Variety of media displayed in NW Faculty Art Show

The Pull, Candace Austin
The Pull, Candace Austin
Not For Sale in California, Fred Spaulding
Not For Sale in California, Fred Spaulding
Flying Tin Tub, John Hartley
Flying Tin Tub, John Hartley
Petit Four II: Assimilation, Kelly James
Petit Four II: Assimilation, Kelly James
Metamorphosis II: Return of Tranquility, Philmore Peterson. Photos by Audrey Werth/The Collegian
Metamorphosis II: Return of Tranquility, Philmore Peterson. Photos by Audrey Werth/The Collegian

By Tabitha Redder/managing editor

Works by NW art faculty start the Lakeview Gallery’s fall semester.

The annual Faculty Art Show opened Sept. 6 and displays the work of over a dozen faculty members in a variety of different media.

“Overall, I think that the show has an expressive quality to it,” exhibit coordinator Fred Spaulding said. “There’s a fair number of abstractions and also more representational work.”

After a visit to the Egyptian exhibit at the Smithsonian, art associate professor Trish Igo had historical inspiration for her and her partner Jill O’Brien’s piece, “Animal Mummies.”

“Carnivals would sometimes give away goldfish or chicks or bunnies as prizes, and we were reading about how people would just dump them in the trash as they left, so there were just dead chicks dying all around the trash can,” Igo said. “So we were making animal carnival presents, and I was contrasting that with the Egyptian philosophy and just the difference in the way people treat animals.”

Art associate professor Winter Rusiloski provided “Gathering,

” an abstract oil on canvas painting for the exhibit.

“Often when people are looking at it, they think it kind of looks like a storm or a sky or a tornado or something like that, so you’re on the right track,” she said of her painting. “It’s very intentional that I want the viewer to be thinking of the action of it.”

“The Pull” fuses ceramics and crochet together in Candace Austin’s submission to the show.

“Ceramics is my first love, but I’m trying to push the boundaries with what I can do with it sculpturally,” she said. “I’m playing with the idea of how I can get the form to really respond to the crochet, not just the crochet responding to the form.”

NW student Marissa Wellspeak appreciated the use of vivid color in art adjunct Kelly James’ acrylic painting “Petit Four II: Assimilation.” Wellspeak said she came away from the painting feeling peaceful.

Like several students present at the gallery opening, Arissa Castillo attended the artist’s talk for an extra credit assignment in her art class but said her favorite piece of work was “Metamorphosis II: Return of Tranquility” by art adjunct Philmore Peterson because it’s eye-catching.

“I like the girl in the background,” she said. “I like the way all the forms come together — the structures and the paint.”

Former NW student Candace Ledingham was also a fan of Peterson’s piece.

“I like how it seems to be chaotic, and yet there’s an ordered chaos about it,” she said. “It makes me feel tranquil and energetic at the same time and like I’m allowed to be free in this chaos.”

The exhibit is on display until Sept. 26 in the Fine Arts Building. Lakeview Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday.