By Matt Evans
For Ron Perrin, a soon to-be-U of L photography graduate, his images were all present before him. He saw what he needed and captured it with the click of a finger on the trigger of his camera. He moved about to find what he needed on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal remained his focus, specifically that which he saw occurring in small towns while on a U of L trip.
“My intention is to capture and convey the beauty and character of these individuals through portraits, landscapes, and religious icons which represent them and their cultures,” Perrin said about his work in the new Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition at the Hite Art Institute.
Perrin joined 10 other men and women in the presentation of their many works in various forms and media. If you, too, want to walk the line between fiction and reality, you can come to the Hite Art Institute during normal business hours (9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, weekends by appointment). Check out the web site at http://art.louisville.edu, or call 852-4483 for more information.
A variety of subject matter adorns the walls. Much deals with humanity and commercialism, as well as society.
Virgil “Chad” Henle focused his work on the stereotypes and labels society gives us. He spends his tyime “demythologizing” associations and presumptions. He uses multiple meaning. He says that “groups, like the KKK, affix labels and create many of the sterotypes, but ultimately they end up labeling themselves.”
“We are taught from a young age to label everything,” he said. “Soon these labels grow into stereotypes. What labels/stereotypes will you bring with you when viewing my images?”
Good question.
Nick Hellmich might have an answer. He hopes to bring a commercial nature, as to “sell products and services or communicate ideas specific to a client’s needs.” His work focues on strong icons and geometric shapes.
“This work is meant to be used for commercial purposes, and would be more at home in an office or store shelf than in an art gallery,” he said. “It is a form of art that is not consciously acknowledged by the viewer as art. Rather, it sells and communicates products, ideas, and services.”
Melissa Gaddie’s photography deals with body image, specifically her own. “The theme of body image is one I’ve been dealing with for the last two years of my education, and it is one I believe I will be returning to for some time,” Gaddie said.
Theresa Adamchik’s chalk pastel painting shows a connection between the physical and spiritual realms of the human experience. “They depict the act of perceiving and experiencing from within the parameters of the human psyche,” she said.
Fiber worker Antje Reh explores different aspects of dichotomy, specifically the division into two parts like those found in dark and light, chaos and order, warm and cool, opposite and independent.
Kumiko Kinouchi also contrasts black and white with her portraits. “I’m interesting in capturing individual portraits that express strong emotions through natural body language,” she said. “The feelings we have within us change from moment to moment, and the emotions inherent in people’s natural expression and posture are somehow beautiful and inspiring. Each one is priceless.”
She selected her subjects by observing them first in their living conditions, where appearance comes secondary to personality. She uses no special technique. The environment proves less important than the subject does. She plays with shadows and black and white.
“The most difficult problem I have with portraiture is that people tend to pose in front of the lens,” she said. “They put on an unnatural face and I lose my interest. I don’t mind a certain degree of posing if their emotions are still genuine, though.”
Graphic design artist James Giesin enjoys the process of creation the most. He uses completely original pieces, though he admits that a few have been embellished from other sources. He incorporates many different art forms into one work. “In my work I enjoy mixing different mediums and my foreign language skills together to make a unique piece. I view my work as a metaphor for life; always changing, always on the move, every day something different.”
Photographer Jason Willer also has his hands in the combining jar. He has a single installation piece. “My art practice combines alternative photographic and film processes with found materials, video and sound art,” he said. “These elements are then linked through performance and presented in gallery installations. I am exploring the world of constructed identities and mutating realities on the fringe of erotic ambiguity.”
Drawer Tony Moore, conversely, was raised “in the airwave jungle by a pack of wild cartoon corporate mascots.” He walks the thin line between commercial media and pop culture.
“As children of the ’80s, Generation X was weaned on a steady flood of character-driven commercial media, and were voracious consumers of every crossover marketing campaign that the ad wizards could throw at us,” he said. “As we sat in our assorted cartoon Underoos and pajamas and bathed in the cathode rays of whatever champion was gracing our cereal boxes, our lives fulfilled every corporate executive’s dream.”
Painter Eric Haynes walks another line: the one between truth and fiction. Does he promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God? “Doubtfully, I do, hold the position that truth, that facts are not coplanar (skewed),” he said. “As for you, regard less of this statement I am making, for it is for you, and of you, I know little. Benefit if you can, from it, leave what you will of it, just know that painting have been and can be therapy for awful memories and other things that make proverbial ‘we.'”
