Sacred Art
4619 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 728-2803
email: general inquiries
email: submit art

Paintings Galleries

Anastasia Makarenko : Anastasia Mak (Makarenko) was born and raised in the Ukraine. She moved to the United States on her own at the age of 14. Her parents followed her to the US shortly after. Since then Anastasia has lived in St. Louis, Atlanta, Venice (Italy), and most recently, Chicago. Her international experiences provided her with early appreciation for cultural diversity. Now she constantly strives to expand her knowledge of the word through travel. Her past explorations, various forms of art, old architecture, as well as curiosity about unfamiliar places influence her work. Anastasia’s biggest indirect influence is international music and jazz, which she always listens to while painting. Mixing natural and surreal elements with distinguishable buildings, cities, and landscapes, Anastasia developed her own genre: “Organic Contemporary.” Organic refers to the style of her brush strokes – a lot of blending, and soft, curved lines. Her oil paintings are saturated with color and texture, and appear to be breathing. The main subject matter of Anastasia’s works is world destinations – canals of Venice and Amsterdam, peaks of Barcelona, reds of Moscow – painted in a dream-like manner. Anastasia Mak has a broad group of collectors, ranging from college students to corporate executives. “To me, making art is both challenging and entertaining,” says she. “I enjoy passing great pleasure I feel from creating paintings to those who acquire them. My art exists to fulfill souls and relieve stress. While the actual process of painting is driven by my experiences and imagination, I let the audience find their own life force in my work – be it happy, nostalgic, mysterious, or purely decorative.”

Anastasia Makarenko

Anastasia Mak (Makarenko) was born and raised in the Ukraine. She move ...

Updated: Jun 28, 2009 2:46pm PST

Beth Pearlman : Beth Pearlman has been an artist since she was wee. Her unstoppable, natural compulsion to create, led her to art school in Chicago, and eventually to her windows. Though trained in digital arts (3D modeling, animation, and motion graphics), she prefers the messy reality of paint, pencil and charcoal, usually smeared on her forehead, elbows, and knees. Beth began recycling vintage windows 6 years ago. Her first window was stumbled upon in an alley in Logan Square, and she painted a fish on it. Her colorful, layered use of acrylic paint on glass, brings forth many absurd scenes with animals, as well as landscapes, cityscapes, and dripping abstractions. Beth has sold her windows at Sacred Art since it's opening in 2006 in Roscoe Village. She especially enjoys suggestions for commissioned pieces, working with clients to create a window painting perfectly suited to their style. As the city goes green, Beth hopes to keep these pieces of architectural history hanging for another 100 years.

Beth Pearlman

Beth Pearlman has been an artist since she was wee. Her unstoppable, ...

Updated: Sep 09, 2009 3:19pm PST

BJ : Bio Comming Soon.

BJ

Bio Comming Soon.

Updated: Aug 29, 2009 4:04pm PST

Christina Body : "My art is my response to the environment; I have to put it on canvas. Making a painting enables me to have another experience with the world; heightening my senses and appreciating the moment once again. I seek adventure everyday; even in the mundane. Whether traveling or home, in Chicago, I am always tuned in to my surroundings. There is a richness in nature and the built world that stimulates me. “ The adventure, the challenge, the process; are all reasons why Christina Body is compelled to paint. At an early age, Christina had two strong influences; art and unconventional sports. Her Great Uncle and First Uncle were two of many creative family members whom she spent much time with growing up. She experienced first hand the passion and joy that came from making charcoal drawings, watercolor and oil paintings, sumi ink drawings and woodcarvings. Her Uncles were her first inspiration to make art from personal experiences and to open her mind to imagine. These experiences planted the seed that would lead Christina on a life long journey to find the art in herself. Swimming, sailing or scuba diving; hiking, mountain biking, motorcycling or snow boarding are all sports Christina learned as a young girl and continues to participate in. Her enthusiasm to seek out adventure sports gave her the opportunity to swim with sharks, sail the Mackinaw Island Yacht race, hike the Appalachian Trail, snow board glaciers and cross country tour, with her father or husband, on two wheels. It's these experiences that have heightened her appreciation for nature and the built world; in turn sharpening her sensitivity to see, feel, hear, smell, taste and ultimately make art. Christina’s formal training as an artist began when she received an art and athletic scholarship to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Graduating with a BFA in painting and two minors; theatre-set design and photography, she continued her career as an artist and athlete. Christina continues to explore the world with a paint box at hand. Most of her work is painted en plein air and when not painting outdoors she’s making paintings in her studio. She has traveled for private commissions to Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan, Hilton Head, Jamaica and Key West, Florida. For three consecutive years, Christina was a selected artist for The Hubbard Street Mural Project, in Chicago, where she designed four murals, mentored teens, and painted three exterior 12’ x 12’ murals on the Union Pacific Railroad embankment at Hubbard and Racine St.. She has painted numerous public and private large scale murals in Chicago and surrounding suburbs and she is an art instructor at Concordia Avondale Campus. Christina’s work is represented in public and private collections throughout the United States and Mexico. She exhibits her work in galleries and juried exhibitions nationally. Christina resides in Chicago with her husband Jake Goldberg and son Emil.

