By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The annual Fort Hays State Art and Design faculty exhibit is on display now through Friday at the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art on campus.
The art includes pieces across disciplines, including printmaking, graphic design, sculpture, painting, interior design and ceramics.
Jee Hwang, assistant professor (painting), is exhibiting two paintings from a series of women eating flowers.
"I' m working on the allegory of how the flower symbolizes the female body and the beautiful presentation of a woman in the media or as a part of history," she said.
"I'm more of a rebellious person, so I'm trying to break that norm by depicting the women eating the flower."
The women consumes or destroys the stereotypical image of female beauty, she said.
Hwang has created about 20 paintings in the series of varying sizes. Her goal is to develop the series into a full exhibition.
She said as teachers, the faculty have a responsibility to teach students, but they also have to continue to learn and create their own art. This continuous process of learning and researching helps faculty members become better teachers.
"Fort Hays, for sure, has a lot of talents among the faculty," she said. "I feel so lucky to be surrounded by these talented faculty [members], so I get inspired. We all work together as a team."
Linda Ganstrom, professor (ceramics), displayed several sculptures depicting women.
A life-size women with a ceramic head and torso and a iron base to indicate a skirt was modeled after Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire. It is from a series Ganstrom calls "The Belles." They are all about historical female leaders. Cavendish was a cultural leader, fashion icon and wrote a book, but had a tragic life.
She also created two female heads to honor women's suffrage last year. One is pale blue and the other is pale red.
"Thinking about Republicans and Democrats and the divide that happened politically, but they have so much in common, and we 're so lucky to have the opportunity to vote and decide over our own government," she said.
Another sculpture was modeled after her granddaughter who appears almost swan-like.
"I feel like I have a lived female experience," she said, "so I feel I understand female experience more than male experience. There is also so much sculpture out there that has been made by men about women, but not very much sculpture out there made by women about women. ...
"I'm not showing objects of human desire, but what it's like to live in a human body or have a female experience — to show something that goes beyond beauty. Though they are beautiful, in a way, they're also somewhat mysterious or intriguing, powerful or tragic."
Brain Hutchinson, instructor of art education, created a piece "Requiem (for G.K.)," honoring former faculty member and mentor Gordon Sherman, who died in June.
"I made this piece as retrospective of my thoughts and feelings on losing him," Hutchinson said.
"I zeroed in on this image of a young boy, because that is how I felt when I met him. I had no idea what printmaking was until I met the guy, and suddenly, I was entranced. It was such a beautiful relationship for me.
"It represents my sorrow, but also what I took away from Gordon."
Hutchinson also connects with Sherman in a sculpture he calls "Apology." He inherited the wood pieces on which the cast aluminum figure is setting from Sherman.
"The concept of 'Apology' is bringing two people together to mend their problems. ... I did this," he said. "You did this. How can we apologize and come together?
"It's a piece about mending ways and coming to a new understanding about relationships."
Hutchinson said the faculty exhibition is always an opportunity to show his newest works.
"There's always this intensity and pressure if I have a work that's in a medium state, how can I push that and find the end of that," he said. "And show my students technical aspects and show the faculty I work with, in an esteemed way, my conceptual underpinnings and where I'm working research wise."
Farheen Kahn, assistant professor (interior design), is exhibiting images from her MFA project. She created an interior for a holistic wellness center that was set in Saudi Arabia.
Kahn is new to the university this fall. Her MFA work has won a handful of prizes, including an honorable mention for the Architecture Master Prize, Market Society of Interior Design Silver Award and International Design Association honorable mention.
She took inspiration from the natural world and Arabic art. The design includes living moss walls and a pond in which fish eat dead skin off of patrons' feet.