As most of the 17 artists participating in Deerfield’s public art program this year gathered to talk about their work, Susan Mason and Linda Trytek learned they were both captivated by the same orchid growing at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Both attended the opening reception of the village’s sixth annual Public Art Program Sept. 19 at the Deerfield Public Library where all 23 projects were displayed before being dispersed at five public locations around town.
Trytek, a Deerfield resident, is displaying two photographs, one of a pink rose and the other of an orchid. She starts by taking a picture with her cell phone.
“I take one small detail and keep enlarging it,” Trytek said. “I keep enlarging it until it is what I like.”
After the other artists talked about their work to the crowd of more than 70, Mason approached Trytek.
“She said, ‘I know that orchid, I’m painting it,'” Trytek said.
Mason, who lives in Deerfield, said she, too, took a picture of the orchid at the botanic garden and now is painting it. She has a painting of a dahlia in the program, and said she gets a lot of ideas for her art at the botanic garden.
“It’s one of my happy places,” Mason said. “The collection there is amazing. It is so happy and peaceful.”
Susan Willis of Deerfield, who has participated in the project all six years and now has a painting of a butterfly on display, also found her subject at the botanic garden. She said it is where she first leaned to paint as an adult 15 years ago and believes painting scenes from nature gives people an opportunity to see what they may not be able to experience.
“I am just thrilled to be part of this again,” Willis said. “This is my community. It gives me a chance to share what I see in nature with others.”
The 23 pieces of art, which are on loan from the artists to the village for one year, will be displayed at village hall, the library, the Jewett Park Community Center, the Patty Turner Center, and the sculpture park at the northeast corner of Waukegan and Deerfield Roads.
Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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