Christina Body

"My art is my response to the environment; I have to put it on canvas. ...

Updated: Sep 06, 2009 9:56am PST

Christine Olson : Christine Olson is an abstract painter living in Chicago. She started creating art at the same time most children gather Crayolas and chalk pieces to manipulate walls, paper, floors, sidewalks and clothing. As she grew older, a colorful style and a refined freedom emerged in her work. Olson builds up the story and composition in her mind and then escapes into a world of color by the time the brush reaches the canvas. A graduate of the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Olson obtained a Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Children’s Book Illustration in 1997. She spent many hours of her studio time working under renowned Illustrator, Kazu Sano. Sano helped her understand and develop her skills with acrylic paint and encouraged her to be free with a brush. This training in Illustration underpins Olson’s abstract works, as she employs the sophisticated principles of design and perspective.

Christine Olson

Christine Olson is an abstract painter living in Chicago. She started ...

Updated: Aug 30, 2007 3:59pm PST

Emily Lincoln : My style is centered upon tightly cropped objects, color relationships, and the presence of light. As I paint familiar objects into two-dimensional form, my style comes through by paying attention to the relationships between shapes, shadows, and light. These qualities all help me to translate familiar objects into interesting and successful compositions. My work in photography has given me a better understanding of lighting effects, angle of view, and cropping. I like my objects to look tightly framed and seem as though the viewer has caught them in an unexpected moment of light and angle of view. This tension of lighting often gives a dark moody personality to my painting. I select my objects for their shape and color potential. The objects I use are fairly simple in shape. The shapes become more complex by the variations of color used to render the light that is cast on the objects. Light is the most important element in my work. I use light from one source to give clear shadows and to activate the object's surface. I begin to "see" a full spectrum of color that when rendered, even on the most neutral object, makes the color more complex. As I am painting I try to capture the light in moments of color that will surprise the viewer. I find these moments by paying close attention to the light that has activated the surface of each object and is reflected between the objects. As the objects begin to develop, I lose the detailed rendering of my sketches. My loose movement of paint across the surface allows me to edit what I consider to be unimportant and enhance what is left with light, color, and brushwork.

Emily Lincoln

My style is centered upon tightly cropped objects, color relationships ...

Updated: Aug 30, 2009 10:35am PST

Jeremy Sportel : Jeremy Sportel - Artist Statement I generally focus my work on color composition and balance while leaving my work untitled allowing the audience to obtain their own personal thoughts without any word association. I am very much inspired by the city’s unfavored places like an abandoned defaced property or just old oxidized signage. For the most part I work with acrylic paints on canvas finishing them with a polyurethane clearcoat. Biography I was born and lived 17 years in Michigan before relocating to Chicago in 1999. I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago and work full-time for an advertising agency. I have been acknowledged by Graphic Design USA magazine for work I have done affiliated with JSPOVC.

Jeremy Sportel

Jeremy Sportel - Artist Statement I generally focus my work on colo ...

