The Merwin & Wakeley Galleries
Illinois Wesleyan University

May 9 - May 30, 2013

Thursday, May 9
Opening Reception 4:00-6PM
Gallery talks by both artists 4:15PM
in the galleries

THE MERWIN GALLERY

Brent Cole writes, "Viewing artwork is always a leap of faith. As artist and viewer, we enlist ideas and materials to convey and convince. We grab at water and it slips through our hands. Perception and contrivance are volleyed about; buoys, tethered, listlessly bob upon the surface. "

I dip and I surge and I swing
In the rip of the racing tide
By the gates of doom I sing
On the horns of death I ride
Anonymous poem from the Hunting Island State Park Buoy Display, Beaufort, South Carolina

Brent Cole earned his B.F.A. in glass from The Cleveland Institute of Art and his M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Brent has been a teaching assistant for various artists at Pilchuck School and Penland School of Crafts. He has been a resident artist at the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Tennessee and the Energyxchange in North Carolina. Brent is currently an Associate Professor of the Glass at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

THE WAKELEY GALLERY

Waterpotz
Dane Sorenson

 

Dane Sorenson writes, "I make pots out of the desire to make the things I use. I think of William Morris who sought to create a backlash against the industrial machine by making his own functional things that were also aesthetically pleasing. In a similar way, a hundred years later, making handmade functional pots proves to be an even greater contrast to the invisible industrial machine that is making virtually everything in our world today.
Is the machine sustainable? Can we maintain it? Is there too much instant gratification? Is there too much provided cheaply without requiring much from us? The idea of working by the sweat of our brow instead of using the machines that run with so much crude oil is a foreign thought to our culture. Do we have a need for a greater connection to our food, to nature, to each other, to the artist who made us?
Handmade pots require more time, more money and more investment and at the same time provide a greater chance of being broken. So we take care and we take the time to preserve, to sustain and to appreciate what we have since we have invested more of our time and resources into them. They become our treasure.
The images on my pots are brushed on in layers with shellac and then revealed through a water erosion technique. The imagery is simple squares, circles and lines and can represent an open number of abstract ideas. But I like to think about them in terms of time. The imagery represents the milestones and events that mark the significance of our time here. The spirals, the circles, the squares and the dots mark our commitments, our starts, our finishes, our opportunities and our accomplishments that punctuate our existence. But how do they connect? Can we connect the dots with purpose? The rest of the days contribute but they must join themselves to the markers to find significance. Hard work is put into the day-to-day and the mundane. But our perseverance is rewarded at the finish line. Our faithfulness is revealed in the completion of the journey.
The functions of my pots are about the things that make life worth living like syrup and honey. Olive oil and vinegar and the spice of life make everything taste better. They are the pleasures of life that reward us for toiling under the sun."

Dane Sorenson earned his BFA in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and his MFA in Ceramics from Illinois State University. Dane lives in Normal, Illinois where he maintains his own studio and is currently an adjunct Instructor of Art at Heartland Community College. 

Ames School of Art
Illinois Wesleyan University
6 Ames Plaza West
Bloomington, Illinois  61701

Gallery Information:309.556.3822

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.