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Park Forest Artist Wins Top Honors at Midwest’s Oldest Juried Art Fair


Mike Weiss of Park Forest
Park Forest artist Michael Weiss received the 2011 Nettie Hart Awards for Crafts. (PHOTO SUPPLIED)

Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Local artist Michael Weiss of Park Forest is the recipient of the Nettie Hart Award for Crafts, presented in honor of Nettie Hart, a key supporter in the early days of The 57th Street Art Fair.

This award is presented annually to one outstanding artist selected from the categories of Jewelry Making, Fiber, Glass, Leather, Mixed Media or Paper, and includes $750 cash.

Weiss is a self-taught artist who remembers from his youth making observations of other community artists, "The alterations of form and surface textures [in my work] strive for an amalgam of the natural and the man-made worlds. Clay has its own serendipitous needs and constraints, contributing its own spontaneity to the artistic process. My role as the artist is to lend my aesthetic while allowing the natural quality of the clay to emerge. At this juncture of the natural and man-made, new forms and themes emerge."

About the 57th Street Art Fair

57th Street Art Fair is the oldest juried art fair in the midwest. The art fair tradition began because there was no central place for artists to show their work. Started by some of America’s most pioneering artists who felt it was important to gather and share their passion with peers and art lovers, the 57th Street Art Fair changed the way many view art when it became the midwest’s first juried art fair. Some of Chicago’s most well-known artists received their start at the 57th Street Art Fair and are still exhibiting there today. 


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