The Grace Hauenstein 图书馆 Gallery and Study Space at 十大赌博正规平台在线 welcomes a new exhibition this week– 霍莉·罗伯茨: Photography Reimagined. 霍莉·罗伯茨 is a prolific artist blending paint and photography into surreal works of art that captivate the creativity and curiosity of viewers around the world. 画廊会 host a soft opening on February 5 from 12 - 4 p.m. 他们邀请校园和 local community to visit the gallery, ask questions, have conversations and enjoy 这些令人惊叹的艺术品.
The exhibition’s story began with a discovery at Brookby while faculty were cataloging 它的艺术收藏为 学院数字档案. During the process, they came across the largest piece in the exhibition, an untitled work featuring a human figure with the head of a canine. 当他们伸出手来 Roberts and confirmed the artwork was indeed hers, she offered to donate 11 more works 到学院. All 12 will be featured in the exhibition.
Here’s how 霍莉·罗伯茨 describes her artistic process:
I start all my work by painting abstractly, paintings which will then become the foundation 每个图像. Once I start forming the images, I select from my (bottomless)collection of materials or photographs I’ve taken to begin to tell a story. 故事展开了 as I work, and is only revealed to me bit by bit. 这个过程就像下面这样 a trail of bread crumbs with no idea of a destination until, at long last, I arrive. What has resulted is a wide variety of images, each with their own story. 动物, people, and people as animals become the vehicles that portray complicated relationships along with the daily fears, joys, and anxieties of being alive in the world today.
“What I find intriguing about 霍莉·罗伯茨' work is how she inverts the idea of the photograph as a very self-contained recording of reality,” said art department chair 达纳·弗里曼. “In her hands, they become the emerging inner spirit of her paintings or parts of beings trapped in her abstractly painted bodies or landscapes.”
Whether you are an art connoisseur or have very little art experience, viewing Roberts’ 艺术可以激发你的想象力. 美术史和美术学教授 Dr. Jochen Wierich suggests that attendees consider what narrative might be suggested in the layers 每件作品的深度观看.
“Let yourself be amazed by these Roberts’ whimsical works,” said Wierich. “开放自己 up to discovering the little things that give you a hint of story. 它可能不是 realistic art that some people are used to, but it is art that people tell me they enjoy returning to because they see new things.”
As a professor of art herself, 霍莉·罗伯茨 encourages her students to follow their 他们创作时的艺术直觉:
My students learn to trust that by using their hands they will connect to their deep 创造性的自我. They learn that the real creative process comes from allowing themselves to not be slaves to their ‘ideas’ but instead, by allowing things to unfold as they work with their physical materials—paint, brushes, scissors, pencils, charcoal, clay etc-- they learn to follow what is presented to them. 这需要一个巨大的飞跃 of faith and trusting that what they need to know will be revealed to them as they work--and that finding and following that faith is never easy.
The Grace Hauenstein 图书馆 Gallery and Study Space, which opened just last year, is located across from the library’s circulation desk in an area of high foot traffic, encouraging students from all corners of campus to engage with art. 它还有一个 array of seating that lends itself to professor office hours, studying, meeting with 朋友，或者一起喝杯咖啡. It invites people to linger with the art for as long 如他们所愿.
“More faculty have started to pay attention to the space and develop programs,” said Wierich教授. “One of the programs I thought was really successful had students write poetry in response to the Gilot exhibit. We even had German language students 谁用德语写诗. The space offers opportunities for collaboration and conversation.”
The possibilities for interdisciplinary programs and projects that engage with the dream-like work of 霍莉·罗伯茨 are endless. The gallery’s opening marks only the start of the many more conversations that can be sparked by art collections on Aquinas 大学的校园.