Photo by Steve Ewert
After completing high school in Maine, Tracy experienced different schools of creative thought for nearly a decade (1980-1989). Concentrating on fine arts, drawing from observation, painting and editorial illustration, she attended The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, The Art Institute of Boston before receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989. As a student Tracy's illustrations appeared in the Providence Journal, Harvard Medical Review, Psychology Today, Boston Magazine, Cleveland Magazine, Chicago Magazine, the Detroit Free Press, LA Times, the Chicago Tribune and other national publications.
Tracy's talents cover a plethora of mediums; painting, public art, installations, projects, books and writing. The energy level is immense, prolific, as Tracy experiments, invents and reinvents works that react and interact. The connections within the bodies of work are not readily apparent, yet, the common thread can be found. The element of time winds through the palimpsest of memory found in her writing, the suggested quests in her paintings, or the worn materials altered by nature in her projects. Tracy's art is as much about her life as it is about the time in which we live.
Tracy has professionally instructed adult art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, guest taught at Columbia College, mentored children at the P.E.A.C.H club, and participated in workshops, panel topics, slide lectures and studio tours. She continues outreach through class visits to her studio, the SAIC Internship Program, and individual mentoring.
Her painting, public art and projects have been reviewed in Public Art Review, The Chicago Tribune, The New Art Examiner, TimeOut Chicago and The Chicago Reader to name a few. Tracy has appeared on WTTW's Artbeat and WBEZ'S Chicago Public Radio, 848 with Steve Edwards. Ms. Tracy now lives working closely with her woodworker husband, Joel, in Chicago . Tracy exhibits publicly and is in numerous collections, including two full room installations, in progress, at US Equities.
Influences of an older generation cultivate strength and commitment by example and encouragment: Grandmother's Sylvia Godfrey Street and Doris Campbell, mother Kathleen Tracy, and mentors Diana Beliard and Diann DeWeese Smith.
SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION
I encourage individual giving with commitment to cause and have supported these groups:
Aids Foundation of Chicago
Art for India, the Andu Illam home (Abode of love)
Artists for Humanity
Ashoka
Bandana Project
Barewalls, SAIC scholarship fund
Barr-Harris Children's Grief Center
Between Friends
The Bioneers
Bridge Magazine
Cabrini Connection
Christian Industrial League
Connection Arts Chicago
Counterquo
Creatives for Kerry
Deborah's Place
Dolores Huerta Foudation
Evanston Northwestern, Susan Harris Fund
Girl360
Gross Park Neighborhood Foundation
Halo Foundation
Heartland Alliance, Designs for Dignity
Hyde Park Art Center
Indestructible, ALS film by Ben Byer
Inspiration Cafe
Lincoln Park Conservatory
Living Room Cafe
Louise A. Weiss Memorial Hospital
Mary Meyer School
Oxbow
The P.E.A.C.H Club
Personal PAC Chicago
Perspectives Charter School
Ragdale Artist Residency
Rehabilitation Institute Chicago
Remains Theater
Rock for Kids
Rogers Park Garden Group
SGA Youth & Family Services
Solar Cookers International
Sustain Chicago, Family Farmers
Teen Living
The Land Connection
Three Arts Club
Union League Civic and Arts Foundation
Voices and Faces Project
Young Women's Leadership Charter School
World Bicycle Relief
MOST RECENT CIRRICULUM VITAE
Exhibitions/Installations
2008 "Heating Up", Evanston Art Center,
Evanston, Illinios: October
2006 "Positive to Negative", International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, Illinois: May-July
COLLECTIONS (Selected)
U.S. Equities, Chicago, Illinois
Robert and Susan Wislow, Chicago, Illinois
ABG Investment Group, Inc. Chicago, Illinois
Bette Cerf Hill, Bruce Sagan, Chicago, Illinois
Edwin P. and Joan Tiffany, Boston, Massachusetts
Audrey Gale, Chicago, Illinois
Stephen Colbert and Evie Mcgee, New York, New York
Steven Burns and Kate Neisser, Chicago, Illinois
Larry and Sue Yellen, Chicago, Illinois
Diana Beliard, Chicago, Illinois
Valerie Hoffman, Santa Barbara, California
David Korslund, Amersterdam, Netherlands
Tiggy Hatfield, London, Great Britain
