Expand Your View at Rust Belt Art Gallery, East Moline
By Jonathan Turner
As the copious amount of public art continues to explode in the Quad Cities, on top of rotating Quad City Arts galleries at their downtown Rock Island home base and the QC airport in Moline, it’s gratifying to see another great gallery at the busy Rust Belt complex in East Moline.
The Rust Gallery, 533 12th Ave., East Moline, in the flexible event space between The Rust Belt and Midwest Ale Works (which have been open since 2019), opened in June 2024 as Art on the Bend, by prominent local artist Atlanta Dawn.
The cool gallery, with exposed brick walls, features rotating artists each month, with a reception on the second Thursday of the month.
Paintings this month are by Sam McFarland, who runs the nearby Painted Monkey Tattoo shop (photo by Jonathan Turner)
July’s artist has been Sam McFarland, a longtime painter who works in a wide variety of media and owner of the nearby Painted Monkey Tattoo shop (944 15th Ave., East Moline). Her artist statement, in the left corner of the space, for her “Extinction” series of paintings, is as powerful as her colorful art itself.
The theme of the July exhibit, by Sam McFarland, is “Extinction” (photo by Jonathan Turner).
Paintings this month are by Sam McFarland, who runs the nearby Painted Monkey Tattoo shop (photo by Jonathan Turner)
She wrote that President Trump’s executive orders against transgender people in the U.S. are “filled with such hate, directed at a very marginalized sliver of the population.”
“I was witnessing an attempt at extinction. Trans people are such a small portion of the population that many people don’t know a trans person or think they don’t,” McFarland wrote. “They are barely represented anywhere, and yet they are being demonized for basic aspects of anyone’s existence.”
The current exhibit features portraits of trans people, accompanied by stories in their own words (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“We’re told in these orders that they don’t exist, can’t exist, shouldn’t exist,” she wrote. “Due to society’s challenges, trans people have statistically much higher suicide rates and the heavy public demonizing of them would surely increase the number of good people lost. That was the point, extinction.”
McFarland has a trans daughter and has helped her become “who she knows she is.”
“They are kind, sharing people who don’t want to stir up the world, but instead live in it peacefully and authentically. So I wanted to introduce you to my world, these beautiful, powerful people who had to go through so much to feel like themselves,” the artist wrote. “There’s something so profound about choosing your existence in a world that wants you to stay static, and be who you were told.”
“Everyone represented here today chose their destiny, struggled against society’s standards and were brave in the face of physical and emotional roadblocks to their progress,” McFarland wrote. “They suffered for their truth and I believe that makes their journey bold, powerful and beautiful. Trans people should be looked at as masters of their own destiny and an inspiration to become yourself, no matter the cost.
The current exhibit features portraits of trans people, accompanied by stories in their own words (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“In a world which touts the value of authenticity, there’s no greater example of personal fortitude,” she wrote. “There is no one path, there is no one way to be. There should only be love and acceptance. There will be no extinction.”
Her exhibit (which runs through the end of the month) includes several rainbow-themed portraits of trans people, accompanied by their inspiring stories in their own words.
Whenever you’re at a Rust Belt event, or at the MAW craft brewery, be sure to check out the amazing local talents on display here. The gallery (which shares hours with MAW, opening 2 p.m. weekdays and at noon Friday-Sunday), will feature these artists the rest of 2025:
- August – Adriana Mc Bride
- September – Miranda Vavrosky
- October – Multi-artist show
- November – Shayla Ray and Rikki Carmichael
- December – Shalee Talbert
Entrance to the Rust Gallery, in East Moline, between the Rust Belt and Midwest Ale Works (photo by Jonathan Turner).
Jonathan Turner is a veteran journalist and piano player, who has made the QC home since 1995 and loves writing about arts and culture. He is the author of the books “A Brief History of Bucktown: Davenport's Infamous District Transformed,” and “100 Things To Do in the Quad Cities Before You Die”.