Exhibit Information:

Karen Fike's Guitar: "Rocking Love and Hope in Joliet"

In 2023, I was selected as one of 12 local and regional artists to create a six-foot fiberglass guitar for Ready to Rock, a public-art project presented by the Joliet City Center Partnership, the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and the City of Joliet. My guitar, Rocking Love & Hope in Joliet, was sponsored by the Joliet Slammers and originally installed outside the Joliet Area Historical Museum.

Art with a Heartfelt Tale: "Waffle Was Here"

The piece became unexpectedly personal while I was creating it. Shortly before the guitar arrived, we learned that our beloved pug, Waffle, had a tumor. She stayed beside me while I worked on the sculpture.

The night before we said goodbye to her, Todd and I pressed Waffle's paws into magenta paint and added her prints around the base of the guitar. I transformed many of them into flowers, leaving one paw print untouched with the words “Waffle Was Here.”

Waffle lived nearly 18 years. What began as a public-art project became something more: a permanent little record that she was here, she was loved, and she left her mark.