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Watercolorist Phoebe Smith Debuts New Series at Gallery 200

West Chicago, Illlinois - October 30, 2006 - Watercolorist Phoebe Smith brings the joy of maintaining and strengthening trans-continental familial ties to downtown West Chicago's Gallery 200 through her exhibit Bridging the Long Distance: An American Emigrant's Perspective of Extended Family. The exhibit is the first showing of this expressive body of work and will delight visitors with its strong representations of Smith's longing to retain family ties on both sides of the ocean.

Born in Chicago in 1952 to Minnesotan Phyllis (Enquist) Johansson and Swedish immigrant, Anders Johansson, Smith not only had the typical Swedish-American experience starting on Clark Street and moving on to the northern suburbs, but she herself was an emigrant at the age of 11 when her family moved to Tranas, Sweden.

There she met many of her Swedish relatives for the first time, attended Swedish grammar school, learned Swedish as a second language and made the cultural adjustment just in time to return to the States two years later. Drawing became especially important to her during the awkward pre-teen years in Sweden as she dealt with the acculturation process and second language acquisition. Art offered her an immediate means of expression that could be accomplished without words.

After learning basic Swedish, Smith went on to learn other foreign languages, became an international stewardess, and English as a Second Language teacher, a facilitator for Hispanic Ministry and a tester for World Relief. She has continued to draw and paint over the years and has recently earned a certificate in Botanical Art from the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL.

Smith's upcoming Gallery 200 exhibit consists of 12 paintings on the theme of re-united immigrant families; or more specifically, Smith's own bi-cultural identity finding home in extended family. Commenting on the exhibit, Smith said, "Surely this desire is typical of many immigrant families, but in many cases the ties eventually become worn thin and disappear. My hope is that these paintings will evoke the feeling of joy created by the intentional strengthening of long-distance familial ties."

Bridging the Long Distance series will be displayed during the month of November after an opening reception scheduled for Friday, November 3, 2006 where visitors will enjoy meeting the artist. Light refreshments will be served, and as always, admission is free to the public. Gallery 200 is located at 200 Main Street in downtown West Chicago. For more information about this or other exhibits, please contact the West Chicago City Museum at (630) 231-3376.