TVAA Meeting

Monday night was another Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance bimonthly meeting.  This time we met at the Boise State University Hemingway Center.  Gallery director and professor, Kirsten Furlong, talked to our group about the different galleries scattered on campus, how galleries work and how to install an exhibition.  Most of the information I already knew, but I wanted to see the exhibition by the BFA seniors.

Kirsten didn't specifically speak about artworks in the exhibition, but did use it as an example and talked about a few of the pieces in passing.

Kirsten in front of student work in the Liberal Arts building gallery with several TVAA members.

Another student's life-sized paper cuts.  I'm sorry I did not get the artists' names as we weren't really spending much time looking at the artworks.

Another student work with broken shards of mirror on the floor, with a running video projected onto the shards which then reflected the video onto the wall.

Kirsten did tell us a little about this piece.  The student is also married with children and has a job, as well.  The video contains scenes of her everyday life of all the different roles she is juggling.

This is a small screen print from an installation piece (which I didn't get a photo of the entire thing). Around a square post that was a structural support in the gallery, there were four shelves placed, one on each side of the post.  On each shelf were groups of these screen prints of fire and a sparking match.  Screen printed on the floor around the post were more images of the matches. Kirsten said the artist invited viewers to take one of the small screen prints (This one is about 3-1/2" x 2-3/4").  You had to walk on top of the prints on the floor to get one.

I heard from another TVAA member that the artist was hoping the prints on the floor would get more worn as people walked on them, but they seemed to be holding up pretty well.  Maybe most people did the same thing I did and tried to "tippy-toe" my way so as to not step on the prints on the floor.

So, this is my most current art acquisition.

There was one thing that Kirsten said that stood out in my mind and I was happy to hear her say it. She said that the universities are a little bit behind the time in having art majors have a focus, i.e. a concentration on ceramics or painting.

She said that contemporary artists used varying media.  You may have a printmaker who also does installation work.  Or a painter who is also a photographer.

This was good for me to hear because over the years, I have heard the advice from the professional "art world" that you should stick with one medium (and I understand that it comes from learning to become proficient in that medium and creating a cohesive body of work).  But seeming as how I like to learn lots of different things, I never really agreed with that, especially now that I have been exploring printmaking for several years and might even start doing some painting as well.

An artist that is a good example for working across different media is Alexander Calder.  He is probably best known for his mobiles and metal sculptures, but he also made jewelry, worked in wood, made screen prints, did drawings, paintings, did set design for theatre, worked in bronze, etc. And I doubt anyone ever told him he should just concentrate on one medium.