2008 Woodie Awards
Art Gallery exhibition extravaganza
Art work from Adele Fox, Ed Hallahan, and Jacki Mountan now on display at Delta
Molly Koehn
Issue date: 3/17/06 Section: No Limits
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The gallery filled quickly with people who truly appreciated the pieces of art. Seats were taken quickly and paper was blankly waiting to be used as a common type of art for college students, note taking.
Viewers began investigating the art work shown, each piece's experience was different for each viewer. Some of the work was abstract and hard to comprehend, where other pieces were very obvious.
The mixed-media material works, titled Nature/Mind Continuum, were done by Fox who said she has been interested in art her whole life and has been working professionally for over 20 years.
Her pieces were all similar in their appearance when you first glance at them. Many of them were done with the same neutral colors but once you get close enough you realize they are anything but the same. Each one was given something different than the one next to it.
Mokelumne was the title of one piece that was very interesting. Its naturalistic features were powerful with what the painting displayed because it had a bird and plant life mixed together which created complexity and simplicity both. The cool colors, blue and brown became livelier when you stepped closer.
"It is the relationship," said Fox. "The relationship between the materials and the spirituality which motivates me in created my art."
In the center of the gallery and along some of the side walls there were large sculptures. They were not easily understood by some of the viewers. Large bamboo tree pieces were draped with thick white nets. Not everyone looked like they were sure what they meant or were, but after some time realization of their meaning came easier.
All viewers interpret the art differently. Its take some imaginative thinking to understand what the artist is trying to convey.
Artists Hallahan and Mountan both agreed with Fox when they said they have been working professionally in the art field for over 20 years. Hallahan spoke for both himself and Mountan when he described their motivation as a repetitive process and the most important aspect being the materials.
In her statement, Fox said drawing and my working process serve as a contemplative tool allowing an "opening" or "unnaming of things" in the mind. She also says that elements reconstitute and a change of form takes place, like metamorphosis in nature. This interest resembles transmutation of thought in spiritual practice, and she believes her work as a continuing reflection of this interest.
This is very true, when looking at her work it does open your prospective to something uncommon, but its like you forgot the words because you don't know how to describe the image, you just feel it inside yourself.
One piece proved her beliefs to me, it is called Flip and it was an illustration of differences. One side of the painting was black with broken bamboo wood over the top, and the other side of the painting was white in the background and the bamboo on top was straight and aligned. It was interesting to see how she was able to incorporate an almost "ying and yang" comparison of good and bad.
Hallahan and Mountan create a play of opposites with the intention of making objects in space that have the sensation of being liminal or betwixt, and between space, which is essentially intuited and felt space said in their artist statement.
"Our bodies and minds connect heaven and earth as does the tree, a great symbol and source of the connection between heaven and earth," stated in the artist statement.
All three of the artists rely heavily on nature and the different aspects of it. It is their motivation and the meaning of what they create. Without it their art would have a much different affect.
Take some time out of your day or lunch to stop by the L.H. Horton Jr. Gallery in the Shima building to experience these natural based works of art. They will be on display through April 6, 2006.