by Enrique Viveros
From October 10th to 28th the Visual Arts faculty hosted an art exhibition in the Anna Lamar Switzer Gallery with artist introductions and reception on October 20th. The exhibition, Show and Tell!, showcased ten faculty members with art ranging from ceramics to painting to photography.
Brian Weaver, department head of Visual Arts, introduced the exhibition with excitement. Weaver said, “We are, as you know, exhibiting very highly skilled artists and you know them very formally in the education environment, but I thought it would be really fun this year to also give a little insight into what we do as professional artists outside of our classroom.”
During the artist introductions each of the exhibiting artists presented their works as well as a talk about who they are, what they create, and why they create art.
Micah Cain, a ceramic instructor, showcased his work from when he was an undergraduate at Shorter College, now called Shorter University, to work he is producing now. His early works were from 2001 to 2004 when he was at Shorter College and was influenced by Japanese ceramics and the use of irregular form made to look handmade. The most significant changes he experienced during graduate school was moving away from the functional form and experimenting with different treatments and finishes he can apply to the surface of his vessels and moving away from the potter’s wheel to create organic forms.
Hailee Potter teaches photography, graphic design, and humanities art. “I really enjoy getting my hands to be a part of the image and using materials to create images without the use of a camera, “ said Potter, “That’s the biggest part about this is that there is no camera with this image making, so it’s something I really enjoyed.” She exhibited her MFA thesis work called Nondisclosure, which delves into the idea of identity and how we all are trying to assess who we are and figure out ourselves,” said Potter. “In this body of work I worked in the directorial mode to create these intimate somewhat detached portraits to depict this idea of this in between this stuff this kind of about to make a decision but not.”
Printmaking, sculpting, and 2D and 3D instructor Jimmy Rhea exhibited a wide range of different works from his lifetime. He brought his first-grade name sticker and a Roomba vacuum that can draw at his command. “I’m most inspired when I’m learning things and incorporating them in new ways to me and then with new and old technology,” said Rhea. One of his newest images is a new piece he’s carving which depicts a rabbit in a military tank. Rhea said, “One of the ways that I find inspiration is by looking at old manuscripts. Of course, look at our history and things that have been made in the past and they came across these strange rabbits in medieval manuscripts that were killing other men. Apparently monks at one point in time got bored when they were giving their manuscripts because before we had the printing press they were all written out and in the margins they decided to have rabbits killing everything, so I thought what the heck I want to make a new one of these so I put a rabbit in a tank and right now I’m in the process of carving this blocked so I can make a right of it later on so and it’s kind of nice little leather jacket on and a machine gun and whatnot and it’s kind of fun to have some humor.”
Assistant drawing and painting instructor, Paula Work, describes her process and the different subjects portrayed in her paintings. “My work is completely self-centered and about process. I’m not trying to make anyone aware of anything or make you feel a certain way,” said Work. Her subject matter mostly portrays animals. “I love the innocence or the lack of blame that animals represent to me.” Throughout her time as a painter, she has had times where she’s been painting for long periods of time and then it hit her that she can do whatever she wants and to do. She enjoys “filling the paintings full of symbolic images that no one will ever understand. I try to make everything better, you know just putting in things that the animal in a simpler life symbolizes maybe myself and then I just try to fill it.”
The final exhibition of the Fall 2022 semester is the Dr. Marjan Mazza Bachelor of Applied Science in Business and Management-Graphic Design Senior exhibition titled How Design Makes Us Think, Feel, and Do Things. This exhibition is showing from November 14th to December 9th with a reception held on December 1st at five pm at the Anna Lamar Switzer Gallery.