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Faculty art enlivens SCSU
By Nissa Billmyer & Kateri Wozny
 Media Credit: Jason Risberg Student Brian Arms takes a look at �Cowboy Ottomans,� a mixed media work by Alexa Horochowski. The art displayed in the Kiehle Galleries of the KielhleVisual Arts Center is done by faculty members. The exhibit runs through Sept. 27.
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Too often we have the perception that our professors don't have a life beyond teaching.
The Art Faculty Exhibition proves that theory wrong.
"This exhibit encourages people to understand that the faculty have work outside the classroom," said professor Bruce Tapola. "That we are continuing as an artist, that we work with a range of media."
In the gallery in Kiehle Hall, pieces by each art faculty instructor patiently await viewing under bright lights.
Alexa Horochowski's piece entitled "Cowboy Ottomans," rests on the floor. Three ottomans reflect sceneries from different cowboy situations. On a white shag rug slices of time peer out to questioning eyes. Using mixed media, Horochowski's piece entertains her audience.
"Cowboy Ottomans" took about three months for Horochowski to complete and consists of the three scenes that represent the mishaps of man and nature.
"All (themes) deal with violence and how man brings that violence to nature," Horochowski said.
The first scene is set on a winter day in a forest with deer roaming through the pine trees. There are two men hunting for deer. In conflict one man shoots another.
"When a man kills animals, you end up killing one of your own," Horochoswki said.
The second scene is a rocky cliff with a man on top of the cliff holding a "naked gun." On the ground, a naked man has fallen off the mountain onto another rock with a photographer to the right of him snapping his picture.
"My idea was to represent an erotic scene with a homosexual undertone," Horochowski said.
The third scene is set on an eerie day with a tall, dead tree. Hanging from the tree is a man. On the ground sit cowboys on their horses shooting at him "for the fun of the kill."
Horochowski is originally from Argentina and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing and a journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. She later went on to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she received her Masters of Arts degree in photography and print making. Horochowski currently teaches sculpture.
More uniquely, and seemingly out of place is the book by art history professor Nancy Weston.
Weston based this book on her doctoral dissertation about Daniel Maclise's anger about being Irish and the impact it had on his artwork.
"I am of Irish descent," said Weston. "I came to art history as a historian and an artist. I am interested in social problems and what art tells us about politics. The Irish politics in the 19th century is a perfect way to discuss this."
This book, "Daniel Maclise: Irish Artist in Victorian London" is an in-depth look into this artist's life. Focused on Maclise, who was of both Irish and Scottish descent, the book delves into a political Ireland during the 19th century and looks at the art Maclise produced, which now hangs in Parliament.
She was born during the early part of the 19th century and lived during the potato famine. Because of the great hostility and racism between British and Irish, Maclise had a hard time accepting that she was Irish and Presbyterian.
Eventually she went to London and became friends with Charles Dickens. She later accepted her heritage; this is where Weston finds that his anger came through in her artwork.
"There aren't many dispositions of Irish work done in British art," Weston said. "Take this man, with racism about Irish in British press. He began stumbling on himself. His anger appears in his art work. Now his work hangs in Parliament."
Weston received her doctorate in 1991 and used her summer time to make the changes from dissertation to a book. Of course, she was teaching and trying to put her book together.
"It was a busy ten years," Weston said.
Other works on display include the comic books by Thomas Strating. "Sixx" is a black and white space age odyssey of Strating's own imagination. Strating, who is a design and drawing professor, also has a lithograph on display entitled "the Garage."
Strating's pieces show an expansion into a darker realm. His characters shadow S and M dominatrices meet steroid-induced women.
He also works ink in a dark, rigid mix with his paper, creating a sleek, cold depth of space.
Graphic Design Professor Kieth Christensen's work introduces a wide color scheme into a vivid array of graphic design. In "Insurgent Images: The Agriprop Murals of Mike Alewitz," Christensen uses new age design along with the artwork of another artist in the efforts of social change. Several pages that Christensen designed show his unique perception into the featured artist.
A much more somber piece, "Drunken Gal" by Jenny Schmid, done on lithograph, peers into the subconscious of the subject.
We see a monochromatic color scheme and thick lines to illustrate the perceptions and thoughts of the state of drunkenness. The vivid details of nightmarish creatures jump off the piece, clearly telling the viewer of what horrid thoughts are felt in the state of intoxication.
Of course not all the pieces are new, in fact Bill Gorcica's piece, "Thought vs. action" is about 11 years old, but is still as effective as when it was new. This lithograph plays on the phrase "a penny for your thoughts." It is a detailed picture showing the process of one simple thought.
"Some of the work is really recent," Tapola said. "There is new work from faculty members which shows a nice diversity."
To view all the works, the art gallery is free and open to the public, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; the exhibit will be displayed through Sept. 27.
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