Running
Back in the fall of 1993 I was looking for award ideas for The Race That’s Good for Life, scheduled for the following April. We were trying to come up with something other than the typical, tacky “bowling trophies” given to winners at most races. But what would be attractive, unique, and, of course, reasonably priced?
Thinking that maybe ceramic pieces could be custom-made, I walked into the little ceramics studio, Terra Incognito, on Chicago Avenue near Lombard, where I met the owner, Delores Fortuna. I told her what we were looking for, and she thought that clay tiles imprinted with the race logo, would be appropriate. And Fortuna’s been making them ever since – each year a different design – and she signs the back of each plaque. She has used different clays over the years, and the tiles now are more flat and uniform than some of the early versions, which were more variable.
Delores is not a runner. In fact, she walks with the aid of a cane, but she enthusiastically agreed to the annual race awards production even with her own creative pottery making, and her teaching schedule at the Art Institute of Chicago. She appears at numerous art fairs and exhibitions, mostly in the Midwest, and her pieces are displayed at the Dubuque Museum of Art, Lill Street Gallery in Chicago, AKAR Gallery in Iowa City, and museums in Amsterdam and in Belgium. Her pieces have been accepted for an international ceramics show in Mino, Japan, and she has exhibited at porcelain symposiums in Italy and Finland. Locally, her pieces are sold and displayed at Terra Incognito (which she no longer owns), and over the June 5-6 weekend she’ll be at the 57th Street Art Fair in Hyde Park.
Fortuna’s primary residence is now in rural Galena – literally way out in the woods, where she can watch wild turkeys stroll through her property while she works in her studio. Each October 10 local potters in the Galena area sponsor a show called “Twenty Dirty Hands,” displaying their work and offering tours of their studios. It’s a nice weekend getaway for the fall. Fortuna is also in Oak Park a couple of times a week because of her Art Institute teaching schedule.
As of 2010, she has produced 17 different award tiles for The Race That’s Good for Life, and next year will be the 30th anniversary of the event, so we’ll be working on a special race logo. Since there are always a few extra tiles made, I have saved one of each, and they are displayed on the wall of my study. My wife and I have also purchased some of Fortuna’s other pieces, including an ornamental bowl and some dinner pieces, which we use regularly.
Her work adds a bit of class to The Race That’s Good for Life each year, and she likes the annual challenge of translating each year’s race logo into a clay design.
Paul Oppenheim is a member of the Oak Park Runners Club.