A Visual Story

February 4 – 28, 2019
Coffee Hour: February 5, 8-9am

Victoria Ring ’19

Students experiment with digital photography in unconventional ways; taking the concepts of color, line, form, texture and space to construct images. These alterations to the photos allow the artist to convey their vision.  Focusing on principles of composition, the exhibit is a visual storytelling in photography.

This exhibit provides attention grabbing images that undermine the questions of social justice that are discussed in our nation today. From prejudice to environmental impact, these images will allow other students to continue the discussions that affect change in our society and on our campus. Photographer Roa Alshaer shared her feelings on the assignment saying it, “challenged me to address a sensitive topic that can be overlooked or neglected because we experience it in our daily interactions. I was inspired to address social prejudice that most of us get subjected to because of our ethnicity, religious believes, gender, sexual orientation or appearance.” Followed by the work of photographer peer Dylan Eddinger who was steered in the direction of ecological concern. He says, “I decided to take fine art food photography pictures of seafood dishes to bring attention to the issue, but instead the seafood is being replaced by the Ocean trash.” Using these creative ways to discuss the issues that presently impact our world. Each of the stories these photographers are sharing provide a provocative discussion to follow.

-Meghan Sack ‘19
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant

Roa Alshaer ‘18
Photographer Roa Alshaer took on the topic of prejudice as it runs through the daily interactions of people in our society with an emphasis on the social stereotypes that are perpetuated through ethnicity, religion, gender, and race. In her own words, “The images almost look like mugshots as I wanted the shots to looks serious but I also wanted to empower the individual and show that these labels, although hurtful, do not have to affect us or change who we are as people”. Her work includes fierce images of her subjects showing their powerful reaction to the external judgement that inflicts its pain into people’s lives daily. Alshaer believes in change and simply says, “I want to bring awareness and encourage people to treat one another with kindness and not to mindlessly pass social prejudices.”

Dylan Eddinger ‘19
Entertainment Marketing Major

Photographer Dylan Eddinger tackles the overwhelming waste issue that our planet is facing today. Using the concept of fine art food photography, he features popular seafood dishes replacing the food with trash found in our oceans. His work demonstrates the increasing issue of marine ecosystems in jeopardy due to waste created by humans. Turning the tables on the topic, quite literally, he serves up the plastic and debris that is dumped into oceans each day with his photographic meals. As he says, “If nothing is done to stop trash from going into our oceans or to help clean up our oceans, there is supposed to be more trash than fish by 2050. It is believed that there are approximately 5.25 trillion tons of plastic debris in the ocean already; plastic bags, straws, cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans being some of the biggest problems”. Eddinger draws alarming attention to the mistreatment of our environment using the very benefits we gain from the sea– food.

Bridget Moran ’19

December 10, 2018 – January 25, 2019
Coffee hour:  Tuesday, January 22, 8-9am

This exhibition features film-based black and white photography as an expressive and creative medium.  Film based photography presents many unique challenges, but it is also very rewarding. A photographer must slow down and consider composition and technique to capture just the right image. Once the photographer captures these images, he or she must use special equipment and chemicals to develop the film. This requires great effort and attention to detail.

This collection of work was created by beginner photography students under the direction of Julia Staples and Dustin Ream. In this course, students learn how to use a film camera, how to develop negatives, and how factors like shutter speed or aperture, can affect the outcome of an image. Students selected this work from assignments throughout the semester, which had to do with things like the effects of light on a photograph, the many perspectives one can take as a photographer or experimenting with distance. This exhibition features a variety of approaches to these assignments, as well as students’ own personal expression and artistic vision.

~ Christine Torrey ‘20
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant

Aedan Accardi ‘19
Marketing major, Art minor

Photographer Aedan Accardi chose a group of four compelling photographs, featuring a cemetery. With this series, Aedan wanted to capture the beauty of cemeteries by blending together both man-made and natural objects. In these photographs, Aedan uses light and shadow to portray a somber mood. Two of these works feature crosses, both up close and from a distance. This series of photographs is reflective and mournful, and the perspective and framing of the two photographs shows a skillful execution of photography techniques.

