Two to Check Out

This past Saturday, Navy Pier hosted the SOFA Exhibit, or Sculptural Objects & Functional Art. Amid the vast sea of funky flatware and chickenwire dresses, one particular artist really stood out. Ted Gall creates some of the most unique and beautiful pieces I've seen in a long time, ranging from fun and whimsical to dark and gothic. His pieces that he simply calls Heads are composed of numerous metallic layers that the viewer can peel away. It starts with, say, the face of a pig, which then folds open on hinges to reveal the face of a man, which then flips up to reveal a tiny scene of men overlooking a farm of pigs. The sculptures aren't very big and the amount of detail is extraordinary. Even a tiny girl walking with her father carries a teddy bear, or scenes right out of "The Wizard of Oz" are recreated with figures smaller than your thumbnail.

He also creates larger pieces, some life-sized or even bigger, all with wax and metals. At SOFA, one piece was an ashen puppeteer who is horrified to find that his puppet dangling below him has cut himself loose. The next piece was the marionette walking freely, his strings trailing behind him as if blowing in the wind. The sense of story, movement and environment was fantastic. You can get a sense of this with his piece called "Dancer."

Another artist website to visit is Rick Talley's photography. I just recently met him when I stayed in Kuaui, Hawaii. My friend Becky and I had a leak in our hotel bathroom ceiling, and before we knew it there was practically a waterfall above our toilet. Rick was the hotel's engineer and took care of it for us, but was so friendly that we all got to talking and it turns out that Rick regularly explores the island and takes pictures. I'll hopefully be able to post my own pics from my vacation soon, but Rick does a pretty good job of capturing the island's essence himself. He also taught us about "moonbows," which are rainbows created by rain and moonlight. I've never even heard of them, and Rick's got pictures! He said he'll be updating his site with more moonbow shots, but what he's already featuring gives you an idea of what this beautiful, peaceful island is like.