 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
Texas Tech students looking to bring some art culture into their lives can check out the unique works of two artists this month at the Masters of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition.
Two Tech students working to receive their Masters of Fine Arts, Janna Williams and Charles Neumann, will be showcasing their work at the Art Depot in downtown Lubbock today through April 20.
The exhibition serves as a place for students to display the physical bodies of research they have been working on, said Ryder Richards, director of the Art Depot. The process of creating a whole show in which the pieces relate to one another takes thorough research and development.
"Most people just think (artists) just walk in there and have this great epiphany and they create stuff," Richards said. "But when you're in graduate school getting critiqued all the time, it's a bit different."
Richards said Williams, whose work has to do with transparency, uses materials such as wax, glass and other translucent materials to set her work apart from that of others.
Williams, a graduate student in studio art and a Masters of Fine Arts candidate from Houston, creates large wax collages on top of stretched canvas, stretched paper or wood panels. She said her work is a layering process, and the wax is what holds her work together.
Williams said the process and materials she uses are fairly unique because many of the faculty members she works with are not used to using wax. She said wax usually is used in the traditional encaustic style of painting, and she came across the concept of using wax to create sculptures by accident.
"I wanted to take this technique that I've done, and try to display it in my show in many different ways," Williams said of her creations.
Williams achieves this unique display by incorporating her whole environment when setting up her work, Richards said. He said some of her work is made of latex she will stitch together and hang from the ceiling. She also is building a whole wall with lights inside so the light's rays will shine through her work.
When setting up her work for an exhibit of this sort, Williams figures out how her art work is going to look best in the given space and how she can best incorporate her work into the space, Richards said, noting this is what he likes best about her.
"Her work needs to be seen in order to be appreciated," Richards said.
According to an Art Depot press release, the other artist in the show, Charles Neumann, has "developed sculptural work concerned with the complex relationship between tools and the user of the instruments. He structures tools that cannot be used for maximum efficiency or the desired purpose, and the tool then creates a paradox of function which stimulates conversation and communication."
Richards said the fact Neumann creates tools that are impossible to use creates a parallel with the art world and people in general.
"Sometimes things are just built difficult, and it's hard to get around it," Richards said. "Most people will ignore anything that's hard to deal with, and so I think the fact that he's built these tools that are hard to use is sort of this whole ridiculousness of the situations we get ourselves into."
Richards said Neumann's work deals with contradictions, which creates a good conversation point for those who come to view the exhibition.
More information on the Art Depot can be found at its Web site at www.ryderrichards.com/artdepot.html.
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