Danielle Dobies, 21, works with photography, oil paint and colored pencils to capture images at the food bank and its many pantries. The Elmhurst College art student recorded the many faces of the food pantry while she worked there for a month.
"I took my camera and went to those sites and found subjects and took lots of photographs and then I would take those photos to my studio and do the actual painting from those," Dobies said.
The project "Faces of Sustenance" is inspired by the human face.
"There's a connection with life in seeing someone's face. You can connect with their personalities, specifically for this project that I'm working on," said Dobies.
Dobies captured faces of those who give and those who receive. The paintings are of real people- those who worked at the food bank, volunteered there or came for help.
"All my other portraits are kind of positive. They have smiley faces," Dobies said. "They are people there with their food. These are kind of a different message. They're a little bit more sad. They're expecting the food. They haven't received it yet. But I think that emotion does grab people."
According to Northern Illinois Food Bank, northernilfoodbank.org , Dobie's art is already paying off.
"We're already seeing some people drawn to it and hopefully that'll draw people to get more involved and give money, food, time . . . whatever," said Jarrod Daab, Northern Illinois Food Bank.
Dobie's work is on exhibit Tuesday night at the Elmhurst College Frick Center, 190 Prospect Avenue Elmhurst, IL 60126-3296; (630) 617-3500. Northern Illinois Food Bank will then put it on display in St. Charles.
Northern Illinois Food Bank
600 Industrial Drive
St. Charles, IL 60174
T: 630.443.6910
F:630.443.6916
northernilfoodbank.org
Elmhurst College Frick Center
190 Prospect Avenue
Elmhurst, IL 60126-3296
(630) 617-3500
