Artem Pop Up Gallery owner Sarita Kamat, 60, used to just display her art work in a gallery at 1627 Sherman Ave. in downtown Evanston.
When the gallery’s owner decided to close and the space became available, she says, she decided to take over the lease and use the storefront as studio space for herself and other family members who are artists as well as a gallery.
The shop continues to exhibit works from many of the artists who had their works on display under the prior ownership, as well as dozens of new ones.
“We have a collection of artists who are very cohesive,” Kamat said. “Each artist complements the other. Though each one has a different style, they blend in together. People like that and feel calm when they come in here.”
It was 7:30 a.m. at Caldwell Woods forest preserve in Chicago as landscape designer and painter William Marvin, 81, walked his dogs. The sunlight glimmered through deep green leaves, hitting the rapids below at just the right angle, not jumping, not reflecting.
“Beautiful,” Marvin said. “It’s the challenge of trying to catch the light. The sun is constantly moving. There is the excitement of trying to get something on canvas in a short amount of time.”
Marvin’s work, he says, is available in galleries nationwide, with smaller nature paintings on display at Artem.
He says his focus on painting landscapes came about after he spend a summer selling plants.
“I had my sketchpad and people would come in to have a design for their patio on their
front entranceway,” Marvin said. “I would do a sketch for them and sell the plants according to that sketch.”
Through that job, he combined his two interests: design and plants. After steadily moving up the ranks in landscape design, Marvin switched to painting in 1995, still finding ways to incorporate his love of the outdoors
“Being in the natural environment is important,” Marvin said. “It’s a whole experience. We have a bit of a breeze, the birds and a waterfall on the stream. It’s the experience of being at one with nature. That’s a spiritual experience.”
Marvin hopes to explore abstract design within the confines of his current landscape
paintings, he said.
“I’m not even close to being what I could be,” Marvin said. “I still have a lot of learning
to do. As an artist, you never stop learning. That’s the excitement. You’ve always got something new.”
Plants and flowers also inspire jeweler Shelby Koester, of Whimsy Beadworks.
Koester, 51, grew up in her grandfather’s greenhouse with a father who taught horticulture, the study of growing plants.
“I’ve always enjoyed being outside,” Koester said. “I’m a visually inspired artist and I
tend to take a lot of my inspiration from nature, whether that’s color palettes or the shape of a flower or leaf.”
While Koester is inspired by flora, her initial motivation to make jewelry came from her
small wrist, which didn’t fit typical bracelet sizes. She took a jewelry-making class to create bracelets for herself and later sold them at local markets and art shows, she said.
Koester’s favorite part about making jewelry isn’t beading—which she finds to be “very
therapeutic,” she said—but rather making patterns for herself.
“There’s something really cool about starting from nothing and creating something that
people think is beautiful,” Koester said.
Kamat’s daughter, Riya Kamat, 26, also finds joy in the act of putting ideas onto paper,
she said.
She publishes comic books about her cats in space under the name “Kyuteji.”
“I like coming up with stories and [art] is a way for me to put my ideas on paper and give
it a place to be that’s not just in my head,” Riya Kamat said.
“You build connections with people sharing similar interests, whether you appreciate art or whether you make art. It brings you closer to people who share similar interests.”
