If you haven’t checked out the new artwork in Prairie Lodge, here is some encouragement to do so.
Seventeen new paintings adorn walls, corridors and staircases in the lodge. Their display is phase III of a multi-phase upgrade of the building’s furniture, carpeting, wall painting, and art.
Laurel Sroka’s painting of the aftermath of a storm hangs in the fitness center’s entrance. Sroka’s painting is one of many works by Sun City residents now lining Prairie Lodge’s walls. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
The project took nearly two years to complete, and it also includes extensive renovations to the former Computer Club lab (now a general meeting room), and the Card, or Multi-Purpose, Room. The artwork phase combines the efforts of the association board of directors, the facility advisory committee, the Pencil & Palette Club, and Elgin artist Kathleen Eaton. Coordinating the selection and display of the various paintings was KDI Design Inc., a Geneva-based interior design firm.
The Pencil & Palette club is a group of artists that has formed into a charter club. Members meet regularly in the art room in Prairie Lodge to conduct workshops and share their talents ands interests in art. The club’s mission is to “nurture the artist at all levels – hobbyist, beginner, intermediate, and advanced, in a social environment.”
One of the club’s members is Laurel Sroka, who is someone you should know. Her abstract rendition of the aftermath of a storm, with metallic textures, hangs on the wall of the fitness center entrance, next to the elevator. It is visible as you walk by the center’s lobby along the lodge’s main concourse. There were more than a dozen paintings submitted by P&P club members for this upgrade project. Laurel’s was the only club submission chosen.
The three cityscapes on the Fountain View atrium wall above the staircase leading to the office complex were done by Eaton, an Elgin artist who is a friend of club member Judy Vander Meer. Eaton’s works were recommended by Vander Meer, and accepted by KDI. KDI was paid a fee of $4,600 for its coordination of the selection process. Vander Meer and fellow P&P club members Rich Grusdis, Joe Nitti, and Marilyn Schnake, served on a club advisory committee that initially solicited artwork from club members, Sun City artists, and Huntley-area artists for this project.
According to the club’s committee members, there was some discussion early on about making the project a display by club members, but eventually the association and KDI decided to select a mixture of works from local artists and purchase commercial art pieces.
One of the club’s committee members said, “There were and are some differences of opinion about the selections, but this is natural in the subjective world of art.”
In addition to Sroka’s and Eaton’s works, other pieces are displayed in the main lodge concourse near the card room and between the Fitness and Wellness Centers, and in the corridor next to Drendel Ballroom. But it was Sroka’s unusual background that captured the attention of the Sun Day. An initial conversation about her “after the storm” submission quickly expanded to her artistic story.
“I started painting about 16 years ago, in about 1999 or 2000,” she said. “I hadn’t done any painting at all before then, but I’m a ‘try anything at least once’ kind of person, so I went with a friend to an art class out of curiosity. I was hooked right away, and I started going to workshops, classes, and demonstrations to learn more.
She took a Nike-like “just do it” approach and just began putting brush to paper and canvas.
“Painting has opened up a whole new world for me, fairly late in my life,” she said. “I like the challenge of learning and stretching my abilities in a new way I have tried all mediums of art but I mostly do oils and acrylics now. I have gone to workshops all over the Chicago area to learn from established artists, and I have taken classes at McHenry County College, College of Lake County, and various art guilds in the area. Art is now my passion, and sometimes I totally lose track of time when I’m painting. One time, my husband (Terry), came up and asked me when we could eat, and I realized it was past dinnertime. I have studied under such area artists as Johanna Gullick, and Tom Trausch, and I have sold some paintings and had them displayed in galleries, particularly one in Woodstock. I have met a lot of wonderful people in the art field, which adds to my enjoyment,” she concluded.
Clearly, for Sroka, finding art was a brush with fate.
“Since I came to Sun City in 2004, I have come to believe one thing that serves as a kind of motto for my life now: If you can’t stand up and paint, you can sit down and do it until your final days.”
