It’s going to be a beautiful weekend-get out and explore some public art! Like this piece from the RAM Permanent Collection, located on the grounds of Rockford Art Museum. Josh Garber donated his piece ‘World of Information’ to Rockford Art Museum for its sculpture garden as a reminder of the hectic but self-contained psyche of media and information channels, nestled into the calm flowers of the garden. Visit gorockford.com/things-to-do/public-art for maps of other art in Rockford! @gorockford @rockfordparkdistrict

May 29, 2020

Hello all! Today will be our final weekly Family Art Fun Day but don’t worry- all the previous weeks are archived and we’ll be popping back into our feed occasionally to share projects! Let’s make cloud dough today!https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=933849833741797Materials:Lotion or conditioner (nothing fancy); Cornstarch; Food coloringOptional for less mess: Gloves and Wax paperInstructions:Add 1/2 cup lotion or conditioner to a bowlMix in food coloring for fun colored doughAdd in 1 cup of cornstarch, slowly mixing until combinedKnead combination on table until it becomes dough-like (Wax paper can help keep dough from sticking to table)Wear gloves to avoid stained hands (although food coloring comes off with dish soap)If dough it still too sticky, slowly add more cornstarch until firm (be careful not to add too much as dough will start to crumble)Repeat steps for additional colors!Create and share with us on Facebook or Instagram @Rockfordart**Storage: Keep dough in airtight containers. If dough dries out, knead in a small amount of lotion/conditioner until workable.**Inspired by thebestideasforkids.com

May 29, 2020

Kerry James Marshall (American, b. 1955)relief prints on paper, ed. 3/5Gift of Friends of Rockford Art Museum with Illinois Arts Council Partners in Purchase GrantKerry James Marshall uses painting, sculptural installations, collage, video, and photography to comment on the history of black identity both in the United States and in Western art. He is well known for paintings that focus on black subjects historically excluded from the artistic canon, and has explored issues of race and history through imagery ranging from abstraction to comics. Marshall said in a 2012 interview with ‘Art + Auction’ that “it is possible to transcend what is perceived to be the limitations of a race-conscious kind of work. It is a limitation only if you accept someone else’s foreclosure from the outside. If you plumb the depths yourself, you can exercise a good deal of creative flexibility. You are limited only by your ability to imagine possibilities.” Marshall was born in Alabama in 1955, and grew up in Watts, Los Angeles. He is a 1978 graduate of the Otis College of Art and Design and currently lives and works in Chicago. In his PBS Art21 special Marshall said, “You can’t be born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955, and grow up in South Central [Los Angeles] near the Black Panthers headquarters, and not feel like you’ve got some kind of social responsibility. You can’t move to Watts in 1963 and not speak about it. That determined a lot of where my work was going to go.” Marshall has work in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is the recipient of several awards, grants and fellowships including the MacArthur Genius grant in 1997. Jack Shainman Gallery has represented him since 1993.—jackshainman.com @kerryjamesmarshs #kerryjamesmarshall @ Rockford Art Museum

May 28, 2020

Today’s Permanent Collection spotlight features “Hall of Mirrors” by Gladys Nilsson (American, b. 1940). The piece was a gift of Francis and June Spiezer.“Gladys Nilsson has been a lifelong devotee of the Art Institute of Chicago. She attended children’s art classes at the museum, studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for college, and has taught at the school for over 25 years. While in college, she met and married Jim Nutt. Soon after graduation, Nilsson joined forces with five other recent graduates of the School of the Art Institute to form the Hairy Who in 1965. The six artists—Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Suellen Rocca, and Karl Wirsum—decided that the best way to find success was to exhibit their work together, and as the Hairy Who they began mounting unconventional displays of bright, bold graphic work in the mid-1960s. Over a period of four years they transformed the art landscape of Chicago, injecting their new and unique voices into the city’s rising national and international profile.Nilsson is exceptionally prolific. During the Hairy Who era, she made new works for each exhibition rather than repurposing work across shows—perhaps because so many of her works sold immediately. Nilsson received critical recognition early on as well: she is the only artist to have ever won first prize two years in a row in the Art Institute’s Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity (in 1967 and 1968). The joy Nilsson derives from observation lies at the heart of her practice. Her playful, mischievous figurative tableaux express her sense of humor and boundless curiosity. These figures engage in disguise, voyeurism, and a complex web of interactions. Nilsson primarily works in watercolor, but she uses pencil underdrawing as a guide as she paints. Although these drawings are hidden under layers of colorful transparent washes, they give the paintings their crisp definition. Nilsson also exhibits a thorough command of collage; the scale shifts and layering of figures in her compositions create an organized chaos unlike that found in any other Hairy Who work. A 2018 exhibition at the Art Institute—the first-ever major survey dedicated solely to the Hairy Who—explored how the group’s distinct aesthetic transformed the art landscape of Chicago.” Art Institute of Chicago, artic.eduNilsson was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1958 to 1962, and later taught there for more than 25 years. Learn more at garthgreenan.com.

