Pat Lodge Mrs.

Julie Hicks LBST 1105-H72 September 14, 2012 Rowe Art Gallery Response

The Rowe Art Galleries are hosting displaying the Faculty Biennial exhibit, which consist of works done solely by professors of the Art Department at UNC Charlotte. Upon entering the first room of the gallery on the bottom floor it is difficult not to be drawn toward the large sculpture in the right of the room. The oversized, altered photographs along the wall surrounding the sculpture also add to the effect. The rest of the gallery is located up stairs where the area is left fairly open except for a fairly peculiar piece with three separate faces. The two openings into the room allow for a great flow through the space and to the hallway where the rest of the works are displayed. The first piece that I chose was that of Delane Ingalls Vanada's painting, Many Waters Will Not. What initially drew me to the piece was chaos of the waters crashing about. In many places within the piece it can be seen that a large amount of paint was used to achieve the finished look. I feel as though these varying levels of paint give the work an almost three dimensional effect, emphasizing areas of solid color that show little contrast. There is also a great difference in the brushstrokes throughout the painting. They range from thick to thin, dipping into the layers of paint creating grooves and channels following the waves in the piece. The channels and grooves created by the strokes add a sense of movement to the waves in additional directions separate of the lines. The waves of the painting all converge into the center

of the painting where they're crashing to into a cloud of white. This white cloud serves as a focal point of the piece where the viewer is initially drawn. The viewer is then able to move into the surrounding chaos until they once again converge into the white cloud. The chaos within the waves of the painting reminded me of a time that I was visiting Wrightsville Beach with my best friend Brian and his parents. Specifically one time when we were swimming in the ocean later in the day and the waves were beginning to get quite rough. Over and over we were joyfully tossed about in the madness beneath the surface. I originally found it very difficult to decipher a meaning behind the piece since it does not necessarily depict something specific. Then I turned to the artist statements where I found Vanada's quote, "the series represent external and internal realities and the nexus spaces in between, or layers of complexity of the inner landscape." This idea makes perfect sense with the view of converging chaos that I saw. The next piece that I chose is actually one of four paintings by Sharon Dowell that together attracted my attention. I was initially drawn to the use of bright colors and dark lines within the pieces. I specifically admired the painting Kreppa 101 in which a street and corner building were displayed. The building is colored in layers from top to bottom with a layer of color followed by white all the way to the bottom. This layering of color gives the painting a sense of order although it appears to fairly run down. Moving from left to right on the building the colored layers quickly abruptly change from a red color to green. The change in color appears to separate the building into two parts with the green showing signs of improvement compared to the darker, diminished red side. There is also a large dark space at the bottom of the building on the red side that adds to the overall appearance of that side while directing the viewers attention towards the brighter green side. When I first saw all of these pieces it instantly brought to mind a photo that I had taken for an advanced photography class that I took senior

year of high school. The photo was taken in a part Camden, NJ which is known for high crime rates and drug traffic. It was of the door and front face of a small blue building. I changed the color of the door to red and increased the saturation to form a very bold amount of color and contrast that was extremely similar to the paintings. I feel as though the piece shows how society continues to change the world we live in. With a past society moving on the building became defunct and run down, as shown by the left side, and as time progressed the people have came back and begun to rebuild what was left behind. The Rowe Art Gallery was an interesting experience since it was the first time in a while in which I looked deeper into a piece of art. Coming from a scientific field it is sometimes difficult for me to find the purpose of putting myself into the piece. At Rowe I tried to really look at the works for a longer period of time and find what it was that I continue to leave out as I view the piece. As this class progresses I hope to find a better connection with art that I can learn to appreciate.