Sarah Powers
Staff Writer
It’s the start of a fresh semester for Parkland students, but the art department faculty has been hard at work preparing pieces for the 2015 Art and Design Faculty Exhibition in the Geirtz Gallery, on display through September 19.
“We do it to kick off the season every year,” said Lisa Costello, director of the Giertz Gallery. “It’s really nice for students in the art and design departments to see what their faculty can do, and show that they’re still practicing artists,” she added.
Twelve faculty artists, including Louis Ballard, Chris Berti, Melinda McIntosh, Craig McMonigal, Laura O’Donnell, Denise Seif, Peggy Shaw, Tim Stiles, Joan Stolz, Matthew Watt, Kelly White, Liza Wynette, and Paul Young have pieces on display in the gallery.
Costello described the exhibit as a “Welcome back!” to returning students. Several classes outside of art and design have taken time to visit the exhibit, including many English as a Second Language (ESL) and humanities courses.
“It’s nice that, right away, faculty want to introduce their students to the gallery,” continued Costello, who works to promote the gallery as a free and open space for everyone.
Pictured is photographic work titled “Viewer/Voyeur #3,” which is one in a series by Craig McMonigal, Art and Design professor, displayed in the Faculty Art Exhibit in the Giertz Gallery at Parkland College. McMonigal was recently awarded the 2015 ICCTA Outstanding Part-time faculty Award.
The annual showcase features sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, video, photography, metals, ceramics, and graphic design. The diversity of artistic talent shines from every surface of the gallery, from carved bricks, to Twitter feeds, to broaches.
“I think it gives people some insight to the idea of an artist practicing what they do and what they teach,” says Costello, “but also how the two can vary greatly. When you see their work, it doesn’t necessarily reflect [what they teach], and I always find it very interesting to see how the artists navigate their own way.”
Photography professor Peggy Shaw, who has a piece in the show “created something very different from any other artist,” said Costello.
Shaw’s piece, called Water, uses both photography and video mediums to express the changing of water over a yearlong period. A time-lapse video of a body of water is projected over a photograph of a person standing at an infinite horizon. The water and weather changes, but the person stays the same.
“The piece was born out of an idea of human shared experiences, when we find ourselves in a place where you know, in fact, that human beings have been doing this since the beginning of time,” said Shaw.
Interested in the juxtaposition of freezing a moment with a photograph, and keeping a moment constantly moving with video, Shaw describes this piece as a merging of professional pathways as a video artist and professor in photography.
An open reception on Thursday, September 3, from 5-7 p.m. in the Geirtz Gallery will have live music and refreshments. The reception will not only celebrate the fine works of contemporary art, but also to honor photographer Craig McMonigal, who won the 2015 Illinois Community College Trustees Association Award for Outstanding Part-time Faculty Member.
Art & Design professor Christopher Berti displays a series of carved bricks during the Faculty Art Exhibit in the Giertz Gallery at Parkland College.
Gallery hours for the fall semester are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 12-2p.m.. The gallery will be closed Monday, September 7 for Labor Day.
