FIRST AWARD
12x12 at The Art Center, Highland Park

November 20th, 2009 - January 4th, 2010

On Friday, November 20th was the opening reception for the three parallel exhibitions at The Art Center in Highland Park:

Explorations, 12x12 and Unbound.

I have three of my watercolors in the 12x12 show, curated by Kelly Gillum.
It was a great honor and joy to find out I received the first award!

Kelly Gillum (Juror for the 12x12 and Unbound), Kevin Lucero Less (Juror for the Explorations), and the Exhibition Director Rino Liberatone.

Red Hot Red Dot


Art Spree and Silent Auction Thursday, September 17, 6 to 9pm
Exhibition continues through September 29th

This is the fourth time I'm having my work at the Red Hot Red Dot yearly auction which benefits "Women and Their Work" - a visual and performing art non-profit organization in Austin, TX. Women and Their Work was founded over 30 years ago and it has been emphasizing the value and excellence of art by women as well as equipping artists with financial and technical support.

Here is the work I have donated for this event.

"Descending Moon", mixed media (acrylic, graphite, charcoal) on canvas, 12"x16", 2009

Art in the Abstract - Fermilab Art Gallery Group Exhibition


Thursday, July 9, 2009 - Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I am currently exhibiting my watercolors at a group show "Art in the Abstract", at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The space is just tremendous; the Wilson Hall building itself is a work of art; it offers the breathtaking expanse of one of the world's largest atriums, soaring to the very height of it's 16-story structure.

I am exhibiting with four other artists in this show: Guy Bellaver, Kate Friedman, John Slavik and Shawn Slavik.

Here is Fermilab's announcement of the show with a short description of each artists' work:

A new exhibit in the Fermilab Art Gallery features multi-media abstract art works by five artists.

Guy Bellaver uses bronze or painted steel to create sculptures that range from tabletop-sized to more than 18 feet tall. He uses his works to express his fascination with positive and negative spaces and attempts to stretch the physics of the medium that he’s working in to occupy those spaces.

Mixed-media artist Kate Friedman uses painting and drawing as ways to explore nature’s visual language. Her works reflect her interest in the elemental connections between people and raw materials and physical laws of the natural universe.

John Slavik brings his artistic visions to fruition through abstract, representational and conceptual art. His pieces record his emotional response to events, places and thoughts. He hopes that they invite interaction and induce a strong physical presence.

Shawn Slavik works to capture fleeting moments in her art works. These are the moments that offer a sudden glimpse of clarity. The art works are the moments exposed and without context.

The watercolors that Ana Zanic creates are abstract compositions of layered washes mixed with dynamic lines, scribbles and ink marks. She uses the colors and forms to create atmospheric spaces of transcendence.

5x7 Arthouse at the Jones Center - 10th Anniversary

This month is the 10th Anniversary of 5 x 7, Arthouse’s annual fundraiser that benefits Arthouse exhibitions and educational programs. For this event hundreds of contemporary artists created unique works on identical 5” x 7” boards. The idea with 5x7 is that all pieces are displayed anonymously and the artist's name is discovered only when the piece is purchased.

Here are the tree works I made for this year's event:

Shades of Green - Wildflower Center Art Auction

Each year the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin holds a fundraising gala with silent art auction to help the Center's annual funding.
Last year I had a pleasure to donate my watercolor "Swallowtail's Dream" for this event.

"Spring Impromptu" below is the acrylic painting I donated to this year's auction, which will be held on May, 1st.

March is Women's History Month


My watercolors are currently on view at the West Belmont Chicago Public Library as a part of the Women's History Month program.

"Reflections" at the Montgomery Ward Gallery, University of Illinois at Chicago

My solo exhibition "Reflections" opened yesterday at the Montgomery Ward Gallery in Chicago. What I really like about this space is that students hang around there a lot; it's a good place for studying or taking a break between classes. This way a lot of people not only see my work for a few moments, but actually spend some time around it as well.

I like openings in general; you always get some interesting feedback. Some comments surprise me because of their similarity to my own views, others give me insight into things that maybe wouldn't even cross my mind. Naturally, it is always the greatest reward to see how some people you've never met before connect to your work instantly and really enjoy it.

32nd Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition

Two of my watercolors were selected for the 32nd Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition, at the Bradley University in Peoria, IL! It is the second-longest-running juried print and drawing competition in the country. From about 1 700 works submitted by 600 national and international artists, my two pieces were not only among the 126 selected, but one of them got among the 38 works juror Lynwood Kreneck chose for the preview show, that starts a month earlier.

Zarko and I went to the opening (Peoria is about two and a half hours drive from Naperville, where we live); after the opening Lynwood Kreneck gave a talk, and I got a chance to meet him.

He's a Texan! He got both his BA and MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has been teaching printmaking at Texas Tech University for nearly forty years!

I even started missing Austin a little when he mentioned how the sky in Texas inspired him a lot...
I must admit - Texas has the most beautiful big blue skies I've seen!

Here are the two selected pieces "Small worlds (in sepia/cerulean) no. 1" and "Maroon nebula" and some photos from the opening.