See Change at The Peoria Art Guild Fine Art Fair

If you missed it this year...you missed a lot!
The Peoria Art Guild did it's best to make
the home town artists feel welcome this year!
They also tried to turn all the visitors into artists as well!

I really wanted to participate
in helping paint the interactive mural.
It was FREE to paint a square
that would go up on the wall.
When all the squares were painted
it created a copy of the art selected for this years poster!As you can see below the volunteers
took their responsibilities very seriously and did a great job!

At the other end of the fair was our
"See Change Mural".
Our project is to encourage
our artists and community to come together
in the spirit of collaboration,
not competition
if we want to See Change in Peoria.





The artists were given the guidelines
that each of their paintings must have the color blue
and should show the changes in Peoria past, present or future.
The artists had about 3-4 hours to finish their work
on site during the conference while people
chatted with them about their work!
Tom Warren got to use both days of the
conference to create his 20 foot mural!
Our mural was amazingly well received!!
Just when you think it can't get better...It Does!!


Clare Howard wrote a wonderful article about
Simply Everything Boutique,
the new store Jennifer Slater and I started
at the Shoppes at Grand Prairie,
that came out in Sunday's paper!


James Flanigan got a great surprise when
he showed up to find that
HIS sculpture was featured with a great photo!
We love you Clare!
Then the celebrities started showing up!
There is James with Suzette Boulais of Arts Partners
looking like the rock stars they are!
Suzette is the one who called to ask me
to gather artists together for
the One State in the Arts conference
in June to create art on site
for the participants to
See Change
as they came in and out of their conferences.
Thanks Zet!
Of course I had to race in to get my photo
with the now famous crew as they came in!
Adrienne Risby came by to receive her fan club as well.


Ross Stovall who is generally known for
doing amazing interiors and faux finishes
shows off his painting of
the Spirit of Peoria
that even has glow in the dark lights
on the bridge and boat, just like in real life!
William Butler had to come by
and check out what the buzz was all about
'cause you know he has his finger
on the art pulse there at CAC.
Then the crowds showed up to
ooohhh and aaahhhh
over the amazing artistry
and
creative collaborative concepts
our mural display.
Check it out! That is Janet Jackson of I Still Believe
and Amanda Haun from the Pere Marquette
where the
One State Conference was held
are chatting with lil' ole me!
Tom Warren seemed to slip by my camera some how,
mostly because he was busy
finding ways to stake the paintings to China
so they didn't move and tie his 20 foot canvas 6 ways from Sunday
and then came to take everything down again!
You can see more of him
and his mural on the Illinois Arts Alliance flickr site.


Here is why you don't see Tom Gross.
He was busy, getting busy and bonding with his painting.
Tom just LLLOOOVVVES his art work and so did the Peoria Art Guild.
Tom had his OWN tent to man with plenty of fans of his own.
Thanks for building those easels. They were a work of art themselves!

Speaking of art again...or still.
Do you want great art at your business, school or public building?
Call me to schedule our mural to be displayed at your venue.
Show your support for collaboration in the arts and the city of Peoria.
See Change- Next Stop- Heartland Partnership!