Alma Art Exhibit Celebrates Nature
Nature is celebrated in the artwork of Cindi Ford, Kathleen
VanDeMark and Mariel Versluis currently on display in the Flora Kirsch
Beck Gallery at Alma College.
The exhibit, titled “Allegory, Myth & Comment,” runs from Monday,
Feb. 9 through Thursday, March 12. Admission is free and open to the
public. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.
VanDeMark invites viewers to her gallery talk at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb.
14. A reception and gallery talks by Ford and Versluis take place at
6:30 p.m. March 12.
The prevailing theme of the show is appreciation and respect for nature
and animals. The artists present interpretations of the nature theme
within their art mediums.
VanDeMark uses wood block prints to tell a story of “The Great
Journey,” a representation of the evolution and ultimate extinction of
species over time. Her inspiration is the need to find solutions to the
extinction of animals and share her feelings for animals with others.
“The viewer is invited and encouraged to actively interpret the art,
creating stories from their own experience,” says VanDeMark, a member
of the art faculty at Ferris State University. “A piece is meant
to be perceived, not read.”
Ford’s works depict her experiences at her family cottage on Torch Lake
and illustrates the lake’s history from its beginning as a settlement
of the Chippewa and Ojibwa Indians to the present. The use of
sheer curtains, hung over each print, is meant to create a sense of
warmth and compel viewers to give in to curiosity and look beyond the
curtains, says Ford, an adjunct faculty member at Kendall College of
Art and Design at Ferris State University.
Versluis, also an instructor at Kendall, creates both two- and
three-dimensional works in order to share her stories about truths of
human existence. The 3D pieces are much like puzzles for the viewer to
unravel and interpret.
Her artwork includes two cardboard cutout heads riding atop makeshift
bicycles to represent “the insatiable greed and vanity of humanity and
our inability to make rational decisions.” Behind the bikes trail a
handful of black colored birds depicting the now extinct Passenger
Pigeon. Versluis uses this 3D image of the bicyclists pulling the birds
to illustrate the story of the bird’s extinction at the hands of man
and quietly remind viewers that “humans aren’t the only species on
earth.”
Posted: Tue, February 10th, 2009 at 4:11PM
