At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. To help lift up the struggling arts community during this difficult time, we are highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.

This week, we are featuring Stephanie Rose Bird – an award winning artist, arts educator and author with a passion for the natural world and plants in particular. With a bold cacophony of colors, Stephanie captures the life force she sees emanating from her garden in her art. Her work is a vibrant celebration of the power of plants to feed our bodies and heal our souls. We love its boundless expression of joy as the shapes dance and leap off the page.

I went on to become an author, again sharing my passion for nature, while hopefully inspiring others to engage. My books center on herbalism, aromatherapy, healing and plant life. I was brought into the realm of herbalism from my interest in art and craft. I make soap, paper from plants, and my own paint, at times, derived from sea creatures, roots, herbs and minerals. Now I live in the Midwest and have found fresh material from which to work. My recent art has returned to my favorite topics: flowers, fruits, vegetables and landscape specific to this area. I never paint from photographs, preferring instead to work using direction observation from life. I enjoy my daily struggles which capture the specific light conditions of the day, wondering if it will be windy, warm or too cold for work outside.

An Interview with Stephanie BirdView Stephanie and fellow artist, Gabriella Boros discussing “The Healing Power of Plants” at their 2019 Dear Earth talk.
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Follow Stephanie Rose Bird OnlineYou can learn more about Stephanie’s artwork and books on her website. You can also keep up with her by following her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

​A Guest Article from Dr. Stephen Devries
Why would a successful cardiologist at a university medical center with a 9 month wait-list for patients leave his practice to start a nonprofit? That’s the question we put to Dr. Stephen Devries. Dr. Devries is the director of the Deerfield-based nonprofit Gaples Institute, and our upcoming speaker at our Brushwood Healthy Happy Hour scheduled for May 26th.In over 25 years of practice I’ve seen too many patients with serious heart conditions that could have been avoided with greater attention to nutrition and lifestyle. The problem is that physicians just don’t receive the training they need to effectively guide patients toward healthier lifestyles. Unfortunately, the emphasis is on high tech procedures and medication — that was true when I was in training and it’s still the case today.
That’s why I left the practice that I loved to make an even bigger difference in my work as director of nonprofit Gaples Institute (named after our co-founder). The mission of the Gaples Institute is to advance the role of nutrition and lifestyle through education and advocacy. We are supported in our mission by our Gaples Institute Advisory Board that consists of nationally recognized leaders in education, science, and policy, including Adele Simmons.
The Gaples Institute has two target audiences:
 1) Health professionals: the Gaples Institute developed an award-winning nutrition continuing medical education course, now with more than 1200 registrants, that recently became a required course in its first major medical school;
2) Community members: we developed another award-winning nutrition learning program provided as a service by the Gaples Institute, used by adults as well as secondary schools, and soon to be released in Spanish.
My work focuses extensively on community education to help promote awareness of the untapped power that individuals have over their health, which is the theme of my upcoming talk for the Happy Hour Brushwood presentation on May 26, “Natural Approaches to Bountiful Health.
You can learn more about Dr. Devries, as well as the mission and activities of the nonprofit Gaples Institute here.

​At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. To help lift up the struggling arts community during this difficult time, we are highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.
This week, we are featuring Peggy Macnamara - an artist who combines a loose, vibrant watercolor style with a scientific study of insects and animals. Serving as the Artist-in-Residence at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History since 1990, Peggy has traveled with scientists all over the world to paint nature and illustrate conservation efforts. Through this work, she has published 4 books in collaboration with museum scientists through University of Chicago Press. Recently, her eye has turned to creatures living under the water, resulting in gorgeous depictions of sea dragons and fish. When the world reopens, you can enjoy Peggy's paintings at the Field Museum, where they are on display as part of the permanent collection. For now, we are delighted to bring them to you here.

​At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. To help lift up the struggling arts community during this difficult time, we are highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.
This week, we are featuring José Guadalupe Adonis González Rosales - an educator, environmental leader and artist who explores the connection between nature and his Latinx culture. Jose's passion for this work led him to found Latino Outdoors, a unique national Latinx-led organization, working to create and support a network of ambicultural leaders in the outdoor, conservation, and nature movement. His artwork combines traditional and modern styles and themes of nature and plants to explore his identity as a "Conservationist/Environmentalist, Chicano, and Educator."

​At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. To help lift up the struggling arts community during this difficult time, we are highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.
This week, we are featuring Shilin Hora - an artist that not only makes art about nature, she makes art WITH nature.
A mixed-media collage artist, Shilin's work revolves around seeds she finds in nature - the small, often overlooked kernels of life all around us that hold the potential and future of all plant life on earth. Through her work, she puts the spotlight on these tiny treasures, creating what she calls "Botanical Boxes" - a unique blend between natural history specimen collections and fine art museum displays that celebrate and showcase the “need for the seed” as objects, and emphasize the historical, scientific, artistic, and cultural importance of each seed.
In these boxes, she suspends individual seeds on a grid of thin filament in an arrangement of color, texture and shape that gives each seed it's moment while also creating vibrant, visual relationships between the different seeds. Shilin takes care to make sure the viability of each seed is kept intact by using reversible and eco-conscious glues and mounting methods. Because of this, the seeds never lose their potency or potential for new life.