Maria Jimenez ‘19

Accounting major, Business Analytics minor

This group of photographs, taken by Maria Jimenez, features a variety of subjects and perspectives. Maria’s photographs are full of bright light and strong contrast. Her use of positive and negative space gives the viewer a clear understanding of the form and subject matter. Maria uses the compositional Rule of Thirds to create visually interesting and thought-provoking images. In two of these photos, Maria captures man-made structures from a distance, highlighting their magnitude. She also photographs with little contrast more natural scenes of the city. These images hold a certain softness and tranquility. With this series of photographs, Maria portrays different viewpoints, and sheds new light on the world in which we live.

November 5 – 30, 2018
Service Project: Shai Hills, Ghana, Africa
Rachel Ledbetter, ’19

Rachel Ledbetter (IHS major and Art minor) volunteered at City of Refuge Ministries (CORM), a non-profit organization based in Ghana in May 2018.  The team at CORM is passionate about rescuing children from slavery and providing them with a safe and fulfilling childhood. Ledbetter’s research focuses on the injustices perpetrated on individuals in Africa. Through photography and video, this exhibit documents the people from CORM and their stories.

Read Rachel’s blog about her experience:
http://neverghanaforgetthis.blogspot.com/

History

Lake Volta is a man-made lake in Ghana built in the 1960s to create business opportunities for fishermen. This lake has an abundance of expensive fish to sell and profit from.  Fishermen buy children from vulnerable mothers, promising care and education.  In reality, the children are not educated, barely fed and forced into dangerous child labor.  Many children grow up to be slave masters themselves.

Intervention

In 2000, The Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed officially prohibiting all forced labor, involuntary servitude, and sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion.  As a result, rescuing children from Lake Volta became a legal process, but unfortunately human trafficking still continues today.  Many fishermen do not realize that what they are doing is illegal.  The government will carry out raids on the lake and rescue hundreds of children at a time. CORM partners with community leaders and International Justice Mission to rescue enslaved children.

Prevention

The key to end human trafficking in the Lake Volta region is to begin with the mothers. The women often lack the necessary skills and income to adequately provide for multiple children forcing them to sell their children in the hopes that they will have a better life.  CORM fosters women; teaching them sewing, literacy, cooking, and basic skills all while their children are attending school. After a few years, the women will graduate from this sponsorship program with proper skills, a sewing machine, a small stipend, and thus a business to sustain themselves and their children.

Restoration

CORM fosters, feeds, and provides Christian based education for children rescued from slavery. There are approximately 70 children currently living in Children’s Village.  Many of them will begin their education at age 13 since they spent their early childhood working on the lake.  This year CORM will have their fourth graduating class.  Many of these students will continue studying at the university level.

If you would like to volunteer, or donate to sponsor a child, please visit CORM’s website at: https://www.cityofrefugeoutreach.org

Art for Women Empowerment

Curated by Samantha O’Connell ‘20
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant and Summer Scholars Recipient

Art for Women Empowerment has a mission to support women in the art world, their art, and the subjects they paint. The all-female artists’ show will support women artists and will help bring attention to the lack of female representation in museums and galleries.

Through the many major feminist movements throughout our country including “Me Too” and “Time’s Up,” it is important to continue the fight towards equality for women. Art plays a major role in society, and I believe it is important to use art’s influence to promote the fight for feminism both inside and outside of the art world. The fight for equal rights for all women includes equal standards for women and men within the workplace and a world where women are viewed as equal to men, socially, politically and economically, and view women as more than sexual objects, but capable and powerful.

By bringing attention to the injustices and inequalities women face, the world will begin to recognize the problems and work towards change. Visual art appeals to people, which is why we go to museums; however, behind the art’s face value there is meaning, and when we take that meaning and apply it to what we see, our perspectives can be influenced, which makes art a more impactful means of promoting change. In terms of feminist art, the intentions behind the works in this exhibition, are to put emphasis on women empowerment and the inequalities women face within the art world but generally in the outside world as well. Feminist art allows viewers to reflect on its message and relate that message to the viewers’ own lives by sparking questions such as: Do I face inequality because of my gender? Do I contribute to gender inequality?

Abby Lustig

Abby Lustig is a painter from Pennsylvania. Ever since she started volunteering for a non-profit financial rehabilitation center called Homefront, her art has taken a focus toward empowerment. Abby volunteers for the art program Homefront offers, and many of the people who use the program are women. After interviewing each woman who comes in, Abby paints her portrait. “The questions I ask are about what the artist loves about herself, how she uses art to empower herself, and what aspect of the world she would like to change.” Abby uses oil paint for each painting and depending on the portrait, the creation of each one can take from 4 to 10 hours. Abby finds that each portrait turns out better when she doesn’t analyze every stroke, rather paints what she sees.

