Faculty Show captivates with array of pieces

There’s an old saying that haunts professors; it stalks their careers and forces them to prove their academic relevance. The phrase “publish or perish” summarizes a mentality that has plagued professors for decades. A professor must not only teach class, but produce material that keeps them on the vanguard of their field. This situation is no different for an art professor.

Chadron State, fortunately, does not harrage its professors to marginalize their teaching in order to “publish” lest they perish. However, that doesn’t mean that CSC’s faculty don’t produce some amazing work, and a selection is currently on display in Memorial Hall’s main gallery. The faculty art show, featuring seven faculty artists, is open now until Mar. 15. The artists, a mix of professors, adjuncts, and professional staff, represent a slice of Chadron’s talented faculty, and prove the college employs a diverse and artistic staff.

 

Laura Bentz, Visual & Performing Arts Associate Professor, produced three especially fascinating pieces for the show. Large square paintings, reminiscent of root-woven earth, features a cloudy window behind which small baubles or metallic shavings could be seen. The pieces, mixed media on wood, are titled after Spanish conquistador Francisco Coronado, who left his mark across the Southwestern U.S. from 1540-1542. Bentz received her

M.F.A. from the University of New Mexico, and her knowledge of the area’s lore adds invaluable flavor to her works.

Richard Bird, Visual & Performing Arts Professor and Dept. Chair, provided the most pieces, with 14 glass works on display. His opulent offerings are a variety of blown and etched glass, intimidating and delicate. Bird’s only non-glass piece is a “paper and lint assemblage” of 204 buttons. The quirky piece contrasts with Bird’s grand, elegant glass, and reinforces the fact that each faculty member is a multi-faceted artist, with a wide birth of skill.

Mary Donahue, Visual & Performing Arts Associate Professor, graced the gallery with multitudinous oil paintings, each a warm, sweeping depiction of sun-baked sand stone and adobe landscapes. Donahue, educated at Utah State University, has both an eye and hand for Southwestern scenery; her “Canyon Shrine” pieces look like Donahue found two stones and built an altar to their parent landscape, one both stirring and contemplative.

Don Ruleaux, a Chadron alum turned adjunct, created a collection of silverpoints for the show, which are light, sketch-like drawings that add a delicate thoughtfulness to his subject matter. Ruleaux’s style is evident across his multiple mediums, and is marked with appreciation for the depth of Western existence. Ruleaux’s pieces don’t condone a stereotypical view of Midwestern existence, but rather augment it into a full visual narrative. His watercolor, “Will Ferrell”, tells an entire story with just the sun-cast shadow on a cowboy’s hat.

Nancy Sharps, Visual & Performing Arts Adjunct, added a variety of pastoral and bucolic pieces to the artistic mix, and her work spanning carving, ceramics, watercolor, and ink. A lengthy and whimsical sculpture, “Pas de Deux II”, flaunts a geometric crocodile, opening his gaping mouth toward his prey. Contrasting the croc’s clay regularity, the prey in question is a tutu-festooned frog, arms up in a dancer’s oval.

To display Daniel Binkard work’s, the gallery set up a large-screen tv for the College Relations Graphic Design Artist. There, in a loop, plays the three filmed combat scenes Binkard created in tandem with the theatre department’s production of Vampire Cowboy Trilogy. If you missed the show, now is an great opportunity to see a section of what you missed. Binkard also furnished the show with dramatic photos, displaying his eye for striking pictures and why the he has the pedigree to teach digital photography as an adjunct faculty member.

Finally, Dewayne Gimeson, College Relations Public Information Specialist, added his photography to the mix. Gimeson, the only artist who does not teach, does posses a degree in K-12 art education. Gimeson’s “Cherry Wood”, a circling collection of blooming cherry wood, is printed on textured paper, that, combined with its surrealist composition , makes the piece look more like a painting than a photo.

Although other faculty at other colleges may suffer under the expectations of “publish or perish” the members of Chadron’s faculty art show deserve a different maxim: “create and captivate.”