From The Gallery 鈥 September 2020
Mississippi State University Department of Art Gallery Director Lori Neuenfeldt talks with Department Head Critz Campbell about updates in the department.
Mississippi State University Department of Art Gallery Director Lori Neuenfeldt talks with Department Head Critz Campbell about updates in the department.
鈥淭he drawings displayed here belong to an ongoing body of work that generally explores the concept of moving. Unbeknown to the viewer is whether or not occupants of these interior spaces are packing or unpacking; coming or going. Everyone has that unpacked box of books collecting dust on the top shelf of our bedroom closet. Will it ever reach its destination; will it ever be unpacked?鈥
"Although my paintings are most easily categorized as landscapes, I think of them as contemplative spaces in which to experience dualities and polarities within human nature, the natural world and the practice of painting. For instance; growth and decay, the illusion of depth and flatness, the 鈥渢ruth鈥 of photography and the 鈥渇iction鈥 of painting, the differences between our ideals and our actions.
"The conventional ballpoint pen is currently my preferred choice of medium. I use it to draw the human figure because it forces me to be spontaneous. In an attempt to synchronize my pen strokes with the pose of the model, I start out quickly and lightly, creating loose, gestural forms on paper. After establishing the desired pose, I begin the meditative process of slowly building my marks to fully record the curves and to sculpt the form. It is also important to capture the personality of the model.
"I am interested in the visual and communicative potential of objects that are cast off, discarded, and over-looked. Inherent to still life is an engagement with the mundane and domestic, as well as the notion of an arrested visual experience. These subjects, their intrinsic intimacy, and working from life are rich with pictorial and conceptual possibilities.
"I am fascinated by nature, and it has always inspired my artworks. Some of my lines, compositions, and even stories are derived from nature's curves, forms, and magnificent colors and combinations.
The visible form of nature is not the only thing that inspires me. I am even more inspired and fascinated by the growth in nature and how the random elements start from the smallest particles and grow in billions of billions to shape a flawless composition as if every single particle knew from the beginning where it exactly belonged.
"The Summer series is a collection of drawings based around stream of consciousness prompts, an exercise in speed and recreating traditional style mark making in a digital format. Average drawing in the series was drawn in a 30 minute to hour span."
"My thoughts and concerns focus on the subtle physical forces required for manipulating and forming this soft malleable material, attempting to capture in the skin-like wall of the form a sense of origin, movement and life."
"During my childhood I lived in fifteen different houses in the Midwest - a part of the country that feels as placeless as the rental houses my family occupied. As a result, I have always felt like an outsider observing and wondering about the area I was inhabiting. Each time we moved I became fascinated and haunted by the residual essence of the former inhabitants that still lingered around the landscape of our home.