Figures and fractals fill Blue Moon Gallery walls

GRAYSLAKE – The Blue Moon Gallery in Grayslake is hosting its end-of-summer reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 26 with exhibits featuring figures and fractals from guest artists Darlene Bock of Lindenhurst and Paul Pinzarrone of Rockford.

Both exhibits are loaded with color, textural layers, explorations of the human figure and the use of light.

Bock, a pastel artist, is showing an exciting new collection of paintings featuring people of all ages unaware of being observed. Bock maintains a strong passion for her artwork and gains constant inspiration from the array of everyday postures, poses, interactions and experiences that people show her.

“For me, there is a joy in transforming the commonplace into something unexpected. It is a feeling I hope to share,” Bock said in a news release.

Bock has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has earned Signature Status with the esteemed Pastel Society of America and the Chicago Pastel Painters. Over the past 15+ years, Bock’s award-winning artwork has been juried into multiple national and international fine art competitions. She also shows her work in solo and group exhibitions in galleries throughout the Midwest.

Bock’s exhibition of 16 paintings includes landscapes and still life compositions.

Pinzarrone’s digital photographic work explores how nature and power rhyme. His candy-colored sensual puzzles are displayed on high-gloss aluminum or Plexiglas and metallic paper. The viewer is drawn in visually to explore mesmerizing fractal patterns, some in mandala form, and then left to wonder if the visuals are mirrors, science fiction, an other-worldly situation or remnants of a nightly dream.

Pinzarrone has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of Illinois. He has been showing his national award-winning work as a solo artist and in group invitational, as well as at regional, national and international juried exhibitions for photography and figurative works since the 1980s.

Bock and Pinzarrone’s exhibitions will be on view at the gallery through Oct. 15.

Guest pop-up artist Roger Shule of Antioch, known as “The Matchbook Artist,” will be exhibiting a collection of iconic imagery from the 1930s and 1940s painted on 3D wood matchbooks.

“Little images that make big statements might be a good way to describe my larger-than-life, three-dimensional matchbook creations,” Shule said.

The result is a fun trip down memory lane.

Last month’s guest artist Trace Chiodo of Racine, Wisconsin, continues offering his unique digital illustrations of the “striking faces” of vintage wood golf clubs. His exhibition is on view through Sept. 10.

Patrons are invited to attend the gallery’s opening reception Aug. 26 to meet the artists and view their artwork. Live music will be performed by guitarist Clark Hardin of Bartlett.

The Blue Moon 2023 Collective Artists – John Kirkpatrick, Kathleen Heitmann, Michael Litewski, Juli Janovicz and Kendra Kett – will be showing new and recent works. Their works span multiple mediums including acrylic, oil and watercolor paintings, wall-dependent and tabletop sculptures, graphite and colored pencil drawings and more. The Collective Artists, all local to northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin, feature florals and landscapes and figurative works, plus still life and abstract compositions in their collections.

The gallery, located at 18620 Belvidere Road in Grayslake, also will be open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 27. The gallery is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The gallery ships artwork to buyers nationwide.

For more information, call Blue Moon Gallery director Kendra Kett at 224-388-7948 or visit www.thebluemoongallery.com.