Five years ago, Dick Clark started taking classes at Studio 211 in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. The Chicago Public Schools teacher, who works with high school students at risk of dropping out, wanted to try something new and be around others his age doing the same thing.
“It’s a different kind of activity,” Clark said. “With practice, it became a way to relax and express myself. I find myself producing things that surprise me.”
More than half the people in Studio 211 do not come from an artistic background, said Jack Lerman, an Evanston artist and retired art teacher who runs the studio with his wife.
“I think the majority of the people there had never picked up a pencil to draw before they retired,” said Lisa Goesling, an artist in residence at the studio and a former student of Lerman’s.
Most people in the studio explore art as a new hobby after leaving a different career. Participants include a lawyer, a psychologist, a social worker and a librarian, Elise Lerman said.
“My degrees are in mathematics, and my work was pretty analytical,” said Barbara Nicholson, who worked in the insurance business for 32 years before coming to the studio two years ago. “So after all that time I wanted to see if the other side of my brain still worked.”
Jack Lerman said adults are motivated by “a yearning to do something they’ve wanted to do,” but are often apprehensive about starting.
“They know you see their work right away,” he said. “They’re so used to being criticized quickly in a negative way that they’re scared stiff.”
Studio 211’s annual exhibition had its opening reception on Sunday at the Noyes Center to display the art of 26 students and five artists in residence.
“They look forward to showing their work, but it has to be a certain quality,” Jack Lerman said. “They have to face reality about how art does work and how exhibitions do reject.”
The pieces cover a range of themes and subjects. Most use charcoal, pen, pastels, and pencil, and depict different interpretations of still lifes set up by the Lermans.
Clark’s charcoal and pastel drawing in the exhibition started with an image of one of the shoes he wears in his classroom, which he called “very stylish and South Side.” He named the drawing “I Ain’t Playing with You,” which he said his students often say when threatening each other.
“I realized I had created my classroom unintentionally (after I finished),” said Clark, who has used what he learned at Studio 211 to teach basic drawing to his students.
The annual exhibition is meant to show off students’ progress, as well as display the work of the professional artists in residence.
“You get to see your own improvement,” Nicholson said. “At least three people sought me out and commented on my work, which I was shocked by. It was kind of gratifying.”
The exhibition will run until Dec. 18 in the Noyes Center’s second-floor gallery.
