The Eighth Biennial Faculty Exhibition is taking place in The Esther Prangley Rice Gallery of Peterson Hall from Nov. 22 to Dec. 16 and is sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History at McDaniel.
“Naptime on a Summer Day” by Chloe Irla. Photo by Genna Weger.
This exhibit covers a wide range of media styles from the Art and Art History Department faculty, including abstract paintings by professor Steven Pearson, iPad photographs by adjunct lecturer Walter Calahan, and wearable botanical art by adjunct lecturer Linda Van Hart.
In addition, adjunct lecturer Ken Hankins exhibits several pottery pieces, while professor Susan Scott, who specializes in Chinese and Japanese art history, displays four small Chinese hanging scrolls. Baltimore artist Chloe Irla, a visiting assistant professor and a 2007 McDaniel alumna, also presents intermedia and digital art from “Blaze Breakers,” an ongoing interdisciplinary project that, according to Irla, “utilizes analog and digital processes to distort, degrade and destroy the color blaze orange.”
“Stoneware” by Ken Hankins. Photo by Genna Weger.
The most prominent feature of this display is “Blaze Breakers,” by Chloe Irla. “I was inspired by living in Maine for a year, I saw this color everywhere. I began collecting samples of it and I wanted to archive them digitally, I scanned a blazed orange bandanna; however, the scanner software could not handle this color,” so she asked herself what else could not handle this color?
This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see the range and depth of works by select McDaniel faculty members. Calahan expresses his passion for photography. He says, “In this show, I plan to display iPad photography in pursuit of chaos.”
Van Hart’s jewelry was beautiful and elegant. She is a total-process metal smith and jewelry-maker specializing in symbolic botanical portraits. Her life’s work consists of three-dimensional botanical portraits.
Jewlery by Linda Van Hart (left case: “Edisto,” right case: “Savannah”). Photo by Genna Weger.
“Directing bodies in space is an exciting adventure in kinetic translation: lithe mass in lyrical motion inspires changing scale in sculpture, overlapping planes and sinuous lines in the rhythmic choreography of metal. Every hammer stroke is part of a conceptual dance that takes place only once in the confluence of time, space and energy. Then it passes. This handmade work is one of a kind just like you are. I dance with hammers!” Van Hart explains.
“Chaos” by Walter Calahan. Photo by Genna Weger.
In her first display, the intriguing design of the necklace is so intricate. Van Hart explains, “The Savannah necklace was inspired by the Spanish moss hanging on a harry lauder walking stick bush outside of the presidents house of
Savannah College of Art and Design. I took photographs of it and I drew looking right at it. It’s kinetic and moving all the time, this is the romantic look of the old south. I figured if I use reticulation and granulation I could capture that look.” She uses this technique time and time again for other pieces she creates.
Every display was very different and unique in its own way, using lots of color and shapes and showcasing different artist with very different visions. Each piece took months or even years to finish. Chloe Irla concludes about her work, “This was an ongoing project that has taken me four years to piece together.”
