Thursday evening the Illinois State Museum exhibit, "The Leaf and the
Page" opened, with a talk by Douglas Stapleton, Assistant Curator of Art
at the Ill. State Museum Chicago Gallery. Mr. Stapleton is responsible for
having created this wonderful exhibit.

The exhibit was born of a fascination with 17th through 19th century
natural history illustration, and the artists presented in the exhibit
take that inspiration to a whole other level. To quote from Mr.
Stapleton's comment in the brochure, "Most importantly these artists draw
upon the vast, metamorphical realm where human nature and Nature converge
- and sometimes collide - in a rich linguistic, emotive and imagistic
engagement."

And even without reading the brochure I had no doubt that "The Leaf and
the Page" needed to be mentioned on NILAS.

Interspersed amongst the artists' works were items from the Museum's
botanical collection, with life stilled and mounted, but with its own
artistry. Also were fossils of various plants - to represent Nature's own
"accidental" heartbreaking beauty.

I wish the brochure told of all the artists, but I will offer what I have.

In order to show the modern descendants of natural history art they
offered Olivia Petrides' watercolor of cherries and thornless plums, which
appear in illustrated plant books. Here you have life frozen and flat as
she tried to give the various stages of the plant's development, and yet,
as Mr. Stapleton points out, she went far beyond what was needed for the
book. The detail in her water colors are nearly microscopic as she tried
to get at the very essence of her subject.

Near Ms. Petrides' work was the work of the youngest artist in the
exhibit, Stephen Eichhorn. To first see his work you think you are still
looking at pressed plants - a closer look then makes you think that he
has a detailed brush. Until you are told that these are collages, with the
images clipped carefully from magazines and wallpaper. And as you study
these remarkable pieces you then begin to realize that these wild and
mingled plants are also growing upside down.

Melissa Jay Craig's work are so metamorphical it would take years to truly
ponder the layers. One piece is human height and made of handmade paper.
On the outside is a book spine, and inside is a "decaying" trunk. Nearby
is another piece in a case, "That's Life." Again you have a book spine -
of an opened book - and on the other side you have fungi for pages.

Dennis Lee Mitchell's work also begs many questions - even in how he
created his works. At first glance they appear to be polished bark from a
tree trunk, but you come to learn that they are made of clay, welded clay
at that, and slowly you begin to realize that they are all chest width,
and where bark would be solid that there are places that have "give" of
flesh.

Some artists pursued more "normal" avenues. Rebecca Shore did silhouettes
on paper of leaves, and Winifred Godfrey offered bold colored paintings of
flowers.

Then you begin to enter a more uneasy realm.....

Judith Brotman's sewn leaves, where she stitched leaves into new patterns,
with an inspiration from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."

Carolyn Ottmer's stainless steel works - massive silver pieces that hang
over  you head on "meat hooks" and are hybrids of many plants. One piece
was called, "Splice."

Scott Wolniak's representations of "junk" plants - weeds; all of his work
is made of junk mail, wire, trash, glue, and tape.

Or Eric Wert's close up, "film noir" inspired, photos of tiny, decorative
cactus, which you are seeing from a bug's eye view as they view massive
thorns.

Unfortunately I don't have the names of the last two artists whose work
make such an impact, but I definitely wish to mention the art.

One one wall are several monstrous red-capped mushrooms - even more
startling when you realize that the caps are upside down books (all of
which are made from handmade paper). And while they aren't all on the wall
the artist made 99 of these.

Perhaps the most telling piece is a large wheel that leaves you unsure at
first glance whether it reminds you of Mayan calendar or massive slice of
tree trunk. The piece is made of sliced books, all of which have been
intricately pieced together, with markers by the artist to indicate
moments in her life, or books she has read. On marker indicates, "The last
time I heard music," as she was going deaf at the time.

Even as the plants, or their images, are bound to paper the artists and
the exhibit, has the feel of wild, decaying, birthing life. It is quite a
story that is being told.

Cathy

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