Art is such a beautiful way to express oneself visually; Art is a way for an artist to let their emotions spit out a drawing on any type of media chosen. I am a Biology and Psychology major so I have never previously visited any of the galleries (Visual Arts Gallery and Lemmerman Gallery) before this class, so that initself was an amazing experience and it truly brought me back to my younger days when I would sit in art class and draw to my hearts content. There was one gallery that stood out for me and that was the Lemmerman Gallery. There are two paintings that drew me in and enabled me to sort of connect to the painters and understand the meaning to their painting/photos and it was truly captivating. The first apinting that I saw was the following:
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Taking Pictures in the backyard
2017
Inkjet Print
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Kerry Kolenut
Taking Pictures at the beach2017
inkjet print
These two pictures where taken by the same artist, Kerry Kolenut, and made as one piece. I found this piece very interesting because it wasn't the usual canvas or paint or acrylics it was different. I love the names Kerry Kolenut gave these two pictures because it allows us to see the "behind the scenes" of what pictures truly are. We see all these pictures that people upload unto their social media accounts and some of them look so beautiful but sometimes it makes me question who and how did they take those pictures, yet she makes it clear that we only sometimes focus on what's important in life, and at times we find ourselves to focused on the small picture... if only we were to look at the bigger picture.
Another painting that called my attention at the Lemmerman Gallery is called:
Nicholas D'Ornellas
Momma's Last Passport Issue No.1
2019
Hand Woven Screen-printed CMYK
This painting was very interesting to me because I have never seen something like it in person and the details were so percisely placed that it left me astonished because it must have taken a great deal of time to get everything so perfectly placed like a puzzle; which is similiar to the meaning I personally found in this painting. It's hard to put into words but it feels like every piece, every struggle, his momma went through to possibly become a citizen or possibly migrate to this country, was like a piece to a puzzle at the end you can finally smile becuase its complete. That's possibly why I found this piece so beautiful because I can relate to those struggles myself as an immigrant. It also made me think she was probably an immigrant and felt like she was invisble in this country, maybe Nicholas felt his momma was living in the shadows which adresses pace and location. It truly seems like a personal painting and allows emotion to seep right through to the observer, like it did to me.
The overal major themes addressed in the works and exhibition was happiness, triump, family, freedom, love, war, trouble, struggles, slavery. It was amazing because on one side we were surrounded with good vibes and the other side was bad vibes, therefore the paintings captured the essence of life itself, sometimes life can be good and at other times it cannot and we were able to see that in the paintings displayed in the gallery and it was clear to us when the curator spoke about it becuase she stated exactly that. She went through the exhibition explaining the meaning behind every picture and some made me smile and others frown because not everthing was pleasant, like the following painting which had a gloomy theme to it based on the colors used by the artists.
Allan Gorman
Towers on a Menancing Sky
2018
Oil on Linen
Personally, I believe these works could be works that represent activism because they creatively and emotionally lead us to finding ways of changing and challenging the status quo as well as bringing about social change. The first painting I spoke about, Taking Pictures in the backyard and Taking Pictures at the beach, Kerry focuses on themes relating to identities, structures, and memories within different types of communities (2019LensCulture, Inc.) She allows us to realize that we all live one one earth, we have communities and whether we like to accept it or not we are all intertwined with them, therefore they take part of us and our everyday life. I believe the activism in her leads us to see through her paintings that we cannot be accustomed to the hatred, the racism, the norms set by this world or our communities because as she said, "the develeopment and functioning of neighborhoods and groups and the individual's role and history in that same neighborhood or group is important for communities to exist"(Jcast, 2018). It reminds me of this part in the book we read by John Berger, Ways of Seeing, there was a part were he said, "we are accostumed to being addressed by these images that we scacely notice their total impact". Which is so true we see images or paintings about anti-bullying and we become so used to seeing it and hearing about it that we stop caring as to say because there's nothing being done. Another quote i liked from his book was, "Publicity speaks in the future tense and yet the achievement of this future is endlessly deffered". Yet then again, "publicity exerts an enormous influence and is a political phenomenon of great importance". I also believe that Nicholas D'Ornellas does the same with his paintings, he opens our eyes and allows us to see that immigrants are just as american as a anyone who was born here and challenging racism and hate towards immigrants which create awarness and advocacy.
Work Cited Page
“Kerry Kolenut.” TheJCAST, https://www.thejcast.com/listings/kerry-kolenut/.
Kolenut, Kerry. “Kerry Kolenut.” LensCulture, https://www.lensculture.com/kerry-kolenut.
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