91Ö±²¥ÊÓƵFaculty Show features unique artistic talents
The 91Ö±²¥ÊÓƵ features its Faculty Art Show through December 17, 2009 in the Campus Center on the Biddeford Campus.
This Faculty Art Show features photographs by Holly Haywood, mug shots paintings by Deborah Randall, wooden carved/lathed bowls forms by William Croninger and drawing, collage and needlework on fabric by Jan Johnson.
Holly Hayward is a visual storyteller trained in photojournalism and fine arts. She quietly observes the current of daily life on the street, in the woods, on the water and in her own backyard. Embraced by the environment, her surrender to the underpinnings of life takes hold in her photographs. She loves the stayed image – a moment slipped out of a larger moment; the way light illuminates a hosta leaf lying in the aftermath of summer's end; the way light catches hold of golden seaweed under water; movement found in a stilled moment. It is these very things that inspire her, make her laugh, warm her heart, and eventually, stay with her.
The impetus for Deborah Randall's series comes from an interest in the way mug shots look. Traditionally, they have been used to document the way a person looks when they are arrested. Mug shots are a handy tool to help police find frequent offenders. But, in this case, she has worked from photographs of good friends and mere acquaintances. She is reflecting on and considering the nature of the portrait in the 21st century.
William Croninger's first foray into wood turning was a segmented bowl, turned in a junior high shop class long ago. For the past 50 years, he has carried on a love-hate relationship with photography. About two years ago, he decided it was time to temporarily place his cameras on a shelf and explore other interests. The old bowl, looking down from its perch, sent him to some local woodworking shops, one of which was happy to sell him his first lathe. He has four turnings on display in this exhibit: two bowls, one which is square-edged with a bark inclusion, a hollow vessel and a turning from a growth on a birch tree in his backyard.
Jan Johnson has exchanged brush and pigment for needle and thread in her recent works, and thinks of these as drawings and paintings with thread. She responds to hand-drawn maps, architectural and diagrammatic structures, imagery from science, embroidered samplers, handiwork and love tokens in constructing her compositions, both formally and narratively. These maps, objects and structures are personal geographies and refer to the body both imaginatively and physically.