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Atwood gets abstract
By Ting-Feng Hu
Published:
Thursday, October 2, 2003
Media Credit: Ching Fung
Ta-coumba Aiken opens the new art exhibit in Atwood Memorial Center Tuesday.
"I create my art to heal the hearts and souls of people by creating positive imagery" is the key phrase that lies in the artwork of Ta-coumba Aiken, whose work will be displayed in Atwood Gallery through Nov. 1.
An opening reception was held at Atwood Gallery from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Aiken's paintings contain visual images of people and places with layers of contrasting background colors.
"Sometimes I use the shadow of the lines behind the faces. When three or four layers come together the story starts to create itself because these faces kind of like a profile," Aiken said. "If I can create layers, some of what is in the past like old friends, old countries, they are in the background somewhere and they don't disappear, I do that with 'hidden desires' (that) gives you a feeling that something is still there that you don't see."
A full-time artist, Aiken works in Minneapolis where he uses his art as a tool to contribute to his own community.
"I am a politician, art activist and I deal with housing. It's just in my art though I find ways that I can use to get people to change their thoughts about housing, to change their thoughts about looking at education. I deal with cultural differences. I do paintings; I do large-scale pieces, parking ramps, murals, posters, sculptures," Aiken said.
"All my work is about discovering something. Finding a way to discover what is going on ... It's like trying to make people to see more, feel more or experience more."
"Abstract surrealism" is the term Aiken uses to identify his art.
"I started to call it abstract surrealism recently. I don't know what that means. I started in abstract and things that I connect can be looked at as surrealism," Aiken said.
Aiken's paintings received a good response from students.
"I think it's great. I mean, each person looks at it and sees different things from it. I love this kind of artwork. They are interesting," said third-year student Kathie Stebbins. "You can just see how you got the name from the painting itself. I encourage people to come in and see this kind of stuff. It gives an insight of how people see different things."
"It's just amazing to me because it's like it encompasses so much culture with all the right colors, black beauty with beautiful full lips and eyes. It's beautiful to look at and see things that reflect me. It's like a journey. Every picture is a journey, you can look at it from far away and see so many beautiful colors and come up close, find something that you never thought you would see in the painting," said senior Bianca Rhodes.
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