By Jason Ethridge
The Scene staff
Forest Park art instructors spend most of their time teaching students how to make art, but this month they’re showing off their own talent.
More than 30 pieces are on display at the campus Gallery of Contemporary Art as part of the annual Faculty Art Exhibition. They range from photographs and sculptures to an 8-by-24-foot mural that dominates one wall.
The mural, titled “Leaders, in the name of the people,” is an oil painting on plastic board. It’s filled with the faces of activists, such as Occupy Wall Street protesters, as well as U.S. presidents and historical figures from all over the world.
“I did not distort anyone, regardless of whether I like them or not,” said the artist, Yingxue Zuo, exhibit organizer and fine arts coordinator at Forest Park. “I’m pretty realistically presenting them here. People will see this mural and ask who is really doing things in the name of the people and who is not.”
The exhibit will run through March 29. The gallery is on the first floor of the library building. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. Admission is free.
Zuo is proud of the quality and variety of pieces on display. “People do not realize how good our program is, how good our faculty members are as artists,” he said.
The exhibit’s opening reception was held on March 2, attracting a mix of students, faculty and other art lovers. Mariah Richardson, an adjunct in mass communications, was drawn to Zuo’s mural.
“A lot of it is people that are crying out,” she said. “They’re the majority.”
Not all the work on display is of the paint-on-canvas variety.
Troy Aiken, an adjunct in ceramics, is showing “Pervasive Virtue,” a porcelain sculpture with molten-glass underglazes. He used a process called “slip-casting,” pouring liquid clay into plaster molds to give it a cobbled-together look.
“For me the forms are a little bit sad, a little bit nostalgic,” Aiken said. “Not many people really slip cast or use this process by hand anymore. Humans have been replaced by machines. Mainly what I’m doing is recreating these in a contemporary setting. I’m not saying that people don’t slip cast anymore; it’s just getting more and more rare.”
Eleven Forest Park faculty members participated in the exhibit. They were allowed to submit multiple pieces.
Metra Mitchell, an adjunct who teaches figure drawing and design, has eight oil paintings in the gallery. Most come from her series “Crucial Playground.” All focus on color and the human form.
One of her techniques is shining colored light on models and using swatches of color for backgrounds.
Lilian Dodenhoff, one of Mitchell’s models, attended the reception. She believes it’s incredibly important for aspiring artists to see the work of their teachers.
“It shows you the tools that you can use as your own artist,” she said.
Mitchell appreciated the opportunity to show her work and hopes that the annual faculty exhibit can continue.
“So many of the students don’t understand the amount of work that their teachers are making outside of the classroom,” she said. “So, it’s always really a joy for me to share that with them.”