Christensen’s art brings abstract ideas to campus

Elephant cutouts, old book covers, and random scribbling are just a few of the sights that will meet your eye when you look at the Todd Christensen art display in the main gallery of Memorial Hall on display from now until Nov. 13.

Christensen’s work embodies abstract ideas portrayed in a playful, yet intellectual, way. Sprinkled throughout the display are elephants, sketches of people in varying shapes and sizes, and old book covers and clippings.

The works are arranged in such a way as to draw the eye all the way around the display. One section is completely red book covers, while another is all blue. On some pieces he has drawn, Christensen scribbles his thoughts with the picture as if he is journaling.

In the sketch of an armchair, for example, he writes, “she sat there, she really did, please believe me.”

Another reads, “Do I draw a flower for the same reason I draw a large body? Yes. What then, is that reason? Observation. I draw that which I observe, that which I experience.”

Indeed, Christensen’s work does appear to center on what he has observed and experienced. From the bodies of all shapes and sizes to the cover of, “Language for Daily Use, Grade 3,” the entire three-dimensional display allows the observer to take on a light-hearted attitude and remember one’s childhood.

“I try to capture the sense of being overwhelmed with external forces, images, and ideas,” Christensen stated in a press release. “I find it important to break up theses ideas with images of small, ordinary or even random objects: a drawing of a pronghorn antelope, a paper bag, an abandoned shoe, a telephone.”

A South Dakota native, Christensen has been a fine-art painter as well as a location scout and manager for television shows and films.

Christensen has worked with the 2008 Oscar-winning, “There Will Be Blood,” and the 2007 Tommy Lee Jones film, “In the Valley of Elah.”