On the second floor of Johnson Memorial Building, there is a place for memories, art and imagination. Just after the entrance, one can appreciate a first glance of a new exhibition named “Living Portraits,” in which a group of students present a significant person using oil painting and ceramic sculpture techniques.
The students were classmates during a studio art course last spring, taught by Professor of Studio Art James Butler. It’s not the first time Butler has made an exhibition of the work of his students, but this time he was “particularly excited.” Butler’s course tried to make the students interact with ceramics and oil painting to create portraits.
“I believe visitors to the show will discover surprising uses of these materials”, said Butler. “the students in the class really gelled as a group, helping each other with suggestions and encouragement. We had a class blog that kept us in touch while outside the studio. The process of making the work you see in the show took all semester to learn and bring to fruition.”
The students were told to create a portrait of a person important to them, someone who engaged emotional and physical complexities. Most of the students came up with a family member (a sister, an older brother, a father, a mother) to inspire themselves during the working process. They participated in open studio art as part of the Spring Student Symposium last year, which was an interesting experienced for Butler.
“They could hear visitor's impressions,” he said. “The class and I felt the images were reaching an audience and this gave us impetus to think in terms of a final exhibition.”
The students of “Living Portraits” are Yasmina Muslemany ’14, Maise Ogata ’14, Virginia Yarboro ’14, Natalie Guo ’13, Nora Jones ’12 and Lilah Leopold ’13. Butler described their work as a “thrilling payoff to nuanced conversations and trial and error of applied methods,” while Ogata described her own work as an intention to shape her sister’s personality and its influence on her life.
“The other day I passed by my sculpture and I had a strange feeling, as if that artwork could express everything I was going through during last semester and how did I feel,” she said. “It was all reflected in my art work”.
Ogata’s process was very personal.
“I spent a lot of time with my sister just before that semester and it was very inspiring for me to create a portrait of her,” she said.
Even though her sister strongly inspired her, Ogata isn’t sure if she wants to show it to her. “It was a funny situation, because my sister came to see the sculpture and she asked me what was it about,” Ogata said. “I didn’t tell her it was her portrait, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever do."
Ogata noted that when she wrote the assigngment for the exhibition, she didn’t reread it, but it contained a strong story that explained what was behind her sculpture and why it looks like a storage unit with an open door that shows two abstract paintings and small windows.
There are many reasons to come and take some time to admire these students’ work.
The show is “beautiful to look at," said Butler. "It has rich painting surfaces, seductive glazed ceramic and big scale."
