MARSHALL — Join the Gaslight Art Colony online Saturday, Sept. 19, for their first Virtual Art Show featuring the work of Kate Schofield Meehling. The show will include over 90 art pieces.Â
A reception hosted by Kate’s family will open with a Facebook live video. Please Join Gaslight’s Facebook page for a live chat at 5 p.m. to watch family members describe the available art pieces. Viewers will be able to ask questions about the art pieces.
The virtual show can be viewed on the newly design Gaslight website at gaslightartcolony.com beginning Sept. 19. The slideshow identifies the art piece and provides information about the medium, size and price. The pieces for sale have direct links to make purchases. A percentage of the sales will go to support Gaslight for operational costs as they look forward for putting on more virtual shows in the future.
Kate’s art will be on display Sept. 22-October 10. The Art Colony will be open from 9 a.m.-noon on Wednesdays and Thursdays for anyone wishing to view the art work in person. Private showings are available by appointment only, please call (217) 264-4588. Social distancing guidelines will be followed. All purchases can be made online and arrangements to pick up the art work will be scheduled.
Kate Meehling’s love of art began in elementary school from her art teacher Ethel Hurst. She loved and enjoyed art till the end. Kate was one of the original artists in Marshall who started the Marshall Art League in 1965. They would meet on Tuesdays. She and other members of the Marshall Art League would go to Paris, Illinois and paint with Mildred Stewart.
In 1969, she entered the WED Art program at St. Mary of the Woods studying painting and art history for a semester. She was awarded countless prizes in the Clark County Extension Town & County art shows. In 1985, she earned credit in Humanities Through the Arts, offered on TV by Lakeland College, also took drawing classes through Lake Land College Extension at the High School.
She was elected and served on the Sheldon Swope Art Museum Board of Trustee from 1980-1993. Kate, in 2009 was one of the founding board members of Gaslight Art Colony. She served as vice president and remained on the board as an honorary board member.
For more information about membership, contact the Art Colony at (217) 293-1050 or gaslightartcolony@gmail.com. Members will be emailed direct links to view the virtual shows and will be kept updated on their latest news and events.
Cosmic Blue Comics
From the Nov. 22, 1992, Journal Gazette, this photo of Cosmic Blue Comics in Mattoon; where I spent virtually every Saturday afternoon for about two years. That small back room you see just off to the right of the Coca-Cola sign was where they kept the many, and I mean many, long-boxes of back issues. I still own my bagged copy of "Tales of the Beanworld" issue No. 1 that I found back there. Sadly, this location is now just a "greenspace".
Mattoon Arcade
Pictured, Shelbyville's Bob Murray from the June 2, 1982, Journal Gazette, displaying his dominance over the TRON arcade game at the "Carousel Time" arcade at the Cross County Mall, later to be the Aladdin's Castle, soon thereafter to be not a thing anymore. I spent just about every Saturday at that arcade, perhaps with that exact same haircut. No overalls, though. I was more of an "Ocean Pacific" kind of kid.
Icenogle's
Pictured, from the Nov. 28, 1988, Journal Gazette, Icenogle's grocery store. Being from Cooks Mills, we didn't often shop at Icenogle's...but when we did, even as a kid, I knew it was the way a grocery store is supposed to be in a perfect world, and that's not just because they had wood floors, comic books on the magazine rack, or plenty, and I mean plenty, of trading cards in wax packs.
Cooks Mills
I had long since moved away from Cooks Mills by the time this Showcase item about Adam's Groceries ran in the June 13, 1998, Journal Gazette, but there was a time when I very well could have been one of those kids in that photo; for if it was summer, and you had a bike, and you lived in Cooks Mills, that's where you ended up. At last report, they still had Tab in the Pepsi-branded cooler in the back. I'm seriously considering asking my money guy if I could afford to reopen this place.
Mister Music
Pictured, from the July 16, 1987, Journal Gazette, this ad for Mister Music, formerly located in the Cross County Mall. I wasn't buying records at that age, but I would eventually, and that's where it all went down. If you don't think it sounds "cool" to hang out at a record store with your buddies on a Friday night, a piping-hot driver's license fresh in your wallet, you'd be right. But it's the best a geek like me could do. Wherever you are today, owners of Mister Music, please know that a Minutemen album I found in your cheap bin changed my life.
Sound Source Guitar Throw
Portrait of the author as a young man, about to throw a guitar through a target at that year's Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest, from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette. Check out my grunge-era hoodie, and yes...look carefully, those are Air Jordans you see on my feet. Addendum: despite what the cutline says, I did not win a guitar.
Pictured, clipped from the online archives at JG-TC.com, a photo from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette of Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest winner, and current JG-TC staff writer, Clint Walker.
Vette's
Here today, gone tomorrow, Vette's Teen Club, from the June 20, 1991, Journal Gazette. I wasn't "cool" enough to hang out at Vette's back in it's "heyday," and by "cool enough" I mean, "not proficient enough in parking lot fights." If only I could get a crack at it now.
FutureGen
FutureGen: The end of the beginning, and eventually, the beginning of the end, from the Dec. 19, 2007, JG-TC. I wish I had been paying more attention at the time. I probably should have been reading the newspaper.
To submit your items to CHURCH BRIEFS, email cwalker@jg-tc.com or call 217-238-6864.
Clint Walker
Community Content Coordinator