May 28, 2020

This beautiful piece was created by local artist Tom Mchale for our 2018 Rockford Midwestern Biennial. Deadline to apply for the juried 2020 Biennial is only a few weeks away and is open to any midwestern artist to submit work created in the past two years. Visit rockfordartmuseum.org for details! @tommchale1949 #midwesternart #midwesternartist #midwestartist #midwestart

May 27, 2020

For this week’s Family Art Fun Day we’re making Cloud Dough! Gather your supplies and meet us back here around 10 on Friday for the instructions! You’ll need: lotion or conditioner (nothing fancy), cornstarch and food coloring. For less mess you can have wax paper and gloves on hand too.

May 27, 2020

For each feature exhibition we create a Family Activity Guide to help young guests and their parents experience the galleries by facilitating conversation and exploration. While the galleries remain closed, we do have videos of "Sonic Disruptions: Derrick Buisch and Laurie Hogin" as well as the taxidermy exhibition on loan from Burpee Museum of Natural History (both of which are addressed in the activities guide). Visit our YouTube channel to explore these exhibitions virtually: https://www.youtube.com/c…/UCe3cbJWmxUeLmPXdanmNnJA/featured.https://issuu.com/rockfordartmuseum/docs/family-activity-guide_galleries

May 26, 2020

Happy Memorial Day! Today we spotlight this Patriotic piece by Reverend Benjamin (B.F.) Perkins, part of the RAM Permanent Collection.Benjamin F. Perkins (American, 1904–1993)‘Untitled,’ 1990paint on Masonite with frameCollection of Rockford Art Museum, IllinoisGift of Diane and John BalsleyPoor Alabama farm boy, underage Merchant Marine, U.S. Marine and Presidential bodyguard, FBI agent, revival tent minister, celebrated American folk artist. All are chapters in the remarkable life of Benjamin Franklin “B.F.” Perkins. One of 18 children, his upbringing in rural Alabama involved more work than formal education. Perkins attended a one-room school for two months each year, with the rest of the year spent working with his father in farming and lumbering. Hard circumstances and his own hardworking nature took him through Alabama and Florida, picking fruit and cotton and working in coal mines. At 15, lying about his age, he joined the Merchant Marines and began to travel the world. Perkins joined the Unites States Marine Corps at age 17 and served on the security detail protecting President Calvin Coolidge. At 23, after working for the FBI for two years, he experienced a profound religious calling and followed it to become an evangelical preacher with the Church of God. Eventually Perkins returned to Alabama, settling near his hometown, and sought to establish a new Church of God congregation by building his own church. This very personal and spiritual construction project seems to have served as the inspiration for the artistic melding and expression of Perkins’s fundamental beliefs in the spiritual nature of man and his nation. His handmade church, constructed of simple building materials, was painted in red, white and blue motifs with decorated gourds adorning the walls and featured an entrance that was a replica of Christ’s tomb, with its door open for his congregants’ salvation. Gradually, Perkins continued to develop the use of art to communicate his religious and patriotic principles, often blending the two together. While continuing his ministry, he became a prolific painter. Perkins developed a rich array of visual motifs, including the American flag, the tablets of the Ten Commandments, depictions of his church, and, of course, the Statue of Liberty. He became part of a deep Southern tradition which includes others such as Howard Finster, who sought to use art as a means of expressing highly personal religious beliefs. Perkins’s rich use of text is part of this tradition, where the words of the sermon and the images of the painting become one. He continued his energetic life as a preacher and artist well into his 80s. Although his church was abandoned after his death, Perkins’s art has carried on his legacy and is highly sought after and collected by lovers of Southern folk art. His truth is marching on.—‪intuitiveeye.org

May 25, 2020

In the recent episode of “At Home with the Curator” RAM Executive Director/Curator Carrie Johnson shared her piece by Jeanne Ludeke. In order: “Hello” from Carrie’s personal collection; “Save Kathy’s” purchased in 2016 with funding from the Dean Alan Olson Foundation as part of the 2016 Rockford Midwestern Biennial and finally “P & P” juried into the 2018 Rockford Midwestern Biennial. @ Rockford Art Museum

