The Barometer Online

Issue date: 5/22/09 Section: Diversions

Media Credit: Cory Reed Top: "Call and Response," is showing at LaSells Stewart Center on campus. Seven artists from the community created a piece, exchanged it and created a reactionary artwork. Above: "Brickwork," a small woven work by Mariana Mace.

By Anna Swain

The Daily Barometer

The exhibit at the Giustina Gallery in the LaSells Stewart Center is a study in all the diverse and beautiful forms art can take. "Call and Response" will be on display in the Gustiana Gallery until May 30.

A "community of artists" - made up of Karen Tornow, Anna Tewes, James Schupp, Mariana Mace, Pam Hough, AliceAnn Eberman and Anita Cook - came together to assemble its work for the exhibit. The end result is breathtaking.

This show is not just an amalgamation of separate artists' works. Instead, each piece is interdependent on the others as a result of the artists taking part in an intensive dialogue during the creative process. This makes the show very unique.

In preparation for the exhibit, each artist submitted "an original piece of art," which he or she referred to as a "call" to the community of artists. Each artist then created a work inspired by each "call." These pieces are termed "responses," and it is because of this terminology that the show earned its name, "Call and Response."

In total, there are seven groupings, each based off a central theme dictated by a "call" piece. What makes this idea work is the incredibly unique style of each artist. The media utilized range from photography to basket-weaving; sewing to acrylics on linoleum; and oils to paper collage.

This diversity allows the central theme of each call to be re-examined in new, innovative ways in each response. Thus a intricately woven basket by Mariana Mace becomes a beautiful painting in oils of a duck in flight by Pamela Hough.

Though each artist's work is exceptional, Hough's pieces stand out in every grouping. They combine an incredible level of skill with creativity. The most exceptional piece is a painting titled "Free," which simply features a single red balloon floating up into a clear sky. The balloon is done with such skill and realism that it seems to wander out of the frame. Hough is truly a master of manipulating light and color, as are all of the other artists featured in the gallery.

This is a show not to be missed. The art is incredibly well-done, diverse and lovely. It will make you smile, think and laugh. Make sure and stop by LaSells to experience "Call and Response" before the show ends on May 30.



Anna Swain, Diversions writer

managing@dailybarometer.com

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