After having volunteered at Homefront for over a year now, Abby describes the people she’s worked with as “some of the most self-motivated and intelligent knowledge-seekers I have ever met. Just the other day, I had a conversation with a woman whose favorite things to talk about are quantum theory and color theory. Each visit, I          grow closer to these artists and learn more about their character, not their “story.” Another woman who I am also going to paint, has daughters who have degrees in criminal justice and psychology and are extremely successful… I realized how selfless this woman is. She gave everything to her children so that they could have a better future, and she is now pursuing her education.”

Abby feels that her goal as an artist is to “remove the stigma that many people associate homelessness with and replace it with an understanding of their character and actual art.” Abby wants artists to be empowered and she wants to further her knowledge of “what great and inspiring people they are… “I intend to make the artists gain confidence, and in her mission to boost confidence and empowerment through art, Abby has built upon her interview questions in addition to asking about what the artist loves about herself. She asks questions regarding the artists’ emotions and feelings they get when they create their own work.

Alexis Trionfo

Alexis Trionfo is currently a student at Elizabethtown College with a minor in studio art. Although her traditional media was painting with oils and pastels, she found a new love for digital photography after taking a class her senior year of high school. Alexis feels that she can truly capture moments with her photography. She particularly enjoys photographing in black and white; by doing so, Alexis feels like she captures the person’s soul rather than their clothes or their particular surroundings.

Alexis’s artistic process goes beyond the technical bits of photography. She feels the closest she comes to capturing a person’s soul is when they’re smiling. As she describes, “It feels like their truest, purest forms. I like to just talk with the people that I’m photographing as normal, hoping to catch them off guard, more vulnerable and real.” It is very clear that Alexis portrays the souls of each individual she photographs whether in color or black and white.

Additionally, Alexis’s work empowers women. She feels that women, although they should be treated equally in a political and economical standpoint, women empowerment goes beyond this, because women deserve to be “viewed equally, spoken to equally, judged equally, etc.” By capturing the souls of those she photographs, Alexis unveils the way should be viewed in a society as “strong, beautiful, intelligent, creative, and independent.” She states, “Women do not need to be validated by a man before they contribute, they have earned the right to be heard and seen without justification. Empowerment has to come from that belief, and it starts with us being given a fair chance to do so.”

Courtney Agnello

CJ Agnello is a 20 year old visual and literary artist currently living in Brooklyn. She is presently pursuing her BFA at the School of Visual Arts, NYC set to graduate in 2020. Over the last two years of working towards her degree she has experimented with many different styles. While her work’s message does not come across as immediately feminist, the way she is boldly making her mark in fields that are dominated by men however is. Film, literature and painting are all artistic pursuits that she pursues and these mediums still today in 2018 are chiefly populated by men. Her work speaks for, and stands for itself when it comes to its power, feeling the presence of the women she paints and the vitality they lack or embrace. Agnello’s paintings, in this exhibition, feature paintings emphasizing the beauty of women from all different ethnicities and backgrounds, including her own self portrait. Not only does Agnello want her work to be known, but her face and named to be attached to it.

Along with portraits, Agnello’s work also includes an experimentation with body form. The colors and strokes imitate the wide range of bodily forms. By bringing them all together, she accentuates the beauty of all bodily forms. On the other hand, Agnello’s wood canvas of three figures, the question arises, who are these men? Women? This ambiguity is to emphasize the beauty of the inner person rather than their physicalities, by utilizing bright and bold palettes. When one observes these various and powerful forms, one comes to know her passion and talent for the art world.

Floating Blue
June 12 – August 2, 2019

Having spent the last 10 summers traveling through arctic regions, Pickarski discovered a deep love for the eternal beauty of icebergs. He finds them to appear sculpturally magnificent, as if crafted in a way that seems too perfect for this world. In this series of photographs, he aims to portray both the ethereal beauty of icebergs, as well as the otherworldliness of the landscapes in which they exist.

Thomas Pickarski has been traveling to “the iceberg capital of the world” on the west coast of Greenland for approximately ten years.  While traveling back to the US from Iceland in 2008, Pickarski caught his first glimpse of an iceberg from 30,000 feet.

“My plane flew over Greenland.  I was mesmerized by the sights!  My next thought was, ‘Someday I’ll go there.’  As I sat with that for a few minutes, I realized the dullness of having just jammed an enormous amount of time between myself and what felt like an urgent calling…Today, I can’t imagine a summer going by without my visiting the ice,” said Pickarski.