​"The natural world and the environment inspires me because it is ascetically so beautiful, curious and mysterious. There is so much to discover, learn from and share still! Did you know that each rose of Sharon tree seed has over 50 small hairs on it?! Also, nature is super inspiring to me because it is the Great Giver, always giving and providing never asking for a thing in return. Much like a parent that gives and gives out of love, the earth gives and gives freely every day; water, wood, minerals, plants for food, air, warm sun...the list goes on.
As humans we receive most of or all of our wealth from nature and we don't think twice about it. It's crazy that we each have a choice to protect our natural world and give back but some of us choose not too; It's the Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein syndrome I guess. With my work I hope to showcase the aesthetic beauty of seeds and botanical litter-fall in hopes to to convince folks to preserve, conserve and fall in love with our beautiful, ever giving, natural world."

Undergraduate fine art studies took me inside the sculpture and printmaking studio at Grand Valley State University (B.F.A. 2001), where I developed my craft for collecting and illustrating nature. I learned to observe with intention and perfect the art of “seeing nature” through extensive botany collections and botanical illustrations. Here is where I learned the significance of the seed and learned to “hear” the voice of nature. ​

Join Shilin on a virtual tour of her incredible work here.
You can learn more about Shilin's work and purchase her prints by visiting her website or learn about her workshops and community engagement with Grow Studio here.  You can also keep up with her by following her on Facebook or Instagram.

Sibylle Szaggars Redford is one of our world's most passionate and influential environmental artists, and founder of The Way of the Rain. Brushwood Center could think of no one better to spotlight for Earth Week. As our global community faces unprecedented challenges, her message of collective action resonates like never before and is beautifully communicated through her performance art and rain paintings.
Sibylle Szaggars Redford and Robert Redford were honored at Brushwood Center in 2018 as the Smith Nature Symposium Environmental Leadership Award Recipients.

Sibylle Szaggars Redford has dedicated her life's work to creating art informed by her spiritual consciousness of our connection to life, the land, and the world by raising awareness of our environmentally unsound practices. Szaggars Redford is a German born multimedia environmental artist whose artwork has been exhibited throughout Europe, Monaco, Peru, Singapore, Japan, Suriname and the United States.
Having worked as an environmental artist for almost four decades, her desire is to create art that transcends words, languages, cultures and politics. Szaggars Redford creates art in order to speak to a deeper universal consciousness that’s connected to and dependent on the earth and its environments.
Her stunning Rain Paintings are watercolor paintings that tell the story of changing rain patterns resulting from climate change. Rain literally acts as her collaborator as she places her paper outside for the rains to shape her watercolor pigment compositions.
In 2015, Szaggars Redford founded The Way of the Rain, a nonprofit organization with the specific purpose of developing, producing and performing educational and artistic performances – themed and designed to promote public awareness to support the protection of our Earth.
The Way of the Rain has performed across the globe, collaborating with organizations dedicated to protection of the planet, including Brushwood Center. 

This Earth Week, take time to reflect on the importance of nature in your life by watching The Way of the Rain's inspiring multi-media series "Reflections on Earth". This series of videos, updated weekly and curated by artistic director Sibylle Szaggars Redford, features stunning nature imagery, soothing music by world renowned composer Tim Janis, and stirring spoken word performed by Robert Redford. 
It is the goal of The Way of the Rain to inspire, encourage and keep alive the beauty and dilemma of our Planet Earth, especially during this world-wide pandemic. Take a moment while we are all confined to our homes and allow the breathtaking images and soothing music to gift you a much needed escape. Subscribe to the video series here.

"Nature is my spiritual connection to life, the land and the world, and Nature is my guide and inspiration in creating art," Szaggars Redford says. Pictured here with her Rain Painting Silk.

​At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. To help lift up the struggling arts community during this difficult time, we are highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.
This week, we are featuring one of our favorite nature artists, printmaker Carrie Carlson. Carrie has been a regular feature at our Holiday Art Markets and group shows over the past several years, and we adore her vibrant, modern style. In addition to being an accomplished artist, she is an educator and scientist, and a staunch advocate for nature and the environment.

​"As a scientific illustrator, art and science are tightly twined together in my life and I am inspired to celebrate this through landscapes, botanical studies and portraits of nature’s smallest objects and winged creatures. I hope to reveal a bit of the wonderment I find in simple subjects by drawing attention to something beautiful or unique about them that might normally be overlooked or taken for granted. I am especially interested in raising awareness about issues faced by threatened or exploited populations, be they human, bird or bumblebee.
Field sketching is a cornerstone of scientific illustration. I cannot imagine visiting a local zoo, much less traveling abroad, without a sketchbook. Travel and field sketching generate a deeper appreciation for humanity and the planet. The act of drawing forces us to slow down, to notice, reflect, cherish, and consider… What I gain from these experiences is a passionate environmentalism and driving responsibility to speak up for under-served populations. Through my artwork, I pray my steady, hopeful voice brings greater attention to how we can contribute to solutions and healing.
If field sketching sparks new awareness and intimacy with the natural world, then creating finished prints satisfies an eagerness for studio challenges. I greatly enjoy learning the age-old processes of traditional printmaking. Relief printing, linoleum block in particular, has been an especially satisfying outlet for my creative energies."

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"I once heard a pastor say, "Ecology is Doxology," and that pretty much sums it up for me. My spirit finds hope and courage, learns patience and grit, experiences joy and community most clearly out in nature. I'm inspired to raise awareness and advocate for environmental causes."

​At Brushwood Center, we are responding to the COVID-19 crisis by doing what we strive to do year round: build a community around nature and the arts. This crisis is heavily affecting arts organizations and artists, as major art festivals, fairs, performances, and exhibitions that provide critical support and income are canceled or postponed. To help lift up the arts community during this difficult time, we will be highlighting a different nature-inspired artist each week and sharing their story with you. We encourage you to reflect on the impact of art in your life, and look for ways to support artists in our community.
For our first spotlight, we are featuring our internationally-renowned artist in residence, Heeyoung Kim. Heeyoung has been part of the Brushwood family since 2011. She began with her first solo show, and soon after started teaching her weekly classes at Brushwood Center.

Heeyoung has generously provided two free monarch butterfly coloring pages for Brushwood members to print out at home!  Simply follow the link to her online store and enter the code "BRUSHWOOD" at checkout to download.  You can also follow along with her step-by-step coloring tutorial on YouTube! ​

5th Annual: Enriching Life - Botanical Art Exhibition, Heeyoung Kim & Brushwood Botanical Artists. November 24, 2019 - January 12, 2020 at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods, Riverwoods, IL.
Heeyoung Kim: New Works - Orchid Watercolor Paintings. July 25- September 7, 2019, Joel Oppenheimer Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Botanical Art Worldwide, America’s Flora: Linking People with Plants through Botanical Art. 2018 - 2019, 4 venues in the United States.
Transylvania Florilegium, The Prince of Wales’s Botanical Art Documentation of Transylvania, Romania: May 23 - July 31, 2018, Embassy of Romania, London. Kim’s three watercolor paintings are included in the royal collection.

Many local healthcare providers face a serious shortage of protective face masks in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. As an organization dedicated to wellness that partners with multiple health care organizations throughout Lake and Cook Counties, Brushwood Center is mobilizing its community to meet this need.
Through online coordination of local artists, volunteers, and community partners, and with the material supplies from their very own BASE (Brushwood Art Supply Exchange) Brushwood is assisting in supplying much needed face masks. To date, kits to assemble well over 1,400 face masks have been distributed, and more than one thousand finished face masks have been delivered to healthcare workers in need. Mask fabrics represent the vitality and community spirit of the Chicago area, ranging from sports team patterns to cheerful spring flowers. Mask donation recipients include Vista Medical Center in Waukegan, Fenix Family Health Center in Highwood, Lake Forest Northwestern Hospital, Cedar Lake Assisted Living in Lake Zurich, Advocate Lutheran General, and the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. 
“The need for protective equipment is urgent, and Brushwood Center’s community of artists and volunteers have really stepped up to the challenge. People are excited to help. Volunteers do the sewing, and we make sure the masks are delivered to the places that truly need them.” Catherine Game, Executive Director, Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods."

​For those who would like to contribute to support our healthcare heroes, all you need is basic sewing knowledge and instructions for mask sewing which are available on the Brushwood Center website www.brushwoodcenter.org. The materials needed are simple cotton fabric, elastic/fabric ties, and sewing equipment.
Donate your sewn masks to Brushwood Center’s front porch in the donation bin. Their mighty team of volunteers will handle the donation pick-ups and delivery to healthcare centers. Please email us at info@brushwoodcenter.org or message us via Facebook when you have dropped off your masks so we can track quantity.
Drop off between sunrise and dusk on the Brushwood Center front porch: 21850 North Riverwoods Road, Riverwoods, IL.
It’s okay if there are small differences between masks. There are many instructional videos available online as well that you can reference.
Throughout our area there are other organizations with similar mask drives. Wherever you choose to put your energy, just know that it is appreciated.