'Start with a vision' Woman uses attitude to create art, fight

CARBONDALE, Ill.-- When Inga Silver was 14 months old, she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. When she was 10 years old, she found a book belonging to her parents, and did some reading on her own about her medical condition. She realized that she was expected to lose her sight at age 16, and to die at around 20.

She refused.

"When I was 16, I did show the beginning stages of blindness, but I just had this attitude -- I was tough and I was angry and I refused to get sicker and I didn't," Silver said.

Instead she became a visual artist. Silver has worked at her art since she was a toddler in Mossville, when her mother gave her her first box of crayons.

Silver graduated from Southern Illinois University's commercial graphics program in 1984, and has been using her unique vision to produce public art around the region for the past seven years.

Her public art is displayed at the Cache River Wetlands in Belknap, the Williamson County Airport, the old Elks' Lodge in Murphysboro, and in Smysor Plaza, also in Murphysboro.

Silver isn't shy about letting people know she is ready and willing to create art -- anywhere. When she rides her bicycle to work, she often wears a T-shirt that reads "Artist for Hire" above her phone number.

"So far, no one's called, but I get a lot of smiles from drivers," she said.

Beauty in public places

One recent morning, Silver stood in the sun on the sidewalk in front of the Neighborhood Food Co-op in Carbondale, painting designs on the big plate glass window and talking about what public art means to her.

She was recently hired by the co-op to paint its windows, and she took to the project with focused enthusiasm.

"Public art is very important on a number of levels," Silver said. "First of all, people need to have beauty in public places. And it's important for communities to use public art to inspire and motivate people -- not to necessarily become artists themselves, but to notice the world around them more, to look carefully at everything and notice their reaction to it."

Silver was painting a simple pattern of geometric designs on the front windows of the co-op, and adding a more complex design to the interior side windows.

Silver said any community can bring art into its public spaces.

"I think the finest result happens when a group of people, with maybe one or two artists acting as consultants, works together," Silver said. "But in the end, every project needs to create itself. You can start with a vision, but as the project starts to take shape, you need to listen to it and it will talk back to you."

A few years ago, Silver underwent laser surgery on her eyes to repair leaking blood vessels. For four months after the surgery, she saw black, red and blue vertical lines. Later, she made a series of paintings depicting what the world looked like to her through the lines.

The paintings caught the eye of Murphysboro Lion's Club president, Roger Jones, who works to benefit the American Diabetes Association. Now it looks like Silver's paintings will go on a tour to help educate people about diabetes. That's fine with her.

"This is my basic philosophy," she said. "Bite like a bulldog and don't let go."