Pickarski has always been amazed by “abstracted and unusual shapes in nature.”  He finds these shapes not only in icebergs but also in the jagged and smooth arctic deserts in the volcanic island of Iceland and in the alluvial fans of the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile.  Pickarski has been able to see all of these forms in nature because of his month-long travels all around the world.  He says that he has “discovered that being out of (his) element, is (his) element”.  When asked to elaborate on this and on other things he has discovered about himself through his travels, he says that he has had to confront unfamiliar situations due to being placed in environments and cultures that are very different from his own.

“It appears the confrontation is with situations, but it is ultimately with myself, and my limitations and fears.  Going through the confrontation, I come out on the other side with the realization that my interior coordinates have been shifted.  The lines inside me have moved, and my capacity has expanded.  It feels like nothing, and everything, at the same time.  This is the part of traveling I look forward to the most.”

Icebergs have become Pickarski’s signature form since first traveling to the west coast of Greenland, the largest ice fjord in the Northern Hemisphere.  He now travels there every year in late August to photograph the icebergs found there.  He takes most of the photographs from boats or the hillsides surrounding the ice fjord.  He especially enjoys photographing during “the blue hour,” which he defines as “the hour after sunset, and just before darkness, when the ice takes on deep blue tones.”  Pickarski believes that the icebergs are at their best in terms of color in the absence of bright light.  The absence of the sun’s light allows the lines on the icebergs to become more present, casting varying degrees of intense blue shadows across the ice.  These details allow the iceberg to become the focal point of the picture, standing alone against a cloud, ocean, and ice backdrop.

Pickarski edits the photos with Aperture, a basic but now obsolete software.  He explained that he was trained in classic darkroom and chooses to do as little editing as possible.  He said, “using very basic software keeps me focused on maintaining a purity to both my intention as well as the image.”

The pieces included in “Floating Blue” were chosen by how they related to the blue theme of the body of work.  Pickarski’s favorites are the final few in the collection.  They were all taken on the same night, in the same final moments of “The Blue Hour”.  One has an unusual hint of violet, while the last image truly moves Pickarski.

“This iceberg sits alone, further away from the cluster.  It has dislodged from the bottom of the fjord and has begun to move.  As the boat is pulling me away, we see a vast spaciousness around the iceberg as it floats into the darkness, beginning its journey to the sea.”

The “Floating Blue” series transports the viewer to a place of stillness and calm.  You feel as though you are there, looking at the icebergs from yards away, in the final moments of the day before the sunlight completely disappears.  The blue shadows on the icebergs warn of the coming night but the lines, cracks, jagged edges, and dips in the ice hold your attention and make your eye follow each detail, making the viewer forget about all else.  The photographs command your attention and there is something new to be found in each one every time they are gazed upon.  They illustrate to us a world untouched by human hands, that stands alone against the test of time.

~ Elisabetta Mannello ‘21
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant

December 17, 2018 through February 7, 2019

Artist Talk/Reception: Thursday, Jan 17, 11:30am – 12:30pm

This series is inspired by Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations, lithographs and drawings that blur the lines between art and science.  In his time these prints were ubiquitous, their presentation of a natural world whose forms can be ordered, understood and, most importantly, improved upon took deep root in pre-War Western culture.  Haeckel’s firm belief that all organisms were made up of geometric crystalline structures that could be perfected through evolution caused him to exaggerate and idealize the organisms he represented. This ideological quest for perfection in the natural world went on to become an important influence on Eugenics programs that took these views to their terrible extremes.

Like previous generations, I can’t help but be fascinated by these illustrations despite my awareness of their problematic ideological foundations and history.  My work takes Haeckel’s embellishments one step further, exaggerating the stranger elements of his creations based on my own aesthetic preferences rather than scientific observation. Like Haeckel, my figures are inspired by plants, sea creatures and protists, and my unapologetic fabulation demonstrates what happens when ideology supersedes observations.  My pieces are hand-made, but I’ve used model magic coated with acrylic gel medium to intentionally resemble 3D printed models in an attempt to borrow from the aura of objectivity that envelopes scientific illustration.   Although this work is inspired by an historical example, in this time of “alternative facts” where truth seems so illusory, these questions of ideology and objectivity are just as relevant today.

