Seven PLU Faculty Artists, One Incredible Show

PLU art and design faculty display recent work

Opening in the University Gallery on Wednesday, February 5 is PLU’s “Faculty Exhibition,” an exhibit featuring work from current faculty of the Department of Art and Design. Participating faculty include JP Avila, Craig Cornwall, Spencer Ebbinga, Bea Geller, Steve Sobeck, Jessica Spring and Michael Stasinos.

The artworks in the exhibition range from ceramic vessels, sculpture, digital photography and paintings to printmaking and letterpress.

JP Avila, associate professor of art and design, will be debuting a new body of work titled “Held Memory” using methods of cutting and folding, a technique used by several cultures for decoration, celebration and narration.

The title, “held memory”, represents the piece in two ways. When paper is disrupted from its original form, the fibers retain the memory of that fold, crease or cut.

“Paper and the art of creating on paper has been with me from the beginning. I am child of paper,” Avila says. “For me, cutting, folding, and creating using paper is a comfortable environment and one that reminds me of the beauty of simplicity and the opportunity for art and design to be found in and on any surface.”

Craig Cornwall, resident assistant professor of art and design, will exhibit printmaking pieces. His work is often described as eclectic and varies in terms of style and content. His love for the printmaking medium is evident.

Cornwall adopted a philosophy once voiced by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, ‘You can’t do what you did six months ago, that’s old stuff’.  His new series of work in the show features beggars.

“[Beggars] can be like urban ghosts, there one minute and gone the next.  The works portray the ‘Anatomy of a Beggar’, the mind the heart and the spirit,” Cornwall says. “At some time we are all beggars, totally dependent on the kindness of others for our welfare.”

Michael Stasinos, associate professor of art and design, is representing a selection of work from three areas of his artistic pursuits: landscape work, figurative drawings and illustrations done in collaboration.

For many years Stasinos has been known as a landscape painter, focusing on the cityscapes of Seattle, and painting at a location using multiple days to achieve a sense of a constructed moment of time. In addition to this work, he will exhibit pieces relating to the figurative skill sets students may experience in his class.

“The bulk of my career and development of an artist has been creating figurative works. Even now I take what time I can to draw and learn through working from the model”, Stasinos says.

The third segment of Stasinos’ works is collaborative illustrations done for PLU anthropology professor, Bradford Andrews, which include a Market Scene for The Calixtlahuaca Archeological Research Project, among others.

Jessica Spring, resident artist, will feature a variety of letterpress work. Her piece “Honey B Hive” displays a hive-like structure full of various letter Bs from the vintage wood and metal type collection of at Springtide Press. Her print series, “Five Rings”, consists of five prints based on Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings, a 350-year old martial arts classic, which analyzes the process of struggle and mastery over conflict that underlies every level of human interaction.

An opening reception will be held, Wednesday, February 5 from 5-7pm and will run February 5 – March 5. The exhibition is open Monday-Friday 8am-4pm and by appointment. The University Gallery is located in Ingram Hall.