Illinoisan artist to showcase works at Prairie Chic on Saturday

Tienne Rei Kollars, of Herrin, Ill., is having an art show at Prairie Chic Handcrafts and Antiques store from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Her artwork, which goes by Tienne Rei Art, includes fine art with a surrealist fantasy.

“Costume design is a big influence with old time art deco and art nouveau,” she said. “There is a lot of interest just because of the slight art nouveau. Some of it is more modern. Some of it is surrealistic and sometimes it’s more realistic, but there’s a stylization that comes to it.”

Kollars has twins who just started Kindergarten.Some of her complex pieces she has wanted to paint will be inspired by different places she has visited lately.

“I’ve just started a lot more complex pieces that I’ve been wanting to do, but for five years, I’ve home with kids,” Kollars said. “I’ve been doing more simple works than what I've been wanting to do because the only time I have to work is when the kids go to bed. I’ve been limited for the past five years so I’ve recently been creating things I’ve been wanting to do for some time.”

Kollars lives in southern Illinois in Herrin, which is outside Carbondale.

“My latest project has some ties to a local state park where we took the kids camping,” she said. “The views were amazing, but I’m not a landscape artist. I like these figurative pieces with crazy costume aspects, but I can still do the ladies and have different elements from the area built in to them.”

Herrin is a town of about 10,000 people, while Carbondale is much larger.

Kollars is coming to Kansas for the show and to visit her sister, Tana Davis, who lives in rural Hope. She has been to and through Kansas before, as her husband used to be a truck driver and he also worked in Emporia for awhile.

Kollars is excited about  visiting Davis to come see the sunsets.

“I’m looking forward to a huge vista,” she said. “I can see a tree line where I live right now, but the sunsets and sunrises are what I loved about living in New Mexico, where I could see for miles.”

She said Davis has told her that she has a beautiful view and can see all around the property.

“I’m looking forward to seeing that part of it,” Kollars said.

Kollars will be selling some limited edition prints at the show.

“I’m really looking forward to heading out and seeing what is there and meeting everyone,” she said. “It should be a really good weekend.”

Denise Homer, Prairie Chic store owner, said she is really excited to have a young and talented artist whose work has been shown around the Midwest  to be holding a show in the local store.

“Hopefully this will encourage the citizens of Herington and our local area to tap into their inner talents that Mark (Homer) and I know are out there,” she said. “Her sister, Tana, has shown some of the pieces that our resident artist has to offer. She will be offering classes to help encourage young and older artists to take advantage of the experience.”

Dr. Mark Homer, store owner, also hopes the art show will help encourage other entrepreneurs who can turn their artistic pieces in to a business.

“This is what we have designed for our store, to help offer space for artistic types to sell their original works or repurposed pieces, making money in a storefront business without having to man it all themselves.”