Storefront shops and studios offering a selection of “art, art supplies and beautiful things” in Chicago are in abundance, to make a large understatement, but Martha Mae: Art Supplies & Beautiful Things in Andersonville is able to offer an experience beyond shopping. Walking into the carefully curated shop, you feel as if you’ve entered a museum of collectible and usable art. Negative space becomes just as important as the objects that occupy each end of it. Jean Marie Cate and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (and shop namesake) Martha Mae run the shop together. The placement of each and every item is exact, and the arrangements themselves warrant a museum wing. The only difference between a museum and Martha Mae’s shop is that here you are encouraged to touch the objects in an atmosphere that is at once refined and welcoming.
