‘Art Infinity’ shows artistic diversity of faculty members

Richard Bird:

An artistic sabbatical of sorts drew Bird to glass. After finishing his Masters of Fine Art in Ceramics, focusing on metal processes on ceramics, Bird stayed for an entire semester and worked solely with glass. Under the tutelage of predominate glass-master Vernon Brjacha, this fiery art caught the young artist’s attention, and it went on to be his principle medium.

A series of low-slung, black and white pieces are the newest works Bird created in his glass studio.

“I always think the most recent project is the most interesting,” Bird said of his creation. Bird made the wide, urn-like vases by experimenting with glasses of varying melting points. The when the soft glass is spun, it widens and tapers at various points, creating the ovular shape. These works sit along side glowing vases, covered in dripped webbing, and delicately-fluted rain drops, with re-dipped bases.

Bird contributed the largest number of works to the show, with 15 glass vases on display. About five of the featured pieces were in-class demos, and Bird was pleased with the results.

After a one-year jaunt in 1977, Bird joined the CSC faculty in 1988, making this his 27th year teaching Chadron students.

Dewayne Gimeson:

Gimeson picked up his first camera at age 13, starting him on a path of, as he put it, “capturing the unseen.” Gimeson explained that in photography, artists can double-expose and manipulate depth of field to make juxtapositions that people have never actually seen.

Gimeson’s favorite contributed piece, a double-exposure of a tree and a puddle, embodies this. A previous piece of his, a lengthy exposure of his daughter dancing with lights swirling around her, also captured this ephemeral nature of photography.

“Our human eyes refocus and readjust so quickly that when we see photos with a shallow depth of field, we believe that’s what we saw.”

In reality, the human eye can’t freeze the traveling patterns of light. It can, however, appreciate Gimeson’s surreal photos.

Three of his pieces are sets of four photos, all apparently displaying the same image. They are all minutely different, though, lightening or blurring depending on the exposure or shutter speed Gimeson used. This gives the images a faded-memory like quality.

Gimeson has worked at Chadron for 25 years and is the publications specialist for the College Relations department.

Nancy Sharps:

Sharps teaches at CSC with focuses in design fundamentals, watercolor, and sculpting None of Sharps watercolors are featured in the faculty art show, but two of her sculptures are on display. Both pieces are rustic-looking carvings, on of a leaf-covered planter and the other of a chubby beaver. The latter, entitled “Bucky,” was Sharps’ favorite contribution to the show.

As an avid gardener, Sharps’ inspiration often comes from nature, and her rough concrete materials reinforce the earthy elegance of her creations. “Bucky” the beaver was actually composed of left-over construction materials, vestiges of CSC’s recent building projects. Sharps’ built the huge brown rodent out of geofoam and polyadam concrete, recycling the dull materials of architecture into adorable mammals.

Sharps’ fluency with available materials extends back to her education, while pursuing her M.A. at the University of Idaho. Sharps would procure oversized rolls of paper from the nearby paper mill, and with her students, sculpt from the giant sheets.

Sharps’ work has always appreciated nature, and her recent creations are no exception.