Wolf Point - Urban Spaces at the Tall Grass Gallery

The Tall Grass Art Association in Park Forest, Illinois, will host a new gallery show entitled Urban Spaces

Urban Solitude
Aquatint Etching 
10" x 9.5"

The Crossing
Aquatint Etching
12" x 11"

The show opening is 5:30 pm, Friday, April 28, 2017 and runs until June 3.

Two views along the river, my two newest etchings, will be a part of this show.

The Chicago River is an integral part of Chicago's history.  The days of fur trade with American Indians and French traders in the 18th century as well as the Indian wars of the 19th century are connected by the river of the past to Chicago's present-day historic panorama.

My etching, The Crossing, has so much meaning to me because this river crossing is an historic site in early Chicago.  The Crossing is a view from the Franklin Street bridge and what was called Wolf Point.

The origin of the name, Wolf Point, is unknown. In her 1856 memoir Wau-Bun, Juliette Kinzie states that "the place was then called Wolf Point, from its having been the residence of an Indian named Moa-way, or 'the Wolf.'" Other alternate explanations are that it was so-named after the landlord, of what would later be called the Wolf Point Tavern, killed a ferocious wolf. He hung a brightly painted sign of a wolf outside his tavern to commemorate the event. It may have been named by a soldier at Fort Dearborn because it was a place where wolves would gather at night.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Point,_Chicago

Originally the term Wolf Point referred to just the west bank of the Chicago River at the fork junction of its branches, but it gradually came to refer to the whole region around the forks and in modern usage is often more specifically used to mean the plot of land on the north side of the forks. 

The confluence of the three branches of the river near Wolf Point provided inspiration for Chicago's Municipal Device, a Y-shaped, city identification symbol that can be seen on many buildings in Chicago, and on city owned vehicles.

 

https://tinyurl.com/zs9h9xu