Three members of the art faculty — Mr. Jon Andrews, Mr. Kevin Isgett and Mr. Jared Stanley — will share their personal stories and experiences in the second annual BJU Art and Design Faculty Exhibit, on display from Nov. 11 to Dec. 5 in the Sargent Art Building exhibition corridor.
The official opening of the exhibit on Nov. 11, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., will be open to all students and faculty members as well as the general public.
This year, each faculty member was given the opportunity to choose his own theme or message for his artwork, making the show more individualized to what each of the three men do best.
For instance, Andrews specializes in mixed media art. For his section of the show he designed and built 12 architectural displays. Working with mediums such as wood, metal, plastic and paper, Andrews created these multi-dimensional pieces to each tell a special story. His favorite pieces feature Gothic arches and other Gothic architecture elements and details.
“My ideas are always developing along the way,” Andrews said. “You look at the materials and look at how it’s starting and kind of develop it [from] that. I really like experimenting with many different [media], and I don’t like limiting myself to one thing.”
While Andrews’ display shows separate, individual stories, Isgett’s and Stanley’s pieces each focus on a unique theme chosen by the artist.
Containing happy, bright colors, Isgett’s abstract, acrylic and mixed media paintings portray interpretations of childhood memories from his life.
“I was looking for something to abstract, and I like to use color emotionally,” Isgett said. “I’m using color that I connect with certain emotions, and I think of childhood as a happy time. I’m not trying to tell history, though. I want each painting to be personal to each person who looks at it.”
The paintings’ titles might suggest certain ideas to audiences, but Isgett encourages viewers to figure out the feelings or emotions within the memory through patterns and colors in the paintings.
While Isgett’s paintings show emotion through cheerful colors and bright designs, Stanley’s pieces show emotion in a different, darker way.
Stanley has created two large groups of art displays through lithography, a printmaking process. The first group, created with a light and dark contrast of texture, will be based on the theme “Worlds Apart,” showing the relationship between heaven (the light areas in the pieces) and earth (the dark areas) depending on his own current mood, according to Stanley.
“I’m using techniques that I find to be therapeutic,” Stanley said. “This is about me working out through art what I’m going through. What you’re seeing is the product of that effort.”
Stanley’s second body of work will feature four pieces that show how “memory cuts through the cacophony of the world.”
“The world can be extremely noisy around you, and something you just see or hear will bring about a memory, and it just cuts through everything,” he said.
Each piece will be focused on words or phrases that his son, Perrin, who died suddenly about a year ago, would say to him — words like “daddy” or “choo-choo.”
“Those are the cutting memories that just take over, that leave this resounding echo in my mind,” Stanley said.
Students are encouraged to attend the exhibit to see what the art faculty is passionate about and how that passion is portrayed through advanced skill. A variety of work will be on exhibit, because each faculty member’s skills are different from the others.
Andrews said the show also helps students to see how he and the other members of the art faculty incorporate their own creation of art into their busy schedules.
“It’s a way to show that we are still working as faculty members and still practicing artists and designers,” Andrews said.