The Online Reflector

By Fangfang Li | Editorial Assistant

What’s your normal way to communicate with professors?

The Department of Art and Design faculty at the University of Indianapolis is unveiling their artistic way of communicating with others Oct. 6 through Oct. 31 at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center gallery.

Visitors can see more than 30 artworks made by 13 full-time and adjunct faculty members.

The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the weekdays and admission is free.

“It’s nice to share my work with students,” said Donna Adams,  associate professor of art and design. “It’s nice for students to come and see what all their faculty is doing, and sometimes it makes students ask questions.”

Works are in the areas of ceramics, graphic arts, painting, drawing, photography and printmaking.

“It’s a strong exhibition,” said Dee Schaad, chair and associate professor of art and design. “It demonstrates the strength of each participant, and the choice of what’s in there is entirely up to the person who made it.”

Schaad exhibits his ceramics by telling short stories through little interesting characters that he develops through his works.

By reading the information cards beside each piece, viewers may be able to connect those little characters with history, myth and current events.

“Every one of these little people tells a story,” Schaad said. “I want them to be fun.”

His pieces such as “George Bush dressed as Hamlet,” “The Judgment of Paris” and “Partisan Politics” may draw viewers’ eyes because of their interpetations.

Nelson Wei Tan, an assistant professor who teaches visual communication design and new media, displays a clay animation named, “Star” and a digital print named “Puzzle #2” in the gallery.

According to Tan, he puts puzzles in his work and hides three clues that can help audiences guess the solutions.

The hints for the “Puzzle #2” are: Country, Vehicle and Alphabets.

He found it’s a way to interact with his audiences.
In the gallery, an intaglio print of Adam’s “Francesca’s Daughter II” may also get people’s attention.

If viewers just look at the girl’s face and make the conclusion that she is pretty and then passes by, they may miss some information that Adams tries to tell through her piece.

“I made two transparencies for this piece – one for the girl’s face and one for the text,” said Adams. “The text in the story is about this girl. She is Guatemalan. She is poor and her mother doesn’t let her go to school. She has to stay at home to take care of her brothers and sisters.”

Viewers may not be able to read the story because of the way Adams arranged the text, but it is still interesting to see how Adams tells people about a poor girl’s life in an artistic way.

The “Department of Art and Design Brochure” and “Selected 2009 calendars” are both designed by Julia Taugner, an assistant professor who teaches the visual communication design.

Carolyn Springer, associate adjunct professor of Art and Design, exhibits two artworks named “Flower Fields” and “Blue Gardens.” Visitors can also see other artists’ work in the art gallery.

Schaad said that viewers are welcome to his office to talk with him if they want to know more detailed explanations of his pieces, but viewers are also free to come to their own conclusions.

The UIndy faculty art and design exhibition is held every two or three years.

“I think we have some really talented faculty who care about students, know what they are doing and make wonderful art,” Adams said.