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Young Chicago Photographers'
Show Christopher Sykora
Christopher Sykora is finishing his degree in art education and has had several gallery shows in Chicago. Of his work he says: As a future educator my aim is to teach students how to question the world around them, ask what the character of knowledge is, search for the nature of learning, attach meaning to experience and foster personal enlightenment. I have come to understand that the very purpose of education is to help individuals step outside of their own worldview, appreciate the problems that others face, see multiple perspectives, and develop their own solutions after weighing many factors. It has become quite apparent to me that my professional goals are extremely similar to my personal and artistic ones. Art for the sake of art, creating helps me feel human, brings connections that I might have otherwise overlooked, teaches me how to understand the environment surrounding me, and ultimately finding the dialogue within. These are the themes in my most recent works. While images impact my life, words serve as a movement or personal drive. For this reason, quotes hold much value in my actions. Among them are “The Journey is the Destination,” (Dan Eldon), and “Truth is an Event and only through experience can the veracity of a truth be realized,” (Smith). There is no absolute truth in my works, only images, ideas, and events. The content should be determined by the viewer’s own person truth to determine what it means. Art should be visually strong enough to stand on its own before any content can be attributed to it. Therefore, my wish is not to tell you anything about what these images mean to me, at the risk of putting up walls around your personal and visual experience, But to let you think for yourself, and draw your own conclusions. Working with a variety of materials, mostly acrylic paint and photo-collage, I react to photos and use it as my drive. Finding an order to the many thoughts and feelings that run through my brain, attempting to attach meaning, balance and cohesion, while staying aesthetically pleasing, and hopefully making sense of a dialogue within comes at a price. Often the process and result is chaotic, but every now and then an epiphany is grasped. How is it that the imagination distorts reality and vice-versa? Christopher's work can be seen on his website:
www.chrissykora.com Caitlin Stich
Caitlin Stich is an artist art educator. Of her work, Kitchen Series #3, she says: Focusing on a specific element, shape or pattern in an object gives it an entirely new appearance. Breaking these kitchen items down into simplified shapes it changes their visual message giving them a new identity. Caitlin's work can be seen on her website:
www.caitlinstichphotography.com Victor Yanez-Lazcano
Victor graduated from Columbia College with a BFA in photography in 2008. While continuing to pursue his art he teaches an after school photography program for high school children in Pilesn. Victor's work, Over The River, is a series of the drawbridges that cross the Chicago river. Chicago has more drawbridges than any other city in the world, but some of them are falling into disuse and are being demolished. Victor's work can be seen on his website:
www.yanezlazcano.com Lauren Woods
Shot with a 4"x5" view camera Lauren's work explores themes of the memory and idealization of her childhood hometown. Of her work she says:
Directly preceding my teenage years, my parents moved our family from
Milwaukee to a tiny homogenous town in Michigan. The longer I was away
from Milwaukee, the more I idealized the childhood I once knew. Feeling
stifled, and the usual aches of teenage angst, I convinced myself that my
old neighborhood was my true home, a place of golden memories, a utopia
that could not exist. Lauren's work can be seen on her flickr account at www.flickr.com/photos/no-ell
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