passing I was saddened but upon reflection, I realized why this loss was so personal to me. Yes, he was a kind, good man, an award-winning photographer, and husband of a friend. But, in addition he had used his creative energy to help me document not just this shared exhibition, but he was also my official photographer for my solo exhibition curated by Caren Helene Rudman at the Art Center Highland Park (TACHP). We never appreciate people and their talents enough! I feel so thankful for Eldon’s willingness to use his talents to help me document my work.

*Eldon and Jeane* *in front of Jeane’s artwork*

*Eldon photographing myself, my dancer Ellyanna Hope Anderson and her Mom*

Eldon’s photos:

*Eldon’s photo of the two exhibiting artists: myself and Jeane*

I thought you might enjoy some of Eldon’s images from my exhibition at TACHP:

So, now I have lost two important artisans:
My brother, who assisted me with my studios and exhibitions (carpentry, electric, moving, hanging…). Thank you, PAL.
And, a renowned photographer.
Thank you, Eldon, for the memories.

appreciation

Posted on May 4, 2024 by bert leveille blog

Referencing this post from 2019.

I marvel at the things I can do now that I took for granted before my health issues; and I am starting to take for granted again. Simple things – like standing while dressing, and going up and down stairs effortlessly, and laying on my right side. I will probably never be able to do the lifting I used to do, and will always need more assistance installing an exhibition than I used to . . . My brother can’t help me anymore — he is with Mom and Dad and… But this day at The Art Center Highland Park (TACHP) was so awesome installing with Efram and Caren Helene-Rudman, the awesome curator at TACHP on the left and of course my indispensable brother — PAL — with me on the right.

Fast forward to 2024… I have been so grateful for Brooks Bahnsen stepping up as my exhibition installation assistant. We had quite a busy year in 2023. More about that later.

Back to the original post:
Crawling on the floor to paint is difficult — so when I can, I adapt …

Appreciation: I so love the movements of dancer, Ellyanna Hope Anderson — movements that I cannot emulate but can appreciate, that I can paint — movements I can feel in my soul, and attempt in the swimming pool! — in my mind anyway . . . I look forward to working with Ellyanna again. Her passion for movement (and the perfection of it) has made me more aware of how important movement is in my art. It has always been there, and I suspect will continue to play a dominant role in my work and the implementation of my artistic visions . . .

And, I am reminded of the young man from Idaho, who said, “look Mom, when the colored lights change the dancers move.” I have great appreciation for all who take the time to look at, to interact with, to experience the art I present.

surviving covid19

Posted on March 6, 2024 by bert leveille blog

Okay – so most of us think covid is over and we certainly have tools to combat it. I still feel like I do not have the freedom to go into crowds without taking risks. And, the world has become so violent.

This is one of the posts that I lost. So I am reposting it. So much is still relevant.

*My studio before I cleared things out and vacuumed the floor. The paint stays on the floor until I paint over it!* Not much has changed.

Unlike many, I am very lucky to have a wonderful studio that I love to work in. One would think that I would be happy just to be tucked away doing my art. I am embarrassed to say that I have been somewhat paralyzed. Don’t get me wrong. I have been exercising (I cannot go to the pool that I love – so I am now biking on my stationary bike – I did 15 miles today – but it took 1hour 20 minutes!), learning new art related things, doing some art and gradually organizing my digital and painting studios.

Sometimes you need some inspiration and I have this — my largest watercolor hanging on my studio wall. It is 39 inches x 7 feet wide on 180 or 150 pound watercolor paper, my artist/lifelong best friend gave me some years back.

I was taking a grad-level class from Charlotte Rollman at NIU https://charlotterollman.com when I did it. She does beautiful large watercolors, so I challenged myself to do a huge watercolor. It was challenging to wet it (in the tub via the shower!) and I tacked it to a 4×8 foot homesote board. I never did like stretching canvas or watercolor paper, which is why I generally use 300 pound watercolor paper and often work on unstretched canvas). The uneven paper adds to the character of the artwork. Here are some details of this piece.

What strikes me looking at these images is that they tend to speak to Covid 19. The figures are isolated and separated by windows or transparent planes. And, maybe this is just evident of my exploration of consciousness. How do we connect? Oh… we can’t even connect physically now. So, connecting to consciousness is not a physical connection, so maybe we are experiencing connections in a more spiritual way right now. Just some thoughts….

So … The task at hand was to finish these three small pieces and then to tackle a large piece for XrE*al.

Those three pieces helped me get past my covid paralysis and create a 12 x 18 foot painting for an exhibition I was never able to personally experience.

More on that in the next reposted lost post.

My artist blog begins again

Posted on February 26, 2024 by bert leveille blog

My previous blogs got lost – If you were looking for them, I apologize and I thank you for your patience.
I hope you enjoy this new feature on my website. Technology can be very frustrating and a man with great patience says “we are all victims of technology!”

I could go on and on bemoaning my bad luck losing those blogs, but I think you’d rather hear about my art journey.

I will begin. This post has some images from my last installation “DREAMS”, which was a huge undertaking! 120 feet of mural size paintings lining the corridor in a huge banquet hall at Starline in Harvard, IL. It was the grande finale of a year as the featured installation artist for 4th Friday art events. So it all begins with a plan – a visualization of the space, then packing and transporting the art, and then the work of hanging. I wish I could say all that is fun, but bottom line the fun part is the end result!