[September 16, 2022]      

On Saturday, Mount Pulaski Courthouse Site Director Steve Martin was busy welcoming guests into the courthouse for a free gallery style art show featuring works of local artists from Dragonfly Studios in Elkhart.

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On the first floor of the courthouse, the first and most noticeable new addition to the historic site was a life sized statue of Abraham Lincoln without his facial hair, as he would have looked in the years that he practiced law in Mount Pulaski.

The statue was donated to the courthouse by the Mount Pulaski High School. The decision had been made by the Mount Pulaski Board of Education earlier this year that the statue would probably be better off in a new home. The board had reached out to Martin who was happy to have the new attraction for the courthouse. Saturday afternoon he posed for a picture with the new acquisition before leading the way for a tour of the art on display.
 

 

 

Martin said the works on display in the second floor courtroom were mounted on partition board he had found in storage. When he came across the boards, they reminded him of the false walls used in galleries for the display of art, and the idea was born to hold an art show.

 

 

He spoke with Dragonfly owner Renee Sisk and got the wheels in motion. Martin said he was very happy to have the opportunity to draw a new demographic of visitors to the courthouse by featuring local art.

 

All the art was well displayed on easels downstairs and upstairs, as well as the partition board. Martin enjoys art and found one painting in particular of great interest. Painted on stretched canvas instead of a canvas board, a dessert at sunset landscape is one of the nice pieces on display upstairs. Martin took the painting off the hanger and held it up to a window in the courtroom where the sun was shining in brightly.

The painting took on a whole new perspective with the bright and light colors of the sunset sky glowing from behind while the darker more opaque paints of the landscape remained dark.