Galena Home and Studio

It was quite a transition from downtown Chicago studio to small town, and I am now feeling at home in my Galena apartment art studio. The lush, hilly landscape and close proximity of the Mississippi River lend artistic inspiration that cannot be rivaled elsewhere in Illinois. Springtime brings a show of blossoms in Victorian gardens. Summertime outdoor activities include bike paths, nature walks or boating on the Galena River. The changing colors of a wide variety of deciduous trees make autumn Galena's busiest season. Winter sports abound with cross country trails and downhill skiing.

Sometimes a quiet time of reflection in a beautiful space is all the inspiration we need. Daily sketches seed ideas to larger plans. Looking inward adds richness to the creative process. There is time and a place for peace and contemplation, and it is good.

I am grateful for my artistic friends. 

~ Welcome! ~ 

My apartment building last summer, Galena historic district.

Victorian interior suits my style and high ceilings suit my easel.

Restful colors and open floor plan.

Easel and desk, lots of natural light from high windows.

Original stained glass in the kitchen.

Espresso on demand. Life is good!

Latte at the drawing table, enjoying the comforts of home.

Gorgeous view from my kitchen window.

Looking forward to springtime on the three season porch and back patio.

Bouquet from the garden. I also have a raised bed for herbs and vegetables.

Pocket door detail, beauty wherever I look.

 

Drawing room, with a view! Plenty of room for entertaining and for teaching.

Two Years of Life Strife, Then Diagnosed With a Brain Tumor?!

"Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift." ~ Mary Oliver  

"Brain Storm" Holga photo of Alice McMahon by Tracey Russett


Gifts sometimes come in unusual packages. I feel so grateful to have another chance at life and love after surgery to remove a golf ball sized meningioma brain tumor. (Read more about my surgery and recovery at Alice Recovery Fund.)

   

December 17, 2012, at noon, I was in my Galena apartment art studio having lunch and an owl (Great horned owl? Barred owl?) crashed into my second floor studio window just a few feet from where I was standing in the living room, and then it fell to the ground below. Crows mobbed the bird and were causing a ruckus! I was happy to see that the owl was able to fly enough to perch in a nearby tree but it may have been injured - it hit the window hard and I only saw the flurry of brown and white feathers so wide it filled the entire width of the window, after the loud crash! A year earlier I had drawn an owl into my piece “Persephone” and had only just the day before posted the emblematic image as my banner on my Facebook page. It seemed as if this was a metaphoric sign, the incident seemed so surreal to me and startled me not just because of the loud sound and the drama of the scene but it also felt like a wake-up call, something was trying to get my attention in that instant, but what was it?  

Here is a brief background before my Dec 26, 2012 diagnosis with a meningioma brain tumor:

Many of you know me and my career quite well because you are fellow artists, and some of you may only just be getting to know me because I am new to your area. Some of you may have lost touch with me in the past couple of years because I have been struggling to get my life and career back in order and I have not been keeping up with my family connections, my art contacts or my social networking. When I have been networking, I have kept most of my story to myself because it has been messy and complicated and just too painful and personal. Out of necessity and because so many have asked about my current situation, I will share more with you now.

I am a fine artist and mother of three young adults. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 32 years, but we have now been separated for two years. The past few years have been extremely difficult – having about every possible life stress in the mix. Times are hard, the economy is a disaster and everyone has their stuff right now. My family was not excluded from these trials and this is our story.

The beginning of the end was our move about 3 years ago from our home in the south side Beverly neighborhood of Chicago, to open an art and music café business in the tourist town of Galena, Illinois. The family business we started with much thought, creative energy, hope and enthusiasm began strong and with great reviews, but at a cost of family and financial stress to the point of disaster. In hindsight, could my slow growing brain tumor have caused or added to some of the problems that lead to our breakup? We will never know for certain but it is a fact that I did suffer depression and anxiety beginning with the move away from our family home, along with some other physical symptoms I attributed to aging and stress. Leaving my art career and close knit extended family in Chicago for the drama and extreme intensity of small town America in the height of tourist season would be enough on it's own to drive me to the edge. We were all stressed, we all were acting out during that first year.

Our family of five all worked together to bring this dream to fruition and Rendezvous Coffee & Tea was and still is a great café. I will always be proud of the ways my kids all contributed so much of their own strengths and talents to help build that café and my youngest son is still an excellent barista there and works with his dad. Maybe given time and more counseling, more patience and more financial backing, it could have worked out, but most likely our marriage was bound to break up as people do grow apart over time even with great love and best intentions. Too much family togetherness, my menopause and my husband's bipolar symptoms, disagreements over management and money, Main Street politics and gossip, all these mixed up into an unhealthy brew and I all too soon left the family home and business and although we tried, we were never able to patch things up enough for me to return.

