Becoming Free

Hey First Free folks! Stu and Dan will be installing new paintings at First Free this coming Monday the 24th, 11am. Stay as long as you want. We'd love your help. Message Dan Addington on Facebook, or 312 664 3406.

Melynda Van Zee: Freedom from the Core -
August 2019 - October, 2019 -

Melynda Van Zee shares her artwork at exhibitions and art fairs throughout the United States. Her works are in the collections of numerous private and corporate collectors around the country. She is the author of an art technique book published by Lark Books and enjoys public speaking and teaching. Melynda earned her BA in Elementary Education and Art from Dordt College. Her studio is located in the heart of the prairies of central Iowa.

Says Melynda about her work: “I work with a process of pouring thick acrylic paints and washes of transparent acrylic color on canvas. I often use spiral imagery in my paintings to express my process of deep inner work, which has helped me to find the equilibrium and energy to pursue a creative life. The spiral is deeply symbolic of growth, change and transformation. The spiral is also one of the most commonly found design forms in nature.”

“My painting process is a method of looking deeply within to discover and express my inner spirit. I like to ask myself questions like "How do I create a life of abundant freedom?" In essence my paintings are prayers, longings, expressions for which verbal language falls short. My hope is that the colors, textures, and movement of this work will nurture your soul and creative spirit.”

Beginning in the 2017 Advent Season, and running through the month of March, the sanctuary walls of First Free Chicago will feature the mixed media artwork of Crystal Neubauer. We encourage viewers to take some time with each of the works, allowing these offerings to contribute to your time of meditation in the sanctuary.

Crystal Neubauer is a Mixed Media Artist drawn to the broken, cast out, and overlooked items of the past. She sees beauty in the mundane, brings new life to forgotten objects, and finds the process of salvaging old materials and creating new art to be therapeutic and healing. As her work evolves, a more complete understanding of her work and why she chooses to use materials that others see as trash comes to light:

"It's about seeing something beautiful in the discarded

About giving new life to what has been broken and cast out

It's about seeing worth in what has been deemed worthless

And value in the valueless

Ultimately it's about humanity

And redemption"

- Crystal Marie Neubauer

First Free Fall '17 exhibition Boats and Bridges, a SOLO exhibition by Marissa Voytenko that raises awareness of the current world-wide refugee crisis. Sept 1- Through November 10, 2017.

About Marissa Voytenko:

Originally from a small agricultural community in Northern California, Marissa has traveled widely and lived for several years in western Ukraine. Always drawing as a child, she continues to create with joy and commitment. After earning a graduate degree in Fine Art and Teaching, she discovered the medium of encaustic. Its molten quality and mysterious effects were a good fit for what she hungered for in her work because it not only pushed against her desire for precision, it also opened up pathways for creative inquiry. Marissa uses her grid-like thought process and the liquid quality of the beeswax to create images with psychological meaning and depth. Marissa resides in Chicagoland with her young family and is an adjunct professor of Art at Wheaton College.