LOVES PARK, Ill. (WTVO) — After growing up and earning a double degree in teaching and design, Linda DeYounge moved from Iowa to Rockford to put her skills to the test.
While in Iowa, DeYounge said art was always a side job for her, as it wasn’t appreciated in her town. However, once she moved to the Stateline, she quickly noticed the change in reality.
“Rockford in general is very receptive to the arts,” DeYounge said. “You see all types of people and all ages of people coming to art museums, poetry readings, and responding well to them. I think that that is a beautiful thing. I think that it is rare to find people in your community that also support the arts and want to see each other flourish in that pursuit.”
DeYounge was an English teacher at the Stateline for five years before moving to the Regional Office of Education in Loves Park to become its Professional Learning Facilitator. In the job, she creates online courses, PowerPoint presentations and graphics for teachers in the area to take if they want to continue their education. It was through that new role that she began applying her love for design to the courses.
“I just began designing them and creating outlines for them, like an artist would,” DeYounge said. “I didn’t realize I could apply art in my daily job.”
DeYounge creates digital art, ink designs, paintings and more. She said that in her seven years in Rockford, the city has been a source of inspiration.
“I have been more and more just in love with the art community here,” DeYounge said. “Honestly, Rockford has kind of inspired me, in some ways, to pick back up my traditional work and try to create a body [of work] so that I can be more visible in the community and use my artistic skills in a way that is personally fulfilling, just the same way that I do at work.”
DeYounge’s newest work is understanding the concept of girlhood, and her medium is old family photos.
“I’ve gone back into the archives of all of my family photos and all of my family genealogy, trying to piece together what it means to be me and what it means for any person to uniquely be themselves,” DeYounge said.
DeYounge said she enjoys seeing the works of all artists in the area, and she hopes to be ready to share her work with the community soon.
“Without art and without culture, I think that our cities would feel very boring, very bland, and you wouldn’t have this spark of life that gives a city its unique spark,” DeYounge said.
