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Current Exhibit
  
Waking Dreams: Prints, Paintings, Photography
Laurie Blakeslee, Christina McNearney, Melanie YazziOctober 26 - December 4, 2009
Gallery talks: October 28, 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Reception: October 28, 5-7 p.m.
Tucson Visiting Artist Consortium lecture by Melanie Yazzie: Thursday, October 29 at 7 p.m, Recital Hall
According to McNearney, who organized the exhibition, Waking Dreams refers to "the nature of the state of mind that artists channel in the creative process." All three of the exhibitors are artist/educators interested in conveying to their students and the community at large the influences and inspirations that spawn the creation of their work.
Blakeslee's color photographs tell a story of a fictional childhood on a stage set stage for a dark comedy. Each of the characters' strategy is to maintain the illusion of normalcy. She notes, "Silence casts a shadow on the decorative. Class and social standing are perfectly demonstrated through adult performances of cool indifference. Players are directed to express emotional numbness as they pose, statue-like, disguising any feelings of inadequacy or humiliation." Blakeslee received a BFA from Boise State University with an emphasis in painting and an MFA in photography from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She is currently an associate professor of art at BSU, where she teaches photography and coordinates the undergraduate art foundations program. Her photographs have been exhibited across the United States and most recently at J Crist Gallery in Boise, Idaho.
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McNearney's work is abstract and in many cases would be considered nonobjective. She is a painter, who is equally comfortable with a computer or an intaglio press. While on sabbatical last year, doing an artist residency at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts in Indiana, she became interested in seeing how acrylic paints can perform in ways typically reserved for printmaking inks. Her work reflects the influence of the dense vegetation of the area and how layers and layers of foliage seemed to extend throughout the landscape. McNearney has a MFA in painting and drawing from The University of Arizona. She is full-time faculty at Pima Community College's West Campus visual arts department. She also has a studio in the Tucson Arts District and finds that she is frequently using images from her drawings and paintings as fuel in her digital and printmaking compositions.
Yazzie's paintings in this exhibition are images drawn from her childhood growing up in northeastern Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. She spent some time in Red Lake, New Mexico, at her father's family home, where she played and took care of family's livestock. The paintings began as a way to record her memories from that period. Yazzie has a MFA from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, where she is an associate professor of art. Her works belong to many collections such as the Anchorage Museum of History & Art, the Art Museum of Missoula, the Australian National Gallery, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Kennedy Museum of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in places such as Alaska, California, New Mexico, New York, Florida, New Zealand, France, Russia, Canada, Estonia, Northern Ireland, Korea, China, the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.The gallery and its programs are free and open to the public. Gallery hours: Mon./Wed. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.,Tue./Thu. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and before most evening performances in the Center for the Arts theatres. Call 520-206-6942 for more information. Above images:
Laurie Blakeslee - Charm Curl archival inkjet print 12"x18"
Christina McNearney - Milk Blood acrylic on panel 9"x12"l
Melanie Yazzie - Me and Luna at Red Lake acrylic painting 20"x20"
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