La Grange’s 28th Annual West End Art Fair drew more than 70 artists to the historic Stone Avenue Train Station Saturday and Sunday for one of the most respected juried art fairs in the Chicago area.
“This is one of the biggest art fairs the La Grange Business Association has had,” said Cathy Domanico, executive director of the organization, which sponsored the event along with several area businesses.
Music from bands including the Reginald Lewis Quartet, Stone Cats, Wesley Morgan and his quartet and Bad Ass Gumbo performed throughout the weekend while area restaurants Antonino’s Ristorante, Brothers Mexican Grill, Chills Italian Ice and The Elm served up meals and treats. Milk Money Brewery cooked up a special wheat beer for the Art Fair called Georgia O’Peach.
Oak Park resident Andrew Sechin, whose art medium is acrylics, won the award for Best in Show.
“I have a number of first places, but for Best in Show, this is the first time,” he said Sunday sitting outside his booth in the light rain.
Sechin participates in 14 to 18 shows yearly, mostly in Illinois, with the La Grange Art Fair being his last one of this season.
“I was a creative director for a design agency,” he said, noting that in his 35-year career working for different companies, many of his creations wound up in supermarkets advertising different products, many of them well-known.
But when the pandemic hit, Sechin, with the prospects of seeing his fairly significant salary drastically reduced, decided to dedicate his time entirely to his personal art.
First Place winner Roberto Ferrer won for his woodwork. He said he shows his art “around the Chicagoland area and the neighboring states.”
“This show was great,” he said. “I did pretty good.”
Sunny Liang, a Chicago resident whose photography took second place, felt good after placing in La Grange. “I’ve won many (shows) but not this one. In the winter I go to Florida, and in the summer I’m in Michigan and different midwest states.”
Palos Park resident Carmelo Schifano teaches the basic skills of watercolors every Wednesday afternoon at the La Grange Art League; in the evening he teaches a class called “Watercolors Without Fear.”
“I’ve been here at the Art League for about 18 years,” he said of his time after retiring from teaching after 40 years. “I enter mostly national and international shows … I do this because I’m part of the (Art League) gallery…my motto is have fun and lose your fear. Anybody can do it.”
Schifano was adamant about that last point.
“I’m of the opinion that, with all my years of experience, that everybody is born with a certain amount of skill set, a creative skillset,” he said. “And then you just try to discover that and nurture that. It’s fun to be creative and it keeps you young.”
Donna Skonning, executive director of the La Grange Art League, staffed the League’s booth and talked about plans for the future.
“We’re trying to improve the front of our store, so we’re having a big campaign; we need new glass windows, and bricks and awnings,” she said. “We’re making big improvements, and our classes are still going strong.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
