A small park on a busy Prospect Heights road has a colorful new life thanks to a group of artists, their “magic” mushrooms and an open invitation to join the transformation.
Isaak Walton Park, a four-acre strip of wooded land that surrounds an unnamed wetland, had a gravel driveway, a simple pavilion, a short boardwalk, and there’s not much else to offer except you were a bird watcher.
But when artists Kate Tully and Mara Lovisetto parked in one of the five parking spaces there, they learned they had found a place to share and showcase projects with their group of artist friends called The Sunflower Project. His latest summer show is called “Mushroom Magic.”
“We both looked at each other and said,‘ This is perfect. ’It has the right atmosphere,” said Tully, a professional artist known for designing elaborate plaster murals on her garage door.
“They’ve been wonderful, the park district. They’ve let us have freedom with our art,” he added.
To date, at least 20 pieces have been installed around the horseshoe-shaped unit of the park, located at 201 N. Elmhurst Road. A collection of mushrooms made from recycled tequila bottles, corks and espresso capsules is on display. There are several large mushrooms made with painted trunk stems and cement bowls upside down. Another has a sink pedestal stem. and one has several felt bees made with real prosthetic eyeballs buzzing around it. There is also a bright golden mushroom made with mosaic tiles and sea shells from the Marshall Islands.
Most are works by professional artists from The Sunflower Project, but some come from outside the group.
“There were a handful of young friends who saw what we were doing and asked if they could install their own art,” Tully said. The group returned with a 10-foot-tall plywood cutout featuring tiny, happy fairies flying around giant, shiny mushrooms.
Andrea Chatroop, who lives next to the park, walks there regularly with her children.
“Before, not much was happening here. Now there is so much life,” he said. Her 7-year-old son Zeke has made “fairy gates” with natural objects he finds in the park and glued them to various trees.
“Anyone who wants to make a mushroom artwork and exhibit it, we welcome you,” Tully said.
Lovisetto even created a Tiny Little Art Gallery from a recycled kitchen cabinet and installed it in the pavilion where anyone can leave a work of art and grab one.
“The park district values what we’re doing and they value art and they see that this is a way to bring people together,” Lovisetto said. “There is no politics or COVID here.”
This project follows two other summer efforts that began in the midst of the pandemic when friends created and installed sunflower-themed sculptures and paintings around Hillcrest Lake, at the end of Lovisetto Road, in the north. of Isaak Walton Park, in an effort to cheer. up the neighborhood.
“Before I knew it, it had become a destination,” said Lovisetto, a retired elementary school art teacher. They had found an easy way to erase their artistic itch to create and shared it with a gated community.
The city of Prospect Heights also realized and offered the group any park to showcase their work.
“Mushroom Magic” will culminate with a market festival on Saturday, September 24th. Live music and between 10 and 15 stands of artists selling their work will line the streets.
“Mushrooms have a root system that connects underground and I think that’s what we’re doing above ground,” Lovisetto said. “We are connecting people, children, artists and nature lovers.”
