There's more than first meets the eye to the work of artist Eleanor Spiess-Ferris. Enjoy the vibrant palate, admire the technique — and you've only scratched the surface. Each of her surreal works packs a powerful message, whether it's about the role of women in the modern world or our declining natural resources.

"The Magpie Chronicles," an exhibit of 20 recent paintings by Spiess-Ferris, opens Friday at the College of Lake County.

The artist, whose work is featured at Aron Packer Gallery in Chicago, teaches at the Evanston Art Center.
Spiess-Ferris, a resident of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, reported that all of the pieces in the exhibit have been created since her husband's death six years ago. That loss is reflected in several works, most notably "Those That Were Left Behind," a heartbreaking painting that shows a woman's hollowed-out face and torso. Her breath is cold as ice and branches pierce her body. Two birds cling to those branches.

The artist explained that these are abstractions of birds that don't fly south in the winter. The clear message is that, like a widow, the birds are left behind.

Many of the paintings reflect the artist's genuine concern about our declining natural resources and the impact of that on the creatures of the earth.

"A lot of my work has to do with how we have stressed our environment so much," Spiess-Ferris said.
Birds of many varieties figure prominently in the exhibit.

"Hieronymus Bosch talked about how, at his time, everybody was so suspicious of everything in the world," Spiess-Ferris said. "They thought that birds were spirits. I latched onto that. I do think that birds are spirits — not in the negative sense that those folks did way back then, but perhaps in a positive sense. If we destroy our spirits, we'll be destroying ourselves."

Spiess-Ferris shared what she called her "personal myth" about birds.

"My story of where the birds go in the fall is not south," she said. "In my myth, many women come and pick them up, and put them in things."

Those "things" include a long conical birdhouse, as worn by a woman in the artist's message-laden "Islands."

In "Island 2," a "protector" cares for both the lilies surrounding her neck and a colorful array of birds nesting in her branch-like hair.

"Gathering Swans" shows a woman, waist-deep in water, holding five of those delicate creatures. They appear alive but only their heads and necks exist — their bodies are gone. "That's probably because we've done a nice job of destroying them," Spiess-Ferris said. The woman pictured is "picking up the pieces."
The title of the exhibit reflects the artist's childhood memories of growing up on the banks of a river in northern New Mexico. She noted that there was an irrigation ditch behind her house where many magpies lived.

"They are my favorite creature," she said. "The Magpie Chronicles" is also the title of a story the artist's daughter, who is a writer, penned about her.

Spiess-Ferris decided that title accurately reflected the message of her work.

"The magpie in mythology was the creature that would take news from the earth goddess to the heavenly gods — a transmitter," she said. "In some ways, I think of myself as a magpie. When I'm here, my totem is the crow. When I'm in New Mexico, my totem is the magpie."

"Most of my works deal with symbolism," Spiess-Ferris said. "My feeling is you really don't need to know the symbol. I like the idea of people making up their own story about what is going on because then they're pulling from themselves and they're joining the picture. I want people to think and to have fun."