Living the Arts

From encouraging creative thinking to reducing stress, we believe there’s a big place in our lives for art. That’s why we display the artwork of local and regional artists from Greater Peoria in our gallery. We are very proud to support their work and encourage other artists. If you or an artist you know would like to be featured, call (309) 689-1406.

Christopher Loubsky

ON EASEL: November 19 - December 29, 2023

I am a self taught artist residing in Peoria, IL. My work is inspired by both the element and urban influences in my life.

Lisa Nelson Raabe

ON EASEL: July 7 - August 25, 2023

I'm intrigued by how materials transform because of saturation, density and opacity, in chemical combinations, with heat and pressure, and especially visually from context and distance. This current work expands on my experiments with patina processes and plant dying on Thai papers. I use steel, copper, and bronze filings which transform to blues, greens, and of course rust. Plant materials turn from black and various earth tones to brilliant greens and yellows.

John Heintzman

ON EASEL: March 1 - April 30, 2023

It is the genius of materials that ensnares the artist into complex attractions which typically result in artworks. Fold, tear, press… material gestures that shape the artist’s technique over time, seeding and reseeding the conditions of mark making that precedes language, but never form. Form, and with it, pull—a physical action that resonates throughout this work—allows my abstract language to come alive.

Thought and creativity are the manipulation of marks and lines. They do not exist apart from the results that they express. This capacity of active mark making opens the way for an infinite system of interpretation. The impulses that create the action sometimes precede the constraints of an abstract language; but they are emotional, effective, and limitless none the less. As these marks “bind,” “unbind,” and “rebind,” symbols that become the space for interpretation.

The ability to interpret language is not born out of a dual relationship between a symbol and an object: it is to interpret it. There is a need to organize what is not part of the relationship as it relates to thought. More importantly, it recognizes the distance and reflection between the definition of the line and that which assimilates language to the mind.

What stands between the unrepresentative content of an inner space and the representation of realities through perception, is a space we can learn to relate to.

In this series "Collected Thoughts," I have incorporated my torn paper monotypes with gestures that express my thoughts at one specific moment. Through a somewhat random selection, I have combined them to vary my message and present balanced and imbalanced drawings. I hope the viewer will interpret each gesture as personal insight that conveys a more personal message they can appreciate and contemplate its meaning.