Last Saturday, it being a cold, misty supposed Spring day, the boys and I hopped on the #147 bus and headed down to the Chicago Cultural Center to check out Project Onward's "Portrait Slam."
For those of you not familiar, Project Onward is a DCA program that supports adult artists with mental disabilities. The program provides all the art supplies, gallery space, guidance & training and even gets their pieces shown in other venues. The artists' work takes on a great range of styles, some of the paintings are oddly humourous or childlike while others' work might be moody, painterly or righteously meticulous. Here's a piece by David Holt, who seems to have a knack for deceased performers.
When we entered the room there were six artists stationed at round tables. It was $20 for a portrait and the sitting was expected to last no longer than 30 minutes. Ben was not interested at all, but Sam was super into it. You could pick the artist you wanted to do your portrait and as we entered it just so happened that Adam E. Hines had just finished a portrait and had a "hole" in his schedule. Two years ago when I worked at the Cultural Center (and had an office across the hall from Project Onward) I bought one of Adam's pieces. It's called "Funniest Modern Characters" and has a hyper comic book feel to it. We all dig it and it hangs near our bookshelf in our living room. When I told Sam the artist that was going to do his portrait was the same artist who made the piece hanging in our living room, his eyes grew wide and he practically leapt into the chair. He took the portrait sitting very seriously and sat incredibly still.
I like how Mr. Hines chose to make Sam's head blue.
He asked Sam a series of questions and I think this relaxed Sam a bit. And then I noticed Sam put his hand on the table and he sort of slowly moved it closer to the artist's. This picture, it says so much about what art can do on a bunch of levels.
I took a picture of Sam with the finished product and with Adam, but when I got home I realized Sam had his eyes closed. He saw the photo and made me promise I would not post it on my blog. (!!!) So I am going to keep my promise and I'll just share a shot of the portrait.
Can't wait to frame this one. I walked around the room a bit while Sam's portrait was being done and enjoyed watching the other artists at work. One man was working in pastels and was making these very classic but slightly haunted looking portraits. Another artist was doing very realistic pencil-drawn portraits but with a totally grafitti style name floating above each head. I want to get one done at a later date but I am still on the fence as to which artist to choose. But for Sam on that day, Adam E. Hines was the perfect artist for his very own portrait. And we all like that Adam wrote, "Be brave & strong also stay kind!" at the bottom of the portrait. Indeed.
ps I am sneaking of to New York tomorrow for a very quick trip without the boys or Ted. Can't wait to report back on my adventures, including going to the Maira Kalman exhibit and finally walking the High Line.
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