Feast Your Eyes, Algonquin, On New Public Artwork

In keeping with the seven-year tradition, the Algonquin Public Arts Commission and village staff have selected artwork for the 2011-12 Algonquin public art program.

Senior Planner Ben Mason presented the approved works as well as their tentative display locations throughout the village at last week's committee of the whole meeting. Mason said there were 53 works were submitted in total, and from those, 38 were selected. Twenty artists submitted pieces, including six artists who submitted to the program for the first time this year.

Selected works will be on display at various indoor and outdoor locations throughout Algonquin for up to one year. The program is designed to enrich, inspire and educate the local community through art.

Mason also announced that the iconic orange sculpture stationed outside Village Hall, “Adam & Eve Mourning Over the Soul of Abel” by Bryan Massey, Sr., will remain on display for another year.

David Engle’s painting “Early Morning Mist, Low Tide, Washington Coast” will also be featured in this year’s program. Engle, 61, taught art classes at Barrington High School for 34 years and recently opened an art studio in Algonquin. “I was always active in producing art, but my priority was teaching,” he said. Engle was “very pleased” when he found out his painting was accepted. “I’m looking to get involved with the local art community, and this is a great start,” he said.

This is the second year that Jose Francisco Bolet will have a piece featured in the Algonquin public art program. Bolet was born in Spain and grew up in Venezuela before moving to Lake in the Hills about 12 years ago. His new piece, titled "Aggression II," is scheduled to be displayed at Algonquin Lakes Elementary. “Even in a populated city like Chicago, many people feel alone. I wanted to express how people are sometimes really feeling,” he said.

Bolet, 52, said he has been working very hard to get to this point in his artistic career. His work is also currently on display throughout Chicago.

Kay Clark of Lake in the Hills will have three photographs in this year’s display of artwork. She also had photography displayed at the Algonquin Eastgate Library last year, and she displays her photographs in her hometown of Platville, WI. “I’m so excited about the photos,” she said, “it’s great marketing, especially because I am a little shy.” Clark, 52, is also active in the Algonquin Writer’s Group and is working on a novel.  “It’s sad to see funds cut for art and music,” she said. “We need to keep the arts alive.”

Many of the new pieces will be on display during an open house reception at Algonquin Village Hall on Thursday, October 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. The event is open to the public, and many of the artists will be on hand to discuss their work.