Art Exhibit: "Mark Making With Piccolo"

The Oak Park Public Library is pleased to host this group exhibition featuring advanced art students taught by local artist Jesse Howard at the Oak Park Art League.

This exhibition reflects and illustrates the diversity of advanced art students who understand the complexity and challenges of mark making as well as the fundamentals and process of making art. The students function as an eclectic body addressing various social issues, spellbinding still life, and dynamic portraitures of family members.

Meet the artists at a reception held in the Main Library Art Gallery on Saturday, December 17, 1-3 pm »

More about Mark Making With Piccolo

Mark making refers to "the different lines, dots, marks, patterns, and textures that artists use" (see more from Tate Modern), and piccolo refers to a pop of color or an item that stands out in a composition.

As instructor Jesse Howard explains, a "piccolo brings magic to the orchestra," no matter how loud or robust the other instruments are.

"Music without a piccolo becomes somewhat monochromatic," he says. "Visual art composition functions somewhat the same way. The objects in the composition are good; however, it lacks a magical flare that is hard to explain. A particular color or item that stands out in the composition—the picture cannot work without it! That’s your piccolo!"

The students' artwork in this exhibit consists of lines often found in contemporary graphics, working with gray and black washes, suggesting ancient stone. Their figures are often solitary and distorted. Overall, their work speaks of landscape, still life, and the disenfranchised.

More about Jesse Howard

Learn more about Oak Park artist Jesse Howard at his website. 

See Howard's piece Rennie in Rhapsody in the library's permanent art collection, and hear him speak as one of the library's six artists "In Conversation."