The Art Department at DePauw University, where I am a student, includes studio art and art history. A huge emphasis is placed on what the department calls “punch card” events that occur almost weekly throughout each semester. Four events are required, but students often attend more. Events include gallery openings with artist talks, lectures, student exhibitions, and receptions for the students, professors, and visiting artists. The intimacy of the setting, as well as the interactions between the artists and the students isn’t readily available in larger gallery spaces. Listening to an artist explain their inspiration, statement, or what the work means to them personally in their development as an artist helps give new meaning and life to any work of art. My personal interpretation or opinion of a work of art may stem from a personal experience, or exposure to past works I’ve seen throughout my years in galleries. This blend of backgrounds, opinions, and conversation that emerges between two or more people in an effort to better understand a work of art, results in an interaction that would not occur if we simply viewed a piece of art and moved forward. Art should be discussed and observed in more than one way.
Since the start of my internship, I have met three of the nine artists who show their work in the Anita Sue Kolman Gallery, Patrick Kemal Pryor, Josephine A. Geiger, and Atom Pechman. It is a different experience getting a chance to learn about the artists beyond the incredible work they show in the Anita Sue Kolman Gallery. I have gotten to know a lot about Patrick, since he is at the gallery the majority of the times I am working. There is not a dull moment when he is around, and the way he talks about his art makes you want to pick up a paintbrush and attempt to create something unique. Josephine explained the unique situation of an artist like herself showing work in a gallery with painters. I was unaware of the fact that it is rare for a glass artist to work with painters and vice versa. I have studied different genres of painting, but never stained glass or textiles. Her ability to create landscapes and trees that look like pines or birches based on the surface of the glass is unlike any other stained glass windows I have seen. Finally, my discussion with Atom about the furniture design work he did with the Barrio restaurants, as well as Red Bull and other big name companies reminded me how lucky I am to meet these talented artists, and expand my understanding of the art world overall. My experience in the gallery thus far has exposed me to art beyond the traditional art I have studied in my courses throughout college, and introduced me to the artists who make up the Anita Sue Kolman Gallery.
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