May 23, 2020

At Home with the Curator- We present another installment in a series of peeks into our Executive Director/Curator Carrie Johnson’s personal collection! Today Carrie shares her piece from Jeanne Ludeke. (Look for the post with the piece from RAMs Permanent Collection and a more detailed look at Carrie’s piece coming soon!)https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1929232774042110

May 23, 2020

Today for Family Art Fun Day we’re making Eagle cards in honor of Memorial Day!https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1232901527101504 You’ll need:Colored paper, Scissors, Glue, PencilOptional: Googly eye, Eagle Shape template at simpleeverydaymom.com/heres-your-free-eagle-craft-template (subscribe to their mailing list for more craft ideas!)Instructions:Trace handprints onto brown paper and cut outFold a second piece of brown paper in half and keep fold at "top" of bodyDraw, or trace using template, each section of the eagle- Draw body from folded to open edges and cut out (this creates your card)- Draw tail feathers (you can use the body as a size guide) and cut out- On white paper, draw and cut out the eagle's head (you can use the body as a size guide)- On yellow paper, draw and cut out claws and a beak (you can use the body/head as size guides)Glue pieces into place- handprints behind the body- tail feathers on the bottom of the eagle- two claws to the base of the body, where the tail feathers and body meet- head to the top of the body (where the folded edge is)- glue the beak to the edge of the head so half is hanging off the headDraw or glue one eye on the head to the left of the beak.Write a message inside and share with your friends or family. Share your creation with us too on Facebook or Instagram @RockfordartInspiration: simpleeverydaymom.com

May 22, 2020

Derrick Buisch is a featured artist in our current exhibition “Sonic Disruptions”. Of his work he stated: “As a self-described ‘Painter’ I consistently seek out new ways to experiment within the narrow avenues of paint on canvas. Certain marks, signs, scribbles, gestures are repeated by means of projection, stencils, and transfers. A vocabulary of visual chatter celebrates the distortions, interruptions, and interference within the painted surface. These works are very straightforward, taking on subjects like imaginary monsters and fantastic buildings. The blunt, naïve nature of the subjects serves as an easy foil/mask, allowing for a range of rich experimentation with paint chemistry, color, installations, and scale. The physical properties of the medium are constantly stressed, questioned, tweaked, and recalibrated to keep the working visual vocabulary fresh and inventive.I focus on abstract painting informed by ordinary, everyday visual information. My original fascination with ideograms transitioned into a more automatic, abstract painting vocabulary. These paintings involve the investigation of three specific properties: drawing, structure, and color. Inspirations for these works come from a variety of pedestrian sources, such as roadside signs, strip malls, graffiti, tattoos, and product symbols.The color points to a range of materials, from the synthetic (plastic, bubblegum, crayons) to the natural (old walls, shallow pools of water, flesh), as well as exerting a physical presence, one that is mouth-watering and sensuous. The surfaces vary in types of paint application employed, revealing the element of time involved in making the painting. These paintings are developed at different rates, incorporating varying degrees of pigment and oil. Subtle changes in color and surface tone evoke compressed shifts in the visual space. The differences in paint viscosity are subtle and precise and extremely important in differentiating each painting. Ultimately, the surfaces of these paintings are luscious and mysterious.” Revisit his gallery walk from opening night on our app! (Available in the App Store or at app.cuseum.com/rockford-art-museum) @ Rockford Art Museum

May 21, 2020

Did you see this gorgeous documentary film created by Go Rockford and Grahamspencer about the CRE8IV: community-wide mural project? Well, in case you missed it, here it is! (And luckily you can TOTALLY socially-distance and stay safe while enjoying these outdoor murals so go see them for yourself!)https://www.facebook.com/rockfordartmuseum/posts/4120606157979782?__tn__=-R

May 20, 2020

We’re making these fun eagles on Friday for Family Art Fun Day! Gather your supplies and join us here for the instruction around 10 Friday. Materials: colored paper, scissors, glue, pencils (googles eyes optional). You can reference the eagle template by visiting simpleeverydaymom.com/heres-your-free-eagle-craft-template/

May 20, 2020

The 2020 Rockford Midwestern Biennial will open at RAM on October 9th. We are now accepting artist applications for the juried exhibition— visit rockfordartmuseum.org/exhibition/next to apply. This piece, created by Victoria Bein, was juried into our 2018 Rockford Midwestern Biennial.#midwesternartist #midwestartist #midwestart

May 19, 2020