Having no job skills outside of art, café management and mothering, I went through seven odd jobs at minimum wage in two years and moved five times in the same space of time. There is no family savings or retirement fund left, I lost my credit, our Chicago home is owned by the bank, the property we shared on Main Street in Galena was somehow never in my name, and for some reason my name was never on the family business either, although most of the café debt was in my name only. How did that happen? I did not know any of this until we were separated. I do not know to this day what happened but trust was broken on both sides and there was no point in trying to heal those wounds and if I tried I was met with stoney indifference or downright aggression. I lost my health insurance and I was dependent on public services for food and health care. I drive a fifteen year old car with a cracked windshield and finally, just recently, I did have to resign from my Chicago art gallery connection because of financial and logistical reasons. I borrowed money from my family for divorce attorney fees and I have received no maintenance of any kind during the separation. I received free legal and psychological counseling but it was not much help and the divorce is still in limbo after two years.

I even lost touch with my own children in the end which has been the worst thing imaginable for me. It has been hell and I was beginning to wish I could just slip away.

"Shades of Gray" 2012 self portrait installation, mixed media

Don’t get me wrong, there have been moments of deep joy for me during these difficult times – often coming from my realizations about the meaning of true friendship and trust – love and patience and understanding of people’s foibles. My art is deeper and has been informed by the trials. The works have been few and far between because of stress and my deep need to be in a good frame of mind to work. There are far fewer hours to spend on art with 40 to 60 hours of day job work, and in off hours I was hanging out with friends just to feel something and to make connections in my new location.

The “Ophelia” works were heartfelt because of my depression of leaving the past 50 years of family life in Chicago behind and starting something that was not really a dream of mine, just at a time of hormonal change and the real trauma of the empty nest.  In hindsight the depression and anxiety may have been aggravated by the growth in my brain.

“Out of Khaos Came Gaia” is about my relationship with my 3 kids – about the longing for the lost closeness with them in childhood and wistful hope for their future, my new found closeness to Gaia, the land – in the driftless hills of the tri-state region of Galena. Even the bats that visited my apartment during this period are depicted and dissected and examined in my blog about this piece, and reveal the true good karma inherent in the bat's symbolic and actual presence in my life during those months. I recall sobbing so hard my heart hurt while drawing the Gaia piece - and researching at the time that there is a real heart/mind connection and people actually can do damage to their health from a "broken heart." My pain was an actual physical ache in my chest and my mind was numb trying to make sense of the emotional cruelty that was coming at me from all those I loved and cared for most in the world.

My diptych drawing "Abduction of Persephone" is an interpretation of the mythological story that explains the seasons and relates to my relationship with my artist daughter, coming of age. Thankfully some of the family stress is finally beginning to heal and for this I give great thanks to my daughter for doing her best to be open minded and diplomatic.

 "Narcissus and Echo" Walnut ink on vintage handmade paper with imperfection - 14 x 10."

I am fortunate to have found a great group of supportive friends in my new community and if it had not been for them I do not think I would have survived these trials at all. After being frustrated and under-appreciated in dead end job after dead end job, in July of 2012 I was fortunate to be hired full time at Thomas Mangelsen Images of Nature Gallery in Galena. That has made all the difference in my switch from survival mode to thriving art consultant and I still have time at the end of my week to get back to my career as a fine artist! I have had benefits only a few months now through this job, which has been phenomenal and just in time to save me from sure financial disaster from medical costs. I will be able to take advantage of disability leave during my recovery, what a life saving turn of events! Out of pocket expenses will still be a great challenge for me since I am already financially strapped, and so my Recovery Fund helps to lift a great load off of my troubled mind right now. Thanks to all who have helped in ways both great and small!

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll

3 Shows for the Holidays

Vintalogie Shop, Galena Illinois


My Irish works are being shown now through December 20th at the McCord House Gallery in Palos Park, IL for a special holiday event.

A selection of my Black Butterfly charcoal works are on display for the month of December at the Vintalogie Shop on Main Street in the historic town Galena, Illinois.

I'll be on hand at The Beverly Arts Center, Chicago, on Saturday, December 5th for the Artist's Studio Sale event. I'll be exhibiting various small works for this one day only event. Everything at the show is priced $300 and under.

Also, my work is now included on the A Stroke of Genius portrait artist website. I'm in excellent company!

McMahons Hall: A visit to the old family Homestead

Today was a day I'll remember with mixed emotions for the rest of my life.

