Teresa Cash is the April Artist of the Month. She is from Naperville, and a proud creative Late Bloomer.

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

It was a cold February day in 2011, a pivotal time, I remember it vividly. I had just celebrated my 58th birthday and I began to question if there was more to life than what I was experiencing. My life was good, yet I felt there was more. Sitting in silence with my heart wide open, I beckoned to be shown what I was meant to do. There became this "knowing" that I was meant to be creative. I was to be an artist.

Linda Webb is the March Artist of the Month from Peoria. Webb has years of professional art experince and her work has been featured in a few museums throughout the State of Illinois.

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

I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember. For over 20 years I’ve done art and design-related work professionally. I started as a graphic designer. As I gained experience, I transitioned to a full-time freelance illustrator and mosaic artist. 

Taiwan native Steve Chen was the co-founder and previous chief technology officer of the video-sharing website YouTube.

In 1978, Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan and immigrated to the United States at the age of 15. His family settled in Prospect Heights, Illinois and he graduated from Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora before attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

After graduating from the university in 2002, Chen worked at PayPal, where he met Chad Hurly and Jawed Karim. In 2005, the three founded YouTube.

The following year, YouTube ranked the 10^th most popular website, and Chen was named by Business 2.0 as one of "The 50 people who matter now" in business. In October of 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google, Inc. for $1.65 billion.

In 2018, Chen was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln by the Governor of Illinois.

In Honor of Black History Month our February artist of the month is Jonathon Romain from Peoria. Romain is a local artist who travels to various cities and states each month in hopes of catching an art show.

 How long have you been an artist or when did you start? I have been a professional artist for over 20 years. As far back as I can remember I’ve loved creating artistically. I won my first art award at 15 and a year later first place, at a Chicago city-wide arts competition called the Buckingham Fountain Art Fair in 1983. The prize was a check for $150. I had all the signs early on that I was destined to be an artist, but I never thought I was good enough when I compared my work to professional artists. Consequently, I only halfheartedly played around with it.

According to HomeSnacks, Western Springs is the best place to live in Illinois.

HomeSnacks ranked cities by a number of criteria from one to 327, with one being the best. The criteria considered included median home values, median incomes, unemployment rates, average commute time, crime, education levels and more.

HomeSnacks recognized Western Springs for its “impressive history” and “low unemployment rates and high incomes.”