From classroom to Courtyard, 'Artist=Educator' covers both worlds
(Aug. 21, 2008) In or out of the classroom setting, the artist is an educator. Through visual outlet, artists challenge assumptions and spark discussion on the issues important to them and to society.
Here at UC Denver, we are fortunate to have a number of professional artists who like to spend time teaching in the classroom as well. Thanks to a partnership between the UCD College of Arts & Media (CAM) and the Courtyard by Marriott, their double role as artists and educators is being recognized.
The Partnership Gallery, located in the lower level of the Marriott, 934 16th Street Mall, is hosting Artist=Educator, a collection of artwork from 20 members of the visual arts faculty at UCD. The show features a variety of media including drawing, sculpture, painting, photography, digital design, and animation.
Melissa Furness, assistant professor of visual arts at CAM, is contributing two of her newest pieces; a painting, “Accouchement,” at left, and a drawing, “Commencement.” Both works have recently been selected to be published in the October 2008 edition of New American Paintings.
Both “Accouchement” and “Commencement” feature a background of ancient ruins. To begin developing this imagery, Furness uses computer technology to morph images of real locations, giving a fantasy-like feeling. On top of that, she adds images of swimmers, separating their body parts.
Furness says the pieces deal with themes of place and time. “There are different types of travel, such as online travel, actual travel and imagined travel,” she says. The works engage the “idea of how a person imagines or idealizes a place before actually visiting or having the ability to actually know it,” she explains.
When creating figures to interact with the space, she thinks in terms of altered identities, for example, online avatars. “The imagery comes from actual swimmers and thinking about a loss of place or bodies of water which connect or disconnect people,” says the artist.
Furness hopes viewers will not only find something to identify with in her work, but “something that will take them to a different place and cause them to rethink their vision of place and their connection with place.”
Artist=Educator runs through Sept. 27. Admission is free and open to the public daily. An artist’s reception will take place Friday, Sept. 12, from 6-9 p.m. in addition to a gallery talk with UC Denver faculty at 7 p.m.