Matt Irie (TGS ’02) always had a passion for manipulating the mundane. The artist has transformed items as simple as a saucepan, bath towel and even a stop sign into works of art. “There’s something about going to the hardware store and then trying to make something extraordinary out of the ordinary,” Irie said. In.
For Evanston-based sculpture artist Indira Freitas Johnson, art and nonviolence have always been intertwined. Growing up in Mumbai, she was influenced by her parents’ work. Her mother started a community development center and her father, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, was an artist. “(My father) would tell us stories about Gandhi’s nonviolent methods,” Johnson said..