Sculpture Garden | Margie Glass Sula: Dwell | November 13, 2022 - March 10, 2023
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 13, 2022, 3:00-6:00 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, February 11, 2023, 2:00 PM
Exhibition Dates: November 13, 2022 - March 10, 2023
On View: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 1:00 - 5:00 PM
Curated by Joanne Aono
Autumn Forms, found branches and wire
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Dwell, an outdoor art installation by Margie Glass Sula in our sculpture garden.
When I am among the trees
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks, and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
-- Mary Oliver
The massive old Elm tree that dominated gloriously over the Riverside Arts Center’s sculpture garden succumbed to Dutch Elm disease and had to be cut down this past summer. Once removed, a vast openness was revealed creating a less-private enclosure to those of us accustomed to the old tree’s embrace. Contrary to mourning, the Elm’s absence now floods the area with sunlight, enabling the understory of other trees to grow, thus providing hopeful expectations.
Margie Glass Sula’s installation of sculptures made from fallen tree branches pays homage to trees. She resurrects her materials into large forms intertwined into vessel-like shapes. The formerly outstretched branches are bent and wrapped, cradling open space and forming dwellings for the errant leaves, rain, snow, and creatures that may encounter the sculpture over time. She describes the open weave of the branches as “visual spaces that speak to the ideas of vulnerability and connection.”
The artworks will be installed in the sculpture garden from the fall into the winter seasons, allowing interaction with nature. Glass Sula employs the elements of change and decay into her art, permitting us to witness her sculptures in relation to the environment. As the leaves fall from the trees and the cold of winter draws near, we often think of staying inside, with little interest in nature’s hibernations. Glass Sula’s installation beckons one to notice the interplay between space, form, the environment, and nature, and to “stay awhile.”
—Joanne Aono
Margie Glass Sula is an interdisciplinary artist whose sculptures and paintings are based upon natural processes and materials. Recent solo exhibitions in Illinois include Gretchen Charlton Art Gallery, the Dorothea Thiel Gallery, South Suburban College, Cultivator Art Projects, and Brushwoods Center for the Arts. Her art has been included in group exhibitions, notably at Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois; Robert Morris State Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; Landers Center of Arts, Landers, Wyoming; the Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina; and the Tall Grass Arts Association, Park Forest, Illinois. Glass Sula’s art has been published by the National Women’s Caucus for Art and Koehnline Museum of Art. Her art is held in numerous public and private collections. She received her M.A. from Governors State University in Studio Arts. Currently she is the resident artist for Trailheads Wellness at Standing Tall Reserve, Illinois and an Adjunct Professor of Fine Art at Joliet Junior College.