Faculty Exhibition Runs through Sept. 15 in the Angelina Center for the Arts Gallery
Angelina College Visual and Performing Arts instructors don’t just teach their crafts. They show students exactly how to do it.
AC’s Art instructors currently are displaying some of their works in a gallery scheduled to run through Sept. 15 in the Angelina Center for the Arts gallery. Instructors exhibiting their skills include Denise Stringer Davis, Reginald Reynolds, Jan Anderson-Paxson, Stina Herrera and Le’Anne Alexander.
Ranging in various media from oil and acrylic paintings to video to photography, the collection is testament to both the artists’ specific talents and experience.
Admission to the gallery is free and open to the public.
Following are the artists’ statements:
Denise Stringer Davis: These works are from my exhibition loss, healing & wonder which is a distillation of my brush with my mortality, the way I processed the pandemic, and the sense of wonder I hope to always keep. I strive to make objects and images that evoke memories that we do not think about often or at all but nevertheless shape our perceptions. I once heard a poet describe a poem as a prayer of gratitude. My work is the physical embodiment of gratitude for my experiences.
My art seeks to find the profound and the beautiful in the everyday. Physicality and tactility, which relate to the body of the viewer and to past experiences, serve to create a dialog between the viewer and the piece. Common materials, sounds, and actions contain significant beauty and meaning when isolated and considered in their own right.
I am interested in the places where science, philosophy, and spirituality intersect. Poetry, humor, and magic live there. Hope lives there. Space, time, memory and all things physical fluctuate, but that impermanence, when greeted with openness, invites us to take in every moment and revel in the connectedness of things as small as a virus to those as monumental as the universe.
Reginald Reynolds: LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor (not human life and not even the most recent life) is the most recent form of life that is ancestral to current existing life on earth. Some evidence exists in the discovery of photosynthetic micro-organisms, cyanobacteria, and algae (primitive one-celled organisms), found in what are called stromatolites (sedimentary formations).
Two leading assumptions suggest that life on Earth is a result of:
1. Abiogenesis – where a chemical system grows in complexity and replicates itself, a widely accepted definition of life.
2. Panspermia – where organic molecules may have been delivered from space, via meteorites that fell to Earth.
I like the second case. It is intriguing and makes good science fiction. I want to know: Do we need to be looking for LUCA on Earth and LUCA in our Universe?
Jan Anderson-Paxson (Light Interrupted): The photographs that I am presenting are part of a series where I am observing how the effects of sunlight on a subject, changes as it is filtered through, water, fog, haze or clouds. The angle of the sun can also dramatically alter the scene, as well. The five images were taken early in the morning on an almost deserted beach in
South Padre Island. I choose to work in black and white photography where the seemingly infinite tones of black, gray, and white, help me to express in my photographs and what I was feeling at that moment.
We are living in a world of uncertainty, whether it’s the subject of Covid, inflation, climate change, political fighting, immigration or the many, types of social issues facing our country. All these competing voices demand our attention, all the time! In these images, those voices are silent. I can be still, and marvel in the quiet beauty and serenity seen in nature that is all around us. If we only take the time to observe!
As you look at the photographs, my wish for you is to stop for a few minutes, see the light reflecting off the water, imagine hearing the sound of waves softly lapping onto the shore, and feel the warm breezes on your face.
Stina Herrera (Sunbonnet Sue): Sue celebrates two traditions that seem to be becoming less and less prevalent: quilting and stained glass. All of her color comes from pressed flower petals, sourced locally in Nacogdoches. The beautiful, delicate details in the petals are on full display, especially when the light shines behind her. I hand-stitched some decorative elements to add more dimension and another tie back to fabrics and quilting. Every grandmother I know had a sunbonnet sue quilt, usually hanging on a decorative ladder somewhere. This pattern is iconic nostalgia for me, and incorporating the pressed petals ties it directly to home.
Ex-lax: This piece is from my “Issues” series, which consists of sculptural jewelry and prints each addressing various mental health issues prevalent in our nation, but specifically among young people. Body issues have only become increasingly widespread since the rise of social media, and anorexia is one of the most common eating disorders. The beautifully shiny, deep red medical alert symbol in the middle of the necklace slowly fades and becomes smaller, duller, and grainier. The healthy shapes become more and more decayed and the back becomes more skeletal, to demonstrate the wasting away of the body and mental health of the individual.
Le’Anne Alexander: I’ve always been a fan of geometric shapes and their ability to suggest meaning outside the mathematical. These forms also contain a level of simplicity which I find fun and challenging to approach creatively. This simplicity of form leads to a desire for a restricted color palette resulting in my use of black and white, primary, and secondary colors.
In my practice, images are created digitally with very basic design software and/or a cellphone camera. I design images that, despite how good they look on the screen, continue to give me what I call the “digital ick,” meaning there is something still not right about them in their purely digital form. They may feel cliché, seem to require a larger format, or need a change of medium. I consider the digital images merely sketches which create a problem that I get to solve. Some images should just not be digital, but many of mine start out that way.
I initially started the geometric series which I’m now calling “The Primaries” and “The Secondaries” with the intent of creating non-objective art focused solely on the formal concerns, however I found that by attempting to clear my mind during the creative process, I could not escape certain world issues which began to appear in the work. This series of shaped wood panels and also the charcoal drawing are impacted by the stress and emotion tied to the state of the political climate in our country. The lack of balance, the unrest and uncertainty led to ideas of confused patriotism, hidden agendas and dangerous outcomes bubbling just under the surface. The titles are a play on words related to the Primary Elections and the resulting fallout.
Dreamin’ ‘Bout Cars and Talkin’ ‘Bout Women is a more traditional oil painting on panel that came about during a long wait at the car dealership. I’ve found that if you sit quietly in a public space and listen to those around you that you get an idea of what really matters in the
community. Despite a shocking new political news story blaring on the tv, the packed waiting area hummed with talk of the new Corvette engine and gossip about someone’s cheating wife while a single mom rocked a car seat containing a wailing baby. I looked out the window seeking sanctuary and zoned out to the beautiful blues of the sky reflected in the window, mirroring the blue metal roof of the building. I contemplated the illusion this created of a reversal of earth and sky while an old Alan Jackson tune played across the intercom and the conversation continued.
For further information, contact curator Le’Anne Alexander at lalexander@angelina.edu.
