Artist dedicates 3 paintings for library
BY CHARLES BERMAN cberman@pioneerlocal.com August 24, 2011 8:50AM
Kenneth Henry, President of the Library Board of Trustees, unveiled three paintings that were dedicated to the Highland Park Library on Sunday. | Morgan Glier~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 3, 2011 10:48AM
Artist Yelena Klairmont’s love for family, Highland Park and its library came together Sunday when she dedicated three of her paintings in honor of three of her family’s matriarchs to be displayed above the library’s check-out desk.
Klairmont explained that her mother-in-law, Elaine Klairmont, and her grandmothers Ester Kudla and Zinaida Mogelevskaya loved few things more than family and reading.
Elaine Klairmont, who recently passed away, practically raised her five kids in the Highland Park Public Library, Yelena said. And when her grandmothers emigrated from the Ukraine, the library bolstered its collection of Russian-language titles to provide them reading options.
“I wanted to honor them, and the library was the perfect place because they were all big readers,” Klairmont said.
The result was Sunday’s dedication, in which several library officials accepted Klairmont’s paintings in honor of her three matriarchs.
The paintings all depict historically significant places in Highland Park, from an Indian council ring designed by renowned local landscape architect Jens Jensen, the Rosewood Bridge and the Central Avenue Park ravine.
“They were from a series of paintings I did a while ago while researching Highland Park,” Klairmont explained. “I was really interested in (the history of) Highland Park: the ravines, Jens Jensen...”
Klairmont’s council ring painting portrays that of the one located on Marshman Street. The Rosewood Bridge piece portrays the Jensen-designed bridge and the painting of the Central Avenue Park ravine resembles the local scene in the fall.
“The paintings are in loving memory of those three matriarchs, who all loved reading,” Klairmont said. “On the plaques it says they passed this love of literature to the next generation of their families and the library is a great place to be. And the paintings really resonate with Highland Park and the library.”
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