ASIAN PERSUASION Illinois has gently rolling fields and vast unkempt
places. Japan has towering mountains and meticulously manicured gardens.
But when Springfield photographer Gale Myers looks through her lens, they don’t seem all
that different. This week Myers, manager of the Prairie House
Gallery, embarks on her third trip to Japan, a three-week outing for the
opening of her photography exhibit at the Ashikaga Institute of Technology.
The exhibit consists of 20 photographs, 10 taken in Illinois and 10 in
Japan. The exhibit connects the two through ideas, colors, and shapes. “At first glance, there are no
similarities,” Myers says. “Everything is switched around. But
after you get to know people, the families are just like our families. Once
you boil it down, people are similar to each other.” Myers says she was never particularly interested in
Japan until her daughter, Quinne, wanted to take a summer Japanese language course at the
University of Illinois at Springfield being taught by Toshi Maeda, an
Ashikaga native. Myers decided that if she was going to drive her
14-year-old daughter to the university, she might as well stay and take the
course herself. “I just kept going,” Myers says.
“[Quinne’s] off doing something else, and I’m still
taking classes.” Myers met a professor in Ashikaga on one of her trips
and inquired about exhibiting her photography. He later e-mailed and
offered her a spot in the showroom of the university, in downtown Ashikaga.
“I was thrilled to death,” Myers says. It took about a month
for Myers to select the photos. Among the 10 pairs for the exhibit, two photographs
display the difference between manhole covers in Japan and Illinois; many
of the Japanese covers carry intricate floral designs. Another match
consists of a statue of the great Illinois thinker Abraham Lincoln with a
reproduction of Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” that sits
in front of the auditorium of a Japanese textile company. A photo of
children flying kites at Springfield’s Centennial Park sledding hill
is paired with one of Myers’ favorite photo, a young girl playing
with a ball outside a sports complex in Japan. — Marissa Monson
AND THE FINALISTS ARE . . . Staff writer Dusty
Rhodes is a finalist in the columnist category
of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ annual editorial
contest. Rhodes was recognized for dinging a drunk cop, musing about a
former librarian accused of theft, and giving a written ovation to SPD Sgt.
Matt Fricke. Also named a finalist is freelancer Matthew Brown of Brooklyn for his
photographs of Springfield’s South Town neighborhood, published in
the Sept. 8 edition. Brown previously worked in Springfield as an intern at
the State Journal-Register. AAN is a national trade organization that represents newspapers
such as the Village Voice, the Chicago Reader, and LA Weekly.
This article appears in Jun 1-7, 2006.