Updated: Jun 14, 2009 11:58am PST

Joe Smigielski : God's process of creation is an ongoing thing. It never ceases. Painting is simply an extension of this process. The purpose of my paintings is to inspire viewers to remember their true essence and divine connections. Painting is my meditative prayer. When painting, I empty myself, and allow the painting to flow through me. I put aside fear, and desire, and surrender to the process. I trust that a higher power is leading the way. The resulting paintings are landscapes of a sort. They are less a representation of earth, and more and invitation to lift the viewer from the ordinary and mundane, to a higher place. Ground, sky, structures, and th eliving things that populate the place begin to disolve. Edges soften. Echoeing patterns, and rythymic colors relax the mind. The vibration of color raises the spirit. So much art of recent decades has been concerned with the reporting on the condition of life on earth. Art has become largely an intellectual exercise. I aim to look beyond the reporting, and assist in the healing. My goal is to aid in a universal human longing, which is to bridge the gap between matter and spirit. My paintings have nothing to say to you. They simply invite you to melt a bit, and remember the connectionyou have to you own soul. The painting is a portal, in which nature, humankind, and God become one.

Joe Smigielski

God's process of creation is an ongoing thing. It never ceases. Pain ...

Updated: Oct 11, 2009 10:11am PST

Jori Foreman : My paintings are in constant metamorphoses through the addition and subtraction of layers. I pay close attention to little yet lovely happenings. These little paint blob islands that you see in my most recent works are composed first on my palette, allowed to harden, then scraped off and applied to the canvas. The lines that surround them are simply shape defining but also provide a meditative practice for me. I gain visual inspiration from Laura Owens’ invented topography, Van Gogh’s brilliant action-packed brush marks, Jackie Tileston’s amazing invented landscapes, and the beautiful appliqués and decorative flare of Beatriz Milhazes. ---Bio--- Jori Foreman is a native of the Chicago area. She received her BFA in painting from the University of Iowa in 2005. Since graduating and moving to Chicago, she has exhibited her artwork in a number of local shops, restaurants and bars. Jori is also the recent founder of the local artist collective Neighborhood Artists in Logan Square (N.A.I.L.S). The main objectives are to provide a forum for local artists to exchange ideas, to have a support network and to host group shows. In addition to her art life, Jori is a licensed Realtor as well as a promotional items distributor. She resides in Logan Square with her two rabbits Lucy and Oliver

Jori Foreman

My paintings are in constant metamorphoses through the addition and su ...

Updated: Aug 29, 2009 3:42pm PST

Steve Slaske : Steve Slaske creates beautiful watercolor paintings of cityscapes. Take a look through the photos to see examples of his work.

Steve Slaske

Steve Slaske creates beautiful watercolor paintings of cityscapes. Tak ...

Updated: Oct 14, 2009 11:57am PST

Liesl Lavery : Liesl Lavery’s whimsical pop art style is a big hit with young art critics who frequent Sacred Art gallery. Her fun, brightly-colored animal themes are known to put smiles on faces- - and even inspire silly noises from passers-by. Oinking, mooing, barking, buzzing, meowing, and a few random giggles and snorts have been heard coming from pipsqueak enthusiasts (and more than a few grown-ups)! Liesl is a Chicago-based artist, illustrator, and muralist living in Edgewater.

Liesl Lavery

Liesl Lavery’s whimsical pop art style is a big hit with young art c ...

Updated: Aug 30, 2007 4:07pm PST

Liz Martino : Midwest born and raised. College degreed. No formal art training. Fascinated by rough textures earth colors and elements, aged surfaces, urban graffiti, and calligraphy. Somehow, it all translates into what goes onto canvas. Some paintings are testy and stubborn. Some are nice and just paint themselves. Ultimately, it is the love of the process.

Liz Martino

Midwest born and raised. College degreed. No formal art training. Fas ...

Updated: Aug 29, 2009 4:02pm PST

Loren Morris : Loren Morris Coming from a diverse background, Loren was born in Nuremberg, Germany and moved to the United States as a child. After growing up in the south/southwest, he was awarded one of two Petree Art Scholarships and attended a nationally accredited fine arts school, earning his B.F.A. , specializing in acrylic painting. Upon graduation, he moved to Chicago. He currently resides in the West Loop loft district where he works as an established contemporary artist and has been a top seller in many area galleries and unique spaces. The consistency in Loren's artwork is derived from an obsession with shape, color, and the beauty of simplicity in design. Many of his pieces represent the subject of interior space and the objects that surround us on a daily basis, which are presented in a unique way. This intuitive approach creates a myriad of colors and images which hearkens emotion while also being recognizable and accessible, making his works a perfect fit for any living space.

Loren Morris

Loren Morris Coming from a diverse background, Loren was born in Nu ...

Updated: Jun 27, 2008 3:35pm PST

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