I received an email a couple of weeks ago via my website inquiring about the drawing below. I had done this ink and coffee wash drawing as a gift to my nephew David McMahon on the occasion of his wedding, because he is so into his Irish heritage. The drawing was done from the old photo shown below it here. This is McMahons Hall, the grocery store my Irish-born great grandfather built about the year 1900 on south Archer Avenue in Chicago.

The inquiry came from a woman who now owns one of the condos. An historian, she wondered what I knew about the history of the building. I got goosebumps hearing from her, because I'd always wanted to visit the building, and find out more about the history myself. My father passed away several years ago, and we only have sketchy details about his grandfather, a few facts handed down over the years and a couple of old census reports I found online.

Michael McMahon met his bride here in Chicago, an Irish-born young woman named Catherine McMahon (Kate). So this is a very strong family name for us. Michael must have done a good job, because the building still stands, looking much as it did 100 years before. Besides the grocery store, there was a dance hall on the second floor, and their living quarters were on the third floor, with a separate street level entrance. Michael and Catherine had 6 children. They came to the US around 1870, he was born in 1853, she in 1857. Their kids were born between 1882 to 1894. They lived and worked in the building until at least 1930. My father was a meat-cutter as was his father before him, taught by Michael.

Now the building is converted to high end loft condos, joined with the building next door. At one time the buildings were a coffee and tea manufacturing business, and the sign for that business can still be read clearly on the brick exterior of the building next to McMahon Hall.

Below is a series of photos of how the building looks today. I took the pictures when the gracious new residents opened their doors and hearts to me today and gave me a glimpse into the life of my ancestors. I'm afraid they were able to provide me with more background information about the building than I was able to give them. So, this was a joyful homecoming for me, although I had never stepped foot inside "The Hall" until today. It was also a sad day, because my mother so wanted to see the place her husband visited as a child. Unfortunately a flare-up of her arthritis ended in a trip to the emergency room and she wasn't able to come along. I took lots of pictures and listened to the stories about the building the new residents were able to share. Tomorrow, I'll visit mom and share the pictures and stories while she's recuperating.

I know mom will be delighted to know that the new occupants of McMahons Hall love and take great pride in the building as my great grandparents did. The spaces are each unique and carefully but comfortably decorated to reflect the style of each resident. They are teachers, artists, photographers, musicians, interior designers, cat and wounded pigeon lovers, and music aficionados. They allowed me to snoop in all the nooks and crannies of their homes, opened up the for-sale ground floor condo that was once the M. McMahon's grocery store, current asking price$500,000. They offered me coffee and homemade blueberry muffins, invited me to a barbecue and told me stories of the not so good days of the building. Back in the 80's there were unauthorized raves held on the premises, mirrors and graffiti on the walls.

It's only been about 3 years since the building underwent it's latest incarnation, and the neighborhood is thriving once more, partly because of artists who moved into the area, such as the Zhou Brothers from China who opened their art center not far from "The Hall".

So, if you are reading this, McMahon Hall current residents, I thank you from the bottom of my heart once more for the two hours you shared with me this morning. I entered a stranger, and left a friend. I wish you many years of happiness in that special home. I'll be sharing your kindness with my very large Irish extended family.

Peace!

The Fine Arts Building Chicago in the news

We made the Chicago papers!

I was interviewed in my Fine Arts Building studio several weeks ago for the Chicago Tribune newspaper. The article finally made it to print yesterday. The interviewer asked questions for twenty minutes and many photos were taken while I was working, but my mention is brief and the only photo from my studio was my courtyard view. Ah well, can't win 'em all! So, here's a short intro to my real-life artistic community. More photos can be seen at the Tribune website. Click the hyperlink below.

Artists thrive in friendly confines

City's Fine Arts Building offers a historic sanctuary for all manner of creative trades

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons

Tribune staff reporter

7:06 AM CDT, July 30, 2007

The rapid notes of a Bach sinfonia spill into a hall of Chicago's legendary home of the arts, an enchanting building still haunted by a century of artists whose creativity has been inspired in its maze of hallways.

Behind one door on the fourth floor, a bassist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is seated at the same piano his grandfather played when he worked as a composer in the historic building almost 70 years ago.

"I'd known about the building for years," said Stephen Lester, who began renting a studio there last year. "When you walk through the halls, you can hear all kinds of things, people teaching and practicing. That's part of the pleasure of being in a building like this."

A floor below him, the stomping of flamenco dancers on hardwood floors bursts through the doors of a Russian ballet company. The neighbors of a voice instructor on the ninth floor listen to her student belt a classic opera piece in preparation for a big audition.

It would be easy to walk right past the Fine Arts Building along Grant Park and miss the beautiful sounds of a new generation of performers working within the building's cubby holes.