November 5 – December 7, 2018
Artist Talk:  November 15, 11:30am – 12:30pm

SOPHISTICATED CHAOS

Inspired by scenes of complex forms, this exhibition of watercolor paintings uses structures as a vehicle to explore the physicality of material, technique and subject. Pushing the boundaries of watercolor, these works merge art, design and architecture which dissolve into varying levels of abstraction. The painting approach is as much a part of the work as the subject—with marks, drips and splatters all becoming part of the final piece. The results are images that are bold yet beautiful, muscular yet elegant, suggestive and evocative.

Originally from Chicago, Ken Karlic studied architecture, painting and graphic design at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and received a BFA. He is a founding partner of the Baltimore-based graphic design firm Splice Design and teaches painting workshops nationally. Ken lives and works in Bel Air, Maryland.

Ken regularly exhibits throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and participates in national juried plein air competitions including Plein Air Easton, Door County Plein Air and Cape Ann Plein Air. He has recently been featured in The Art of Watercolour, PleinAir Magazine, Fine Art Today and Voyage Chicago. In addition, Ken wrote, “Sophisticated Chaos with DANIEL SMITH Watercolors, Step by Step Painting Large Scale” for Daniel Smith Art Materials, which was distributed to their global community of professional artists, retailers and distributors.

October 1 – 27, 2018
Artist Talk/Reception: Thursday, October 11, 11:30am-12:30pm

 Spirit of the Day offers viewers an essential yet often forgotten engagement—a deeper connection with their own spirit in the contemporary busy society. The paintings present a moment of this spiritual engagement through mindfully cultivated marks on the surface. Sumi-ink brings out subtle and nuanced shifts in values and highlights a myriad of layers so that viewers may lost in them and find the core of humanity.

Spirit of the Day

 “When I say ‘I am’, I am really including everyone else. We are all connected.”

– Nishiki Sugawara-Beda

Nishiki Sugawara-Beda cultivates feelings of honest connection in Spirit of the Day. Sugawara-Beda draws from Japanese culture and language, her own immigration experience, and family life to create these works. Her paintings are exercises in spiritual connection and mindfulness. The artist works in Sumi ink, a staple in Japanese calligraphy. This choice was made largely to hold fast to Japanese culture after moving to the United States. She remembers fondly the slow, laborious practice of making Sumi ink, which is done before one practices calligraphy and serves doubly as meditative preparation for the practice.

In earlier works, the artist uses Sumi ink to draw Japanese characters without picking up the brush, creating an abstract form from line and value. In time, the process evolved to create the lines and subsequent forms without drawing the characters, only by thinking of certain words and phrases.

Through this practice, Sugawara-Beda creates a medium through which she can communicate honestly with viewers. The paintings serve as an opportunity for viewers to engage meditatively with Sugawara-Beda. By getting lost in the lines, viewers see what they wish, learning about both themselves and the artist.

Spirit of the Day is on view in the Merion Hall gallery through October 27, 2018.

~ Devon D’Andrea ‘20
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant

Inaugural & Hana
22″×30″, Sumi ink and acrylic on paper mounted on wood, 2017/2016

Inaugural, a series characterized by the color blue, was created when Sugawara-Beda became a new mother. After giving birth, the artist had to redefine herself as an artist and a person. These works explore the feelings of excitement and uncertainty associated with new motherhood while staying true to her core process. Additionally, this series is exemplary of Sugawara-Beda’s earlier works, when her process included drawing words and phrases before creating the line.

In contrast, Hana, “flower” in Japanese, did not start with written words. Instead, the artist remembered a story about a Zen teacher and his students.

“Traditionally, Zen practice is learned by question and answer between students and a teacher. One day, a teacher gathered his students, and they all stood ready to receive a question, but the teacher stood there in front of the students, holding a flower and smiling. Eventually, all of the students started to smile, too.”  – Nishiki Sugawara-Beda

For the artist, Hana serves to communicate a positive feeling. With bright pinks and plunging lines, viewers feel a sense of contented peace.

How We See It
39.5″×141″, Sumi ink and acrylic on paper mounted on wood, 2018

This piece is a whole greater than the sum of its parts. For Sugawara-Beda, it was a study in her process. It is entirely abstract, and its interpretation is meant to be fluid. Viewers should see what they want to see in the painting. The artist wishes for the piece to serve as a tool in meditation. To engage with it is to engage with oneself and all of humanity.

~ Devon D’Andrea ‘20
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant