The Department of Art and Design is taking a break from showing off student work by shining the spotlight on the department’s faculty instead.
The Faculty Exhibition, the biennial faculty art show takes place every two years and shows off the talents behind the teachers.
Jack Maxwell, a professor in the art department, is the director of the Shore Art Gallery where the art is being displayed. He said the show is a good showcase of the talent the professors harbor and show students a different side of them.
“I believe that to be a good a good teacher you need to be a good artist,” Maxwell said. “The faculty loves to show their work, and it allows students to see what their teachers have been working on.”
The show opened Sept. 11 with a reception and will remain open until Oct. 22. All 11 faculty members, including Maxwell, are featured in the show.
Maxwell’s piece, Two Tree: Eden Series, is a series of four paintings illustrating a tree. The description listed next to the painting says the painting as a whole is about choosing and depicts two ancient trees – roots inseparably locked and entangled together. The trees are located in Avebury, England.
Maxwell said there is a good variety of work on display in the gallery.
“There’s some art pieces in it all the way from realism to abstraction,” he said.
Many of the pieces are works have a personal meaning to the artist.
Virginia Sadler, another professor in the department, has two different styles of art on display. On the walls hang two collages, and in a display case sit three handmade silver pieces – Server with Oak Leaves, Oak Leaves I and Oak Leaves II. The oak leaf theme stems back to memories she had when she was little.
“I love oak tree leaves because my childhood home was surrounded by oak trees and we have a big oak tree in our backyard in Abilene,” she said.
Two of the pieces are pins to wear that she completed in 1997. The third is a silver server made from two vacuformed silver shapes with ornamentation derived from oak leaf shapes she completed last summer.
The collages are composed of scrap paper left over “as is” from class projects she’s administered to students.
Next to her collages, a plaque explains that her work tends to be low-tech with roller printed texture and fabrication techniques.
Other professors featured in the art show are:
Mike Wiggins, department chair and associate professor
Ronnie Rama, associate professor
Geoffrey Broderick, associate professor
Ryan Freer, instructor
Robert Green, professor
Kenny Jones, professor
Dan McGregor, associate professor
Nil Santana, assistant professor
Brandon Young, assistant professor
