Faculty exhibit - what a show!

Hello again. As you may have gathered, I have no life outside of academia. Luckily, academia provides quite an incredible life for me. Music major, art minor. I get to know all the most astounding talents from around the world. Speaking of which, I just came back from the grand opening of the faculty exhibit.

What a wonderfully diverse showing of art we had tonight! I took notes on my cell phone, so I hope no one thought I was a rude text messaging fool. Let's have the gallery tour with six artists:

1) Gil Demeza - Pretty Woman. The metallic paint and bright color splotches reminded me of what it looks like when your makeup explodes in your purse. (Nightmare!) The paintbrushes caked in paint attached to the canvas were a humorous addition. Very clever.

Gil Demeza - Sonata for a Sultry Cat. What fun! I noticed the 'musical staves' secured to all the canvases. I love the colors in this painting. They remind me of coffee and chocolate. Delicious.

2) Doug Sutherland - Big Mumfordian Statement. It was love at first sight with me and Robo Christ. From the time capsule of all the greatest disasters of the 20th century, to the juxtaposition of Sarah Palin and rising gas prices (two 21st century disasters), to the glowing neon INRI, everything was pure magic.

3) Chris Valle - Body Buy Victoria. Gorgeous layering of images! Just viewing the complexity is intimidating. I noticed what looked like a Greek mural of an orgy/party in the background. This painting features the emaciated beauties of Victoria's Secret, held together barely by connective tissue and Botox. Note: Forty-dollar bras will not make your nudity less tragic. Sorry, average woman. You'll just have to strut your reality. :)

Chris Valle - Saint Lady of Gaga. I just have to say I adore it. That's about all I can say. You have to see it for yourself to really appreciate how much careful work it must take to get the final effect.

4) Santiago Echeverry - Prick. (I swear that was the title and not a value judgement!) What an amazing work. I have never read such an edgy, well written contemporary poem. I may be an Ed Madden fan now. The video is dramatically lit and every shot was gorgeous. Granted, the model was just about the most beautiful man I have ever seen, but the choice of model is also to Santi's credit. (Thanks for that.) Photographs were stunning!

5) Kendra Frorup - Duran Duran. I really enjoy Kendra's work because she mixes media to such an extent that you get a whole living environment in every sculpture/painting/mutant. There is a great boxing theme in this new set of works. The paintings are solid and the gloves are striking (I can find no less pun-like description that works).

6) Catherine Chastain-Elliott - Orange Sunset 2010, A Perfect Year, October Sunset. I have seen plenty of paintings of landscapes in my life, but none like this. I like the less-than-clean brush strokes used here, because they provide a more realistic depiction of a sunset. There are not just solid bands of color in a perfectly clear sky, there are little remains of larger clouds and the view is partly obscured by the forest. Here I almost feel the woods. Lovely.