Gabriella Boros is our October Artist of the Month from Skokie, Illinois. For the past eight years Gabriella has beeen relishing woodblock printmaking which she defines as her favorite medium to work in. Gabriella's paintings have been viewed not only in Illinois but internationally as well.

How long have you been an artist or when did you start?

I have been creating art in one way or another since my earliest memory. There never was a period when I did not paint, draw or in some way express myself artistically.

Biki Chaplain is our September Artist of the Month. Orginally from Texas, Chaplain moved to Southern Illinois in the 1960's. Although she has worked in many mediums throughout the years her favorite to work in is oil because of the quality of the color.

How long have you been an artist or when did you start?

Apparently, I was an artist long before I realized that I was one. In high school, one of my classmates remembered she had gone to school with me in the second grade and remembered me as the girl who could draw the beautiful birds. However, it wasn’t until college that I considered myself an artist.

Kumiko, a cozy, Japanese-inspired restaurant and bar nestled in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, has been named one of the World’s Greatest Places of 2019 by TIME Magazine.

TIME’s list annually spotlights the 100 most noteworthy museums, hotels, parks and restaurants from all over the world. TIME selected Kumiko based on its innovative cocktail menu, which is influenced by co-owner and beverage director Julia Momose’s Japanese heritage. Patrons can enjoy a drink alongside steam buns, short ribs and other small plates crafted from Japanese ingredients by chef Noah Sandoval.

A marker commemorating the first soybeans ever planted in Illinois was placed at the Louis and Clark Community College in Alton, Illinois nearly 167 years after John Lee of Alton helped them take root.

However, Lee did not receive this crop by ordinary means. Illinois’ long history with soybeans begins 500 miles off the coast of Japan in 1950, after a shipwrecked Junk stranded 17 Japanese sailors at sea.

The group was transported to San Francisco after the North American freighter Auckland rescued them from the wreck. Among the survivors was Joseph Heco, pictured left, who later became the first Japanese person to be naturalized as a United States citizen. A chest of goods he and his shipmates brought from the wreck contained the very first soybeans that Illinois would see.

At the time, Alton resident Dr. Benjamin Franklin Edwards was residing in San Francisco. Like many others during this time, Edwards was drawn to California by the gold rush.

Our July Artist of the month is Ellen Ransom of Evanston. Ransom is a portrait artist whose goal is to show African Americans around the world that they too can be portayed in art.

How long have you been an artist or when did you start?

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing something! I was the youngest of four children and the only girl being raised alone as my brothers remained in Alabama with my grandmother and their father. I didn’t have much company or playmates and therefore found ways to entertain myself by drawing everything in sight. Upon becoming a teenager, my oldest brother joined my mother and me, but still, as a baby sister, there were not a lot of opportunities for my brother and I to interact together, besides art.