Faculty Exhibit takes on all mediums

The Visual Arts Gallery is hosting its annual Faculty Exhibit until Jan. 31.

Fifteen part- and full-time MHCC faculty members will be showing paintings, prints, jewelry, ceramics, sculptures and calligraphy.

Georganne Watters, who teaches art history and printmaking created a three-dimensional kimono, “Something to Wear,” to be hung by bamboo poles in the exhibit. The kimono is fashioned after an early design from the Heian period in Japanese history.

She typically hangs single sheet prints. However, this kimono is her first attempt at mixing fabric with a paper kimono.

All of her materials are Japanese, including her tools. She used woodcarving to create the print on Washi, which is Japanese paper made from natural fibers.

She will be hanging her piece to create a three-dimensional artwork.

“Sort of shifting into this three-dimensional realm is kind of scary, but I’m trying it. Sometimes we really learn a lot from what isn’t working,” said Watters, who plans to make a similar piece again.

She constructed the platform her kimono will hang over from wood previously used for another piece. It was designed to resemble Japanese tearooms and tatami mats.

After the show she usually takes her “theatrical” pieces home. “I find a new performance space for them and they get to perform again. It’s fun to see them in different environments,” she said.

Her piece has taken her months. However, she said, “I don’t count the hours or the days because what I’m doing makes me very happy. It’s a way to live.”

Painting teacher Lori Lorion will present two pieces inspired by T.S. Elliot and Black Elk that she began this fall.

She said one painting, “T.S. Elliot and Black Elk,” features “a portrait of those two from my imagination.” Elliot’s work “The Waste Land” inspired her to depict Elliot in a skeletal figure. She said she found similarities after she looked up Elliot’s appearance.

Her other piece, “The Words of T.S. Elliot and Black Elk,” features lines from both of the author’s works alternating through the work. She said after the words puffs of some sort began to emerge, followed by figures.

She saw a figure emerging on the right, but a sculpture at the Portland Art Museum triggered her to develop the image and others in the painting.

“They just kind of emerged,” she said.

She said the exhibit allows students to relate to MHCC faculty members not only as teachers, but also as artists. “I try not to bring up my work at all. I don’t want to influence them to be anything like me. I want them to be themselves,” Lorion said.

Gallery Coordinator Miles Browne said the exhibition “really gives a chance to see just different types of art forms. I think that’s what makes it unique.”

Lorion hopes the students are inspired by the exhibition as it inspires her. “I’m inspired looking at my colleagues’ work – very much,” she said.

Seventeen MHCC faculty members are also showing at Clatsop Community College in Astoria. Their work is alongside faculty artwork from Linn-Benton and Clatsop Community Colleges.

The Clatsop exhibition will run until Feb. 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. For more information, contact [email protected].