#arlene marks

AM: When I did the big Wrigley Field series I dotted the sky for some reason, and then I dotted all the gravel and I liked the way it turned out and from there I went on to do my big heads and I dotted their faces but not what was around them. Then after that I went to the cemetery series and it was all dotted. Riverview was all dotted.

NS: So it just grew into more and more into the whole picture, that pointillism.

AM: But I call it dottism, he was a master. He – Seraut – he would, Sunday in the Park, do hundreds of drawings of different portions, he studied it and he did a lot of preparing and everything he did is a masterpiece, so I just liked is work – he died very young, 32 or something. Since I was not Seurat, I decided to call it dottism, I made up my own word.

NS: I see that you have been in a great number of galleries.

AM: I was only in two galleries and they both closed after I showed there. I was in a lot of shows though.

NS: Do you have any advice for artists who want to go in to galleries.

AM:I would say use the technology because we used to have to send hundreds of slides, but now all they do is use the internet.

NS: How did you pick the shows you were in?

AM: Well there was a heads show, and I had painted Phyllis Bramson, so I sent them a slide and she was in that show. There was a show at Oakton College and I sent them a bunch of my heads and they kept them up for several months and they were up in the lunchroom. I had several shows for my Wrigley Field; three major shows the whole piece. One was at goose Island, one was at the Ukrainian Museum and the other place was the Illinois Department of Transportation in Springfield, which was a big one. They had me on television and in the papers. Then I had twelve paintings on television when the cubs were in the playoffs and they took twelve of my paintings and they put them up in the background and there they were in front of the commentators, who were interviewing famous ball players, it was very exciting, I even went and got their autographs.

NS: You’re currently in a critique group. With women who are all painters? Do you bring paintings?

AM: I have been in that group for 10 years. We help each other a lot. Most of them have had art shows; one of them just opened a gallery in Highland Park.

NS: So these women in your critique; you still learn from each other?

AM:Yes, sometimes you bring something in and you know something is wrong and you think they won’t see it, but it is the first thing they see. At this point, I would bring these in and they would just clap, and that never happens. Because of what I did, and how I did it, they are very proud of me, to all of the sudden start painting again.

NS: It sounds like, to give advice to other artists, to be in an art community or a critique community is very helpful.

AM: It’s wonderful, I look forward to it, and I still go. I had them come here once and we had a critique here.

NS: So tell me about the work you showed today, these are people on the staff?

AM: Yes, today was mostly people on the staff. There is one person who lives here. She is like 99 years old and I did a wonderful painting of her. She was like, “what am I doing here, what is this for”, you know, she is getting forgetful.

NS: You take pictures of these people?

AM: The first 8 I painted I only took pictures of people who lived here. They were 80 years old and up, one was 106. That was my first 8 paintings, and they turned out good. Channel 11 was here, Jay Shefsky and I set that up myself.