Wide variety of prompts become catalysts for art exhibit
With canceled or pandemic-postponed exhibits and a gap to fill in their schedule, staff members at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center came up with a novel idea: Invite artists to participate in a “call and response” exhibit.
Communications and Gallery Assistant Katie Fisher and Main Gallery Coordinator Tom Baillieul took photos inside and out of the architecturally interesting old brick building – an armory during the Civil War – and randomly sent one photo to each artist who had signed up for the project.
An artist might have received a photo of a tower or ceiling, a rack of artists’ tools, a stained-glass window or even cleaning tools – a mop, hose and squeegee – propped up against a wall. Each artist was to use the photo as a prompt to create a new work in whatever medium he or she chose.
Fisher and Baillieul were surprised and gratified at the enthusiastic response. Seventy-three artists – some students, some professionals – produced the 146 works in “Ekphrastic Fantastic.”
The title’s first word refers to the Greek term for a response to a work of art.
The exhibit is as much fun to visit as it is unusual. Viewers can see all the works and the photos that inspired them in person at the Downtown Cultural Arts Center or online on the center’s website.
Ibeliz Guadalupe was given a photo of a drink vending machine and responded with a colorful, recycled fabric collage whose strips reflect the color arrangement of the bottles in the cooler. To make the piece, Guadalupe used left-over fabric from face masks she had been crafting.
Jessica Heath’s photo was of a ceramic artist at work with clay while her baby looked on from her backpack. Heath responded with “Self Portrait with #5,” her charcoal and pastel drawing of herself and her fifth child, a grinning little girl.
A bowl of sponges prompted Shelbi Harris-roseboro to use cