Images provided by Patricia Fay
August 19 - September 24, 2015
Sculpture, painting, ceramics, and printmaking are but a few of the mediums represented in this exhibition featuring the Art Faculty of FGCU. This is an opportunity to see the range of subjects and techniques the faculty are researching in their artistic practice. Having this diversity of approaches to art makes for an intriguing exhibition and diverse art program.
Wasmer Gallery - Sponsored in part by WGCU Public Media
Patricia Fay
It seems a simple thing, the making of a functional pot: a pitcher, a water jar, a
beaker, or a carafe; a vessel for serving and sharing, for offering and joining. My
installation for the 2015 FGCU Faculty Show honors those simple pots and the men and
women who have made them, across time and space and culture. This work is my own attempt
to understand what it means to be a potter.
The fifty-seven pots were inspired by images of pouring vessels made by unknown potters working in contexts ranging from Neolithic China to 8thcentury BCE Iran, 13th century England, and the 19th century colonial Caribbean. They are at once my pots and their pots, created in the shapes that fill the spaces between people - cooling water, pouring beer, serving friends and family, or playing their part in burial rites. As were all pots up until less than a hundred years ago, these vessels were finished in kilns fired with wood, a demanding process that is only possible through the collaboration of family, friends, colleagues, and students.
The fifty-seven photographs are dedicated to the many extraordinary women and men I have met over the past twenty years, traditional potters who have made simple pots that have served their communities, using methods handed down for generations. Like the pots, they are rarely named or noticed, invisible yet absolutely essential. It has been the great privilege of my life to visit with them, and to experience their work.
Ehren Gerhard, Staghorn Underhang, 2015, oil on canvas, 48” x 48”
Ehran Gerhard
I embrace life with a whimsical balance of joy and fear. I labor to provide respite
for the soul through a vision of nature. Against the grind of civilization, I encourage
a countercultural ideal in opposition to the popular mechanization of the human experience.
I personify my beliefs through an entangled vision of romance, reverie, and regard.
However, the romantic notion assumed by dreamers is quickly surpassed in reality
by the dangers of the wild and untamed.
My imagery depicts an intense encounter with time and place. I embrace an emotional response influenced by light, atmosphere, and gestural character. My research follows an outline of scientific observation to comprehend flora, fauna, climate, and season. I combine these emotional and scientific experiences to help me develop an intimate representation of my subject.
James Greco, Dancers, 2015, digital photograph on aluminum, 24” x 16”
James Greco
James J. Greco has been an adjunct instructor of photography at Florida Gulf Coast
University since 2008 and a full time graphic designer / photography for Florida Gulf
Coast University since 2001, working in University Marketing and Communications Department
creating marketing materials/photography for print, web and social media. James has
B.F.A. in Art/Graphic Design from University of Central Florida. James has always
be intrigued with creating still images that capture gesture and movement within his
work, whether it is his professional or personal work.
Geoffrey Hamel, You Have No Sense, 2015, multi-media, 51.75” x 67.75”
Geoffrey Hamel
The way I paint and draw builds through time, “as-if ˮ to suggest a general frames
of references to germinate visions reflexive of experiences and
perceptions of how I see the world through the choices I have made. I would like to
suggest a vista, albeit enigmatic, where the visual elements collectively convey multi-layered
mysteries and paradoxes of the world around me, as I see both of the wilderness and
our human condition. It is through physical and psychological frictions and resistances,
through painting and drawing, which I adore and cherish. This very action becomes
my constant quest for truths, search for freedoms, and meaningfulness. By my drawing
and painting, I strive for an approximation of these experiences with the hope of
an unbelievable reconciliation.
Jake Hand, Not Just A Ghost’s Heart, 2015, acrylic and oil stick on textile, 48” x 36”
Jake Hand
I like da da
I like pop
I like pattern and decoration and new image work
I like pluralism
eclecticism
hybridization
I like the banal raised to new heights
I like editing and palimpsest
I like pastiche (mimicry w/out irony, mimicry w/out mockery)
I like satire
irony
poetry
impossible stories
I like discursive discourse
I like unspeakable discourse
I like being everywhere
and
I like being in-between
Andy Owen, Arrival, 2015, solar plate, 27” x 24”
Andy Owen
I share an affinity to the sea with many people and any free time I have is spent on the waters of Southwest Florida. This series of images is closely linked to personal experience and inspired by time spent in the Ten Thousand Islands. I often seek refuge in the islands, their remote bays and maze of shorelines offer new discoveries with each visit. My memory and experiences in these places create visual associations. This notion of place provides me with a reference point, anchoring me as I am set adrift in the creative process.
The images reflect my experience of Flow, being completely immersed in an energized focus. As I attempt to emulate nature spontaneous gestures provide unexpected discoveries as the image takes form. I look for structures that suggest being shaped by winds and erosion powered by always changing currents. The emphasis on surface in the images captures a sense of the moment; space in the images suggests time. They sit at the boundary between stillness and anxiety, driven by a single-minded and sustained effort.
Preview image provided by the artist.
Sasha Minsky
Design is seen in every facet of life. Designers are creative people who see the world
differently and pursue the development of creative solutions to meet the challenges
of society, industry, the environment and globally. In all of my work I strive to
produce innovative solutions and unique concepts which exceed the needs of the client.
I incorporate both digital art mediums as well as formal artistic techniques to create
harmony between the digital and fine art world. I draw inspiration from nature and
look for key characteristics which aid in communicating the personality of the client
or company.
As a Graphic Designer and Multimedia Artist, I produce a wide range of work both in print and digitally. Brand Identity is the visual representation of an organization and an area of design which draws a great deal of my attention. The logo, color palette, iconography, typography, illustrative components, advertisements, website and additional design elements come together to form a unified voice and company culture. The branding developed speaks volumes about the company itself and acts as their heart and visual soul illustrating the unique services or products they offer the marketplace.
In this digitally enhanced world, filled with media of all kinds, I strive to produce innovative work which is refined and creative. It is essential for a company’s brand identity to stand out in the cluttered and competitive marketplace. In the brand identity collection displayed, my passion for design, attention to detail, compassion and understanding of the company is represented in every element.
As an Adjunct Faculty member of Florida Gulf Coast University I have designed curriculum for several courses within the Bower School of Music & The Arts and The College of Education. In each course, I cultivate a creative community amidst the students and challenge them to become creative critical thinkers and innovative problem solvers.
Morgan T. Paine, Communication Message Center Diptych, 2012-2014, Golden Regular Medium on cork and plastic with hardware, brush and jars, each panels is 19” x 16” x 4.5”
Morgan T. Paine
I have been painting on a daily basis since the mid-1970s. My work has been grounded
in the belief that painting is both a conceptual and physical activity, and that it
needs to be done. Thought without action has no manifestation; action without thought
is without meaning. Painting requires both a product and a meaning. I have actively
tried to get to the essentials of painting, keeping what is needed, removing those
things from my practice that do not need to be present.
My current work continues to use the foundational substance of all acrylic paint, the nearly colorless binder common to all acrylic paint, gloss acrylic gel/medium. I apply it with a brush, which I hold in my hand, to a surface that has come into my life. The surfaces belong to objects that have complex material, technological, economic, and personal/emotional/associative histories that ultimately bring them to my attention in my studio. I am responsible for their specific selection as surfaces for my painting activity.
My finished works exist in relation to an extended continuum of paintings – works made by other painters and previous works I have accomplished - and it might not be easy to understand exactly where my paintings come from or why they are here now. My analysis of my own work within the history of painting is such that I believe my paintings are more object than picture, more documentation of process than conveyor of message, more specific thing than illusion. Every painting in existence has a complicated network of purposes, practices and relationships to the cultural context from which it comes. My paintings are no different.
I do not have a preconceived idea of how my paintings are going to look when they are done, although I have a plan as to how each will start and generally a way to determine when each is completed. I make them to see what they will look like. My paintings aspire to the quote that the Flemish Renaissance painter, Jan van Eyck is said to have placed below his signature on the back of his work: “As best I can.”
Michael Salmond, still from The Diaries of Professor G. Angell; Deceased, 2015, video game
Michael Salmond
Michael Salmond is a digital designer, new media artist, writer and educator. He is
currently Associate Professor of Digital Media Design at Florida Gulf Coast University,
FL, USA.
His art and design work focus on video games, travel and hybrid culture. His book, “The Fundamentals of Interactive Design” published by AVA/Bloomsbury was released in March of 2013. He is currently working on a new book ‘Video game Design: Principles and Practices from the Ground up’, which is due out in early 2015.
Michael Salmond’s work in the FGCU Art Faculty Exhibition is titled: “The Diaries of Professor G. Angell; Deceased.” - In the winter of 1936-27 George Gammell Angell died quite suddenly from no apparent ailment. As sole heir to your granduncle’s estate you have been tasked with winding up his legal affairs and gathering his diaries and writings for archive and posthumous publication. It would seem that his works have lain dormant for some time and may also afford you some insight into what he was researching before his death. You know that Angell’s home has fallen into disrepair over the past few years as the professor was gripped by an all-consuming passion for his research. Although he had grown frail, he expended all his energy becoming obsessed with multiple worldwide outbreaks of mania and insanity. These events, he once told you, seem to coincide with the rise of a hitherto unknown cult.
As you arrive on a fittingly depressingly dark and stormy night, you try to shake off the feeling that there is more to this empty house than you would care to admit to yourself.
This interactive story is a first-person adventure video game for PC adapted from the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Call of Cthulhu’ (1928).
Mary Sullivan Voytek, Golden Proportion, 2011, aluminum, neon, 38” x 25”
Mary Sullivan Voytek
My life is my art. The world imparts inspiration and materials for the artwork. Through
this process of life as art, I envision and construct sculpture that represents trace
reminders of what has disappeared.
My latest series of works has rekindled my love story with nature, coming at a time in my life when I needed to focus on the beauty of simple truths. Nature, even on its surface, tells the direct and simple truth of its existence. The forms, colors and patterns certainly captivate me, but the excitement is in the dynamics of nature: its energy, growth, root systems, cellular structure, smells and shifts in light, form and color. These ephemeral aspects are what make my present life’s art a dedication to the glorious truth and freedom that is nature. I rejoice in sharing something so deeply rooted and exploring lines of continuity that point deep within our collective psyche.
My work seeks deeper meaning and resonance in our lives by exploring our sense of belonging and relationship to the natural, spiritual and man-made worlds. When successful, our inner space and outer space merge to become an undifferentiated mindful unified space.
