By Kelsi Peace, Features Editor
After a summer spent immersed in his art studio, Dr. Dan McGregor, professor of art and design, emerged with a solo exhibition at Concordia University in Austin to show for his efforts.
McGregor’s exhibition, “Martyrs Mendicants Machines, relics for modern man,” is on display in the Gallery at Concordia, located in the Louise T. Peter Center.
The exhibition began Sept. 8 and will end Oct. 10. An opening reception, which McGregor attended, took place Sept. 9.
McGregor said he felt that everyone who viewed the exhibit enjoyed it.
“The best parts of the reception were being blessed by all these people who traveled a long way … and second, the food. Art was the third,” he said.
McGregor won his solo exhibition in the 2005 Arte Sagrado competition, which is “Concordia’s national juried exhibition of contemporary sacred art,” according to the Concordia University Web site.
“It’s a good show to enter, especially if you have kind of spiritual themes in your work,” McGregor said.
McGregor’s winning piece, “Cinderella and Death (Beauty for Ashes),” combines an oil painting on canvas with wood. It is both two- and three-dimensional and uses wood or other altered pieces, he said.
“I’m really influenced by medieval and renaissance, technology and art,” McGregor said.
His exhibit is composed of 18 pieces, although he originally intended to incorporate 20 pieces, McGregor said.
A 7-by-4-foot painting McGregor included in the exhibit occupied the majority of his time this summer, he said.
“I really didn’t have much of a summer in terms of recreation,” he said. “I pretty much spent it all here in my studio. [Art is] like showing up for a job and coming and doing your work, not just waiting until a lightning bolt strikes and you feel inspired. Sometimes you don’t feel inspired, and you need to work anyway,” he said.
After his artwork was complete, McGregor said he borrowed a van and transported his work to the gallery himself.
Once there, McGregor left it to others to display his artwork for the exhibit.
“I didn’t totally like how they hung it; I would have made some different choices,” McGregor said.
McGregor said he is ready for a break from art to dedicate time to restoring a balance to his life that was lost in preparation for the exhibit; however, he said he has a notebook filled with ideas for future pieces, and sketches his ideas on the paper nearest to him whenever an idea strikes.
“It’s fun working on a goal and working on a cohesive body of work. It’s just really exhausting.”
