Penn State Altoona to present work of Visual Art Studies faculty

Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 400 hits

ALTOONA — The McLanahan and Sheetz Galleries will feature an exhibition of work by five faculty artists: Susan Marie Brundage, Michael Lucas, A. Bill Miller, Rebecca Strzelec, and Robert H. Thomas. These exhibitions, which are free and open to the public, will run October 18 - December 16, 2012. A reception will be held from 3 - 5 p.m., Thursday, October 18 in the Titelman Study of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts.

Brundage received her M.F.A. in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2009 and her B.F.A in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. Since moving to Pennsylvania in 2002, Brundage has been actively exhibiting her work both regionally and nationally. She states, “Precious is a series of small gouache paintings that explores a persistent fascination I have had with open pit mines. This type of mining digs away enormous layers of earth creating very large craters in order to expose the mineral deposits to be extracted. I am particularly interested in open pit diamond mines and the geological devastation they create to extract these sparkly little stones that our culture deems more precious than the actual Earth that they come out of.”

Lucas is a native of Central Pennsylvania. He, his wife, and two daughters live in Houtzdale, Clearfield County. Lucas earned both his Bachelors and Master’s degree at the Pennsylvania State University. He is currently an associate professor of visual arts. He has been exploring his life-long interest in Byzantine art, architecture, and spirituality. Lucas states, “This work is about the process of carving stone. It is also about the creation of a structure that incorporates carved stones. Ultimately, this exhibit tells about one artist’s quest for what the late art historian Kenneth Clark terms ‘unity of expression.’”

Miller, assistant professor of visual arts, at Penn State Altoona earned his MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His nationally- and internationally-exhibited works include his acclaimed Gridworks Project, which is comprised of abstract ASCII drawings, animated GIFs and videos, as well as live audio/visual performances. He states, “We exist within a built environment that is constantly mediated by the grid. Grids organize space through coordinate mapping and patterns of development. Grids compress, redisplay, and reorder information. Grids are an enforcement system imposed upon both nature and culture. I respond to this ubiquity by creating gridworks. These forms examine the blurred boundary between the machine and the human - the tool of data collection and the interpretive mind.”

Strzelec, professor of visual arts and program coordinator of Visual Art Studies, earned her BFA and MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM. Her work consists of wearable objects which are created via computer aided design, three-dimensional modeling, and rapid prototyping. Strzelec’s work is an investigation of the ways wearable objects interact with the surface of the body. Her work is created in the digital environment using Computer Aided Design, or CAD. When the creating process is complete within a CAD modeling application the wearable objects are realized tangibly though the use of Rapid Prototyping. Rapid prototyping involves various computer-controlled machines that translate data into tangible, real world, objects. The objects are built layer by layer in various plastics and photosensitive resins. Often Strzelec includes found objects into her work. These items provide contrast and detail to the matte and solid colors of the ABS plastic.

Thompson received an M. F. A. in painting and drawing from the Ohio State University in 2008. He taught at Ohio State before coming to Penn State Altoona in 2010, where he currently is a part time lecturer in arts. Thompson states, “My work is primarily focused on the interaction of color. These paintings are based on digital prints I made with a multi-function laser printer. I discovered that leaving a paper in the document feeder, while trying to copy another one on the glass, would lead to an image of nothing but stripes…I ripped advertisements out of ArtForum and Art in America and tried them in different combinations to see what would happen. The resulting images, originally the result of an accident, were both unpredictable and readymade. I thought they were suitable subjects for paintings because of their unusual color combinations.”

The Galleries are open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. and before and during all performances. For further information, call the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts at 814-949-5452.