Designed by Solon Beman, the building at 410 S. Michigan Ave. was built as a Studebaker Carriage Co. factory in 1885 and was converted to a home for Chicago's artists in 1898. It housed the studios of sculptor Lorado Taft, and author L. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wizard of Oz book series. At the turn of the century, architect Frank Lloyd Wright had a gallery on the top floor of the building, which also was home to Poetry magazine and a popular social club Hull House founder Jane Addams attended to discuss books and current events.

Today, the building's halls appear untouched by time, with the same murals, stained-glass windows and dim lighting. One of the elevators is hand-operated by Thomas Durkin, who has worked there for more than 50 years.

The cavernous building now features a wide range of tenants, including Oscar-nominated filmmaker David McGowan, and Al Gates, a photographer who moonlights as a tango instructor.

Many studios enjoy sweeping views of Lake Michigan. The splendid backdrop, the bustle of the city below and the summer breeze off the lakefront all add to the building's charm. Most of all, there is a sense that the new generation is keeping the sanctuary's rich history alive with art and music.

"This is a love affair, this building," said owner Robert Berger, who carries a harmonica in his pocket for an impromptu melody. "This is a giant wine cellar. It's a performance cellar."

The 72-year-old real estate investor bought the urban arts colony for $10.4 million two years ago, promising to keep its physical beauty in tact, along with its storied mission. Berger, who also owns the art-focused Flat Iron Building in Wicker Park, says he has big plans for the future of the 10-story historic building, which currently houses 164 tenants.

The first major addition has been a high-tech recording studio that airs video of performances on the building's Web site. The staff say the site, www.fineartsbuilding.com, has received as many as 1,000 visitors daily in the last year and hopes to attract even more with archived clips of violin recitals and poetry readings. Recent performing guests featured on the Web site have included a local actor reading Jack Kerouac's works and a drummer expressing his thoughts on existentialism.

His next big project will be the restoration of the building's two dilapidated theaters. Both were converted to movie theaters but are now empty, but Berger said he hopes to bring them back in the next five years as a venue for big shows and maybe even a boxing match or two.

In the meantime, he plans to keep rent "modest" at the building, which costs about $2.5 million a year to run. A flier on one small studio advertises monthly rent at just $390.

Inside Curtiss Hall on the top floor, nine dancers with nooses around their necks gasp for air and writhe on the floor in a performance called "Nine Witches Cold" about the Salem Witch Trials. The backdrop for their rehearsal is a bright panorama of the lake.

The dance company is lucky to meet there three days a week, said Van Collins, founder and artistic director of Rasa Dance Chicago. Beyond the building's beauty, he said, it is stimulating to be around so many other artists under one roof.

"It's the most inspiring thing on the planet," Collins said. "It's completely tweaking my creativity. Some photography on the sixth floor gave me an idea for a dance. I walked past it, and all these ideas came to me."



Alice McMahon White's fifth floor studio has a view that overlooks a quiet courtyard lined with pillars and planted flowers. The Beverly artist's specialty is Irish landscapes, but lately, she has started a series of pastel drawings based on photographs of her children.

Her studio is near a yoga studio and a piano teacher's office. "When they're practicing, it sounds great," she said.

Russian dancer Elizabeth Boitsov is one of the veteran tenants. Her ballet school has occupied a slice of the third floor for 27 years.

One summer afternoon, two dancers learning the flamenco are clapping and stomping their heels while waving ruffled blue skirts. The women, who are classically trained ballerinas, are trying to loosen up to the fast-paced, rhythmic music.

Their instructor Carolina Xavier, a Brazilian ballerina, is teaching them to thrust their shoulders forward as part of the choreography.

"Your body is going to be like a board going forward," Xavier said. "It is an improvisation. Inside the structure of the dance, you can create something new. You can express yourself creatively."

Cello music drifts out of the Machold Rare Violins store on the ninth floor. Colin Clark is playing cello after cello in search of the perfect one.

The 16-year-old from Elgin is hoping to buy one that will last him through college and beyond. He plays a concerto by composer Franz Joseph Haydn on several cellos until he finds one that feels just right.

"It has a powerful sound," Clark said. "It's very loud and punchy. I had to find a cello that will work to my strengths."

Sales clerk Elizabeth Stein says she helps musicians find the "love of their life" from an international collection of string instruments ranging in price from $12,000 to $6 million.

The store also holds performances and benefits in its large studio, which is filled with antique furniture and rugs. Currently, the store is borrowing a beautiful old piano from another shop on the floor for an event. Stein pauses and smiles: "We have great neighbors."

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efitzsimmons@tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune