Bloomington, Illinois

The splendor of Colorado is apparently not enough for us. So we grabbed our backpacks and hopped a flight back home to Chicago last week!

Before we left home over a month ago, I planned to fly back home sometime in late-April for ICADP's big victory party to celebrate Illinois becoming the 16th state to repeal the death penalty. How could I miss it? But then we heard through the facebook-grapevine that a week before, Heartland Community College in Bloomington was hosting the inaugural opening of the Joe McCauley Art Gallery in memory of Dave's friend Nate's dad. So we made a trip of it!

It was Joe McCauley's first one-man show featuring his own work and it was combined with a silent-auction of student art for a scholarship in his name for art students. Joe was an artist and art professor at HCC since it opened in '90 until his death in '09. At the reception for the gallery opening, a few of his colleagues and his son Brian described his passion for the work, students and his family. I was surprised and pleased to hear one his closest colleagues tell us about how the two of them were regulars at the Bloomington Trades & Labor Council meetings, walked picket lines whenever there was labor strife and was a leader in the faculty union. My kinda guy.

The gallery was beautiful. The silent auction was a little out of our price range with starting bids at $100 (pretty much everything that costs money is out of our price range these days...) but there were plenty I would've loved to own. Here is a sampling of his work.

We were stoked to see Nate, his brother Brian, sister Julia and his mom Lori and our friends Dan, Twyla, Arcadia, Eric, Ryan and many more. We didn't tell anybody we were coming into town for the reception so they were surprised to see us. I'm happy to report that the auction raised over $6000 for the scholarship fund. The gallery and scholarship are a lasting tribute at the school to a teacher who made a significant impact on students, the community and his friends and colleagues.

Arcadia and her dad

After the party we were invited to a friend of Nate's for a cookout. It was lots of great people, good beer, and delicious kebabs. The best part was when the party all moved to the rooftop and Nate's friend Courtney broke out her fire hoola-hoop. Dave took some classic pics we had to show you:

Nate with an LED hoop

"Art enriches life, helps to make it tolerable, and more liveable." - Joe McCauley