In real life creativity is not self destructive, nor is it bestowed upon just a gifted few. It is a real and vital part of all our lives. Creativity is not a part time thing--something we use while we work, and then put away for the evening. Nor is it something we do on our off hours to compensate for the tedium of the work place.
We use our creativity in everything we do. At work we use it to solve problems, find new ways to do things, and in our interactions with clients and co-workers. Away from our jobs we use it to develop our other potentials and interests without the limits required by the work place. Even in our sleep we create fantasy worlds and experiences even beyond the limits of human possibility.
In Real Life . . . The GSD Staff Art Exhibit presents a small part of the output of a highly creative and diverse work force. I have worked closely with many of the exhibitors over the years, and have long appreciated how talented they all are. In Real Life . . . demonstrates a side of their talent and creativity that most of us have not had the chance to appreciate before.
Paula Ehler has contributed a set of portraits of Dan, Paul and Janet, including two "mistakes" --photographs which were accidentally double exposed to produce very interesting results. Her "Blue Angels" is a series of pairs of photographs of punk rockers, one of each in black & white, and one of each tinted blue and sliced into jagged pieces, as if to contrast reality with how it felt at the time.
Jim Reid-Cunningham has contributed several examples of his book-binding skills, including the fanciful "Around the Day in Eighty Worlds" with the original book held in an archival box by strings of mini-globes. Also included are the miniature bindings "Night Thoughts" & "London" and custom bindings of "Goldsmith Poems" and "A Certain Lucas" with its elaborate geometric leather work.
Scott Kehoe has contributed a set of photographs including black & white photos of a motel & trailer camp, and some brilliantly colored photos of a Civil War Monument, lily pads, a carnival, and others. All show a talent for discovering interesting and often surreal details in ordinary scenes.
Emily Scudder has contributed a pastel and charcoal drawing of a cupboard with brushes and other artist tools, all drawn in warm and inviting greens and yellows. In this drawing the work room becomes the work of art.
Richard Aguilar has contributed examples of page layout from the Spanish language newsletter Reunión. The layout is professionally done without being dry and impersonal, the lines used to divide text are given a hand-drawn look.
Mimi Truslow has contributed several watercolors, two pictures of Maine islands with fog shrouded pine trees poking up out of white seas, a thin, delicate iris, and a Lexington landscape with splashes of vegetation on an open field. These have a dreamy, soft-focused look to them, and create the impression of the landscape without the traditional dividing lines of earth, sea, and sky.
Douglas F. Cogger has--not unsurprisingly--contributed a series of photographs. "Portrait of Emily" is a set of three photos with differently tinted views of the same subject. Three portraits of GSD faculty include Jerzy Soltan looking off into the distance, Michael Hays looking very serious, and a negative like silvery photo of Michael van Valkenbergh. There is a series of dark photographs of "The Tanner Fountain in Snow", "Wheel in Snow" "City Lights" & "Welder", contrasted with the bright colors of "Lilac Collage" and the multiple-exposure shot of "GSD Party" which is kind of how I remembered it.
Richard Delozier's poetry is very familiar to those of us who remember Design Lines. He has contributed three examples of introspection and sexual imagery "Close Shave", "Pstcrds. From Florida 1991 Orlando" and "Talking to Silence". There is an interesting flow of consciousness here, from observations--such as looking at his face while shaving--to impressions, to remembrances of past times.
Mike McGrath has contributed two pastels and a series of photographs. The pastels include a blue nude reclining catlike on a couch, and a grey nude with purple hair looking proudly out of the canvas. Two photographs are of a nude lit from the side by light passing through a venetian blind. The other two photographs are of a woman standing behind a wooden fence. In both sets of photographs he used the natural lines of the fence or the shadow of the venetian blind to break up the image into parts to examine more closely.
Minerva Smith has contributed a fanciful and whimsical set of drawings "Gentle Speculation", "Pondering Knight", "Hidden Paradise", and "Beginnings". These playful and imaginative works have a collage like style, with women's faces, butterflies, birds, oddly-shaped houses and medieval themes.
Randa Tukan has contributed photographs of her interior design work in Amman, Jordan. "The Al-Ain Gallery" has a very open modern design, in polished wood which counterpoints the antiquities displayed there. The "Jordan Centre" shows the conversion of a private residence to a modern OB clinic. The modern technology of the clinic is incorporated into the traditional structure of the house in an interesting and unobtrusive manner.
John Driscoll has contributed three marble sculptures. "Stick Dancer" is done in very smooth pink marble, while on "Untitled" and one unlabeled piece white marble is highly polished in parts and rough and unfinished looking elsewhere to create a contrast in texture. During the prelude to The Agony and the Ecstasy they explain why this is a very cool technique.
Janice Braxton has contributed ten black & white photos of a piano on a wooden floor. As in the story of the blind men & the elephant the individual photos do not immediately convey the image of a piano but when seen as a group the picture becomes clear.
Christine LaFleur has contributed a brightly colored, strong painting of a long-haired woman with very wide eyes, who stares out from the canvas as if to say "What are you looking at?"
TenBrock S. Patterson has contributed several examples of Christmas tree ornaments, fashioned from glass bulbs, cotton and metal thread, and glass beads. These are hung in the exhibit case like ornate, old fashioned balloons on a clear day. The beadwork is impressive and reminds me of Fabergé eggs.
Lauren Franklin has contributed two examples of T-shirt designs created with acrylic paint on cotton shirts. "The Hoop" is a finely detailed design reminiscent of Native American art, while "Ophioneris" is a colorful brittle starfish stretching its arms.
Sally Daugherty has contributed several photographs and two excellent examples of basket design. One example is elaborately embellished with feathers and dried wild weeds, and reminds me of autumn.
Christophe Drumain has contributed an excellent set of oil portraits. They include a seated male nude, and a second done in black and white paint, a woman looking away from the artist and seated on bolts of colored cloth, and a still life including a beaker and flowered curtains in sunlight. All are very thoughtful studies with excellent use of color.
Erin Hoffer will be contributing a selection of fabric art, which is unavailable for preview at this time, but I've been told it's really excellent.
The craft of the reviewer is to take one art form, and use it as the basis for his own art--of course, I've been known to say the same thing about people who colorize old movies--but we each have our part to play in the artistic food chain. We all know the line about "Those who can't do . . . " This is my contribution to the exhibit.
In Real Life . . . is a celebration of life. Art is not about ego. It is about enriching the lives of those who create and those who experience that which is created. Art is necessary to complete the individual, and the creativity of our art, complements and adds to the accomplishments of the things we build or do in our work lives. The talents of the GSD Faculty and Students are well recognized. The talents of the GSD staff compliment and complete that image, and this exhibit highlights part of our contribution to the common vision of the Graduate School of Design.
Bob Angilly
August 9-10, 1993