“The ladies of Springfield gave a grand Tableaux last week for the benefit of the Soldiers Aid Society,” Mercy Conkling wrote to her son in 1862. “It was a brilliant affair.  Mr]]> Springfield artist and mural painter Mike Mayosky is always working on and promoting something. Our colorful local artist has something very big that he is promoting right now. He has entered the ArtP]]> Fred Jarosz is a talker. To meet him, the executive director of the Hoogland Center for the Arts, and ask him about the health of the arts in Springfield is to be taken on a whirlwind aural tour of bo]]> L. Brent Kington, professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, is widely regarded as the father of blacksmithing as an art form. The Illinois State Museum is hosting a retrospecti]]> The Springfield Art Association has an interesting new exhibit planned to open Friday, Jan. 4, that includes images and stories of local people. The Stories Behind the Faces, features a combination of]]> Last month Bob Waldmire made public what he has known for some time – that he has colon cancer and he probably won’t live much longer. Last Sunday, Nov. 22, “Bob’s Last Art Sho]]> The Rev. Howard Finster produced more than 46,000 pieces of art before he died at age 84 in 2001. He was a man possessed, not by demons, but by the need to create art. He was a self-proclaimed “]]> Seen through a camera lens is a world of extremes.Extreme poverty, disease and death. And then there’s the love, hope and courage it takes to remedy them.These are displayed through the images o]]> In Detroit, it’s called the social. In Dallas, it’s called the swing. But in the Land of Lincoln, it’s called stepping. From 9 p.m.-3 a.m. on Nov. 22 at the American Legion #809, 18]]> Paris, Florence, Berlin, Rome, New York, Athens – when famed art-related cities of the world come up in conversation, Springfield, Ill., is not generally on the list. That’s not likely to ]]> As a tide of "getting back to our roots" sweeps the country, woodcarving is gaining in popularity. The phenomenon will be in evidence this weekend at the 14th annual Sangamon Valley Woodcarvers]]> Why would someone voluntarily undergo several hours of a needle stabbing them several thousand times per minute? The simple answer is for the sake of art, but the long answer is a bit more complicated]]> “I’m glad they’re here, kicking the arts in the butt,” smiles Betsy Dollar, executive director of the Springfield Art Association. She is referring to the organizers and partic]]> “I had a person recently ask me what I do here,” recalls Fred Jarosz, executive director of the Hoogland Center for the Arts. “And I told them, ‘I’m the beggar. I’m]]> “We want this to be a nice opening like you’d find in New York or up in Chicago,” enthuses local artist Andrew Woolbright, describing the debut exhibit this Friday (11.11.11) of The ]]> Morrisonville native Thomas "Thom" Whalen saw a lot of the country before settling down almost where he started. After grad school at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Whalen lived in Kansa]]> “It used to be scary down this way.”Barry Friedman, owner of the Alamo, 115 N. Fifth St., is reminiscing about conditions in downtown Springfield prior to the 2005 opening of the Abraham L]]> Digital cameras that are affordable and easy-to-use, including those cameras and image-sharing apps in our smartphones, have sparked a photo craze. Who could have predicted that so many Americans woul]]> Midway through the filming of Jump In, director Kimberly Conner of Springfield faced a day of personal reckoning.“We were on day five of a 10-day shoot,” she recalls. “My emotions we]]> Carol Watts and Mary Selinski enjoyed a watercolor class together years ago. Neither could have guessed that in 2012-13 they would collaborate on a sizable statewide watercolor exhibit and contest.Car]]>