Courtney Jolliff Outdoor Art Event Celebrates Promontory Point, Recovery from Fire
Nearly a year in the making, “To the Point,” a public art event by Southside Chicago-based artist Courtney Jolliff, looked a few weeks ago like it might have burned up.
A fire on May 9 destroyed Jolliff’s entire Bronzeville studio, taking with it the ten original works in the series Jolliff created for the “To the Point,” a late-spring tribute to the natural beauty and to the people of Promontory Point.
But in a remarkable act of artistic perseverance, Jolliff has managed to recreate the “To the Point” series, even adding to the collection a special painting about the process, a work entitled “From the Ashes Arose a Phoenix” (shown here):
And so, the one day event will happen – this Saturday, May 25, from 1-7 p.m. near the 55th Street tunnel to Promontory Point.
This will be a free-admission public art offering that pays tribute to our wonderful Promontory Point and all the people who draw upon its beauty for solace, communion, community collaboration, peace, and breath. Guitarist Sean Black will join Jolliff to provide a musical accompaniment to the space.
Courtney Jolliff is a native of Detroit and graduate of Columbia College in Chicago. Discovered as a painter by Raub Wech, Jolliff is also a filmmaker, jewelry designer, as well as a creator of artistic objects (including hood trophies) and a fashion designer.
The son of Floyd and Melissa Jolliff, he descends from a family important to Chicago, including being the grandson of civil rights icon Grandma Chicago and nephew to Charles Courtney Jolliff, Jr., artist and model and creator of the “Don’t shoot, I want to grow up!” viral protest art.
In his own work, Courtney Jolliff continues the legacy of his family and in this show continues the sharing of his work with Hyde Park, a relationship that has been going on for eight years now and for which he’s known by many people in the community.
The ten works at the core of “To the Point” consist primarily of acrylic on canvas but also include found objects and added textures including crystals that provide dimension of the kind we find at the Point itself in the rocks, the grass, the trees, the water, the sky.
In the words of the artist, “To the Point” pays homage to Promontory Point in Hyde Park by capturing in art the feeling of the Point – “How swimming in the lake makes you feel, how you find yourself remembering the feeling of park joy as a kid, the moments of romance, walks that cleared your head and restored your heart.”
The series evokes all the reasons people to go the Point, to swim, to celebrate, to remember, to create, to be alone with the lake, and to be together at the lake.
The core of this event is an invitation to conversation and healing. The art is intended to create a vibe that signals it is safe for people to gather, to linger, to talk, to sing, to dance as they find themselves moved to do so.
The artworks will be for sale at the event so that those who want to take the Point home with them in the form of an artistic tribute can do so.
For more information, contact Courtney Jolliff at courtneyjolliffart@gmail.com.