The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1919-07-05
Art Exhibit
at Temple Cottage Annex
Held June 27, 28 and 80
A Profusion of Beautiful Paintings
on Display
&C. B. Wy

While art is taught through all the eight
grades of the Junior Department and the
tour years of the Preparatory Department of
Zion Schools in very thorough and effec-
tive manner, separate division of the De-
partment of Music, known as the Art
Department. is devoted to its instruction
exclusively. This is located in the Temple
Cottage Annex, being under the direction
of Miss Mary Mories.
This is the only place in Zion Educa-
tlonal Institutions where oil painting is
taught. For obvious reasons, it would be
impracticable to undertake to teach oil
painting to the hundreds of pupils of all
ages attending school in Zion College Build
ing. The nature of the materials used
would be a serious handicap. Hence, the
pastello is much more suitable for GEN
eral school work
But in Temple Cottage Annex, the con-
ditions are different The pupils, for the
most part, are of the more advanced class.
A pupil here, if he desires to do so, may
take up oil painting after finishing school
work, giving his entire attention to art.
He has an opportunity to concentrate on
that alone, with nothing else to distract
his attention
Some of the students take oil painting
during spare time, while they are still in
school. A few of the teachers, also. have
found work of this kind very profitable,
turning out some beautiful productions,
with which they have adorned the walls
OF their school rooms, as we'll as their
homes
1t is here that the married lady NAV
lind the long craved-for opportunity to cul-
tivate her taste in art by taking lessons, with
a view of turning the knowledge to practical
advantage in the way of beautifying her
home, as soon as she has acquired neces-
Sary skill.
Nothing so brightens a home or adds to
its attractiveness, as beautiful pictures, Sc
lected with artistic taste One may have
the most expensive rugs and the grandest
mahogany parlor set money can buy but
IT there are no pictures, the finishing artis-
tic touch is lacking They are the interior
adornment of home, as flowers, vines and
shrubbery are the outer adornment, and are
just as surely an indication of inborn re-
tnement. They are the reflection of the
loveliness with which the Creator has
clothed all nature. They bring into our
lives that which soothes the over-wrought
nerves and gets us away from the strenuous
things of life. They enable the tired brain
worker in his city home, after the arduous
duties of the day, to again live over the
scenes of his childhood. They bring mem
cries of the shady knel1s, and of the wind
ing streams, along which he meandered
with hook and line as barefoot boy. They
remind him of the wooded slopes and the
rustling autumn leaves, of the grazing cat
tie, and of the. blue hills stretching away
in the distance They recall to him the
misty valleys, with the clink of anvil and
forge, of the old farmhouse, with its we'll
and iron-bound, moss-covered bucket They
bring to his memory the old swimming pool,
dear to his heart and the willow draped
stretches of quiet water where he used to
row by the hour
The study of art reveals to the student
wonderful things in nature, which he never
noticed or thought of before, and fills him
with a deeper reverence for God.
One should never become so engrossed
with cares and the stern realities of life
that he cannot find time to admire and ap-
preciate the beautiful things in nature with
which the Creator has so lavishly sur
rounded us. Just so surely as one does this,
he is permitting himself to be robbed of
rich heritage, and his nature will become
dwarfed and sordid in proportion. An
infinite all-wise God, when creating the
world and all the necessary things in life,
found time to place the wild flowers among
Continued on page 9O)