Mercedes Govert
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Ms Govert is known for her lovely pressed flower designs and calligraphy. The poet Wordsworth might have been speaking to artist Mercedes Govert when he wrote, "Then gather a wreath from the garden bowers..." Ms Goverts artistic signature may be summed up in a single word - flowers. Long a mainstay of Ms Govert's still lifes, flowers became not only the subject of her art but one of its media when she got the idea of incorporating real flowers, carefully pressed and dried, into her work. After completing a floral still life in oils or watercolors, Govert adds pressed flowers to prints of the finished piece, thereby creating a kind of mixed-media marriage of art and nature. Formerly a teacher of disabled children, Govert, a native Chicagoan, decided to study art after noticing how many of her students were artistic. She began taking classes, eventually studying at Moraine Valley, DePaul University and St. Xavier. She also spent eight years as a student of Jean Webb, a well known Chicago artist. motivated by a disire to reach her students, Mercedes' interest eventually blossomed into what has become, for her, a second career. Govert and her husband Les moved to Apple River, IL in 1987 where Les finally has enough space to garden in a big way. There he raises the pansies, verbena, lobelia, mums, wild geranium and other floral varieties used by his wife in her works of art. Samples of Ms Govert's art are available at the "Hello Galena!" Artist Cooperative and at local and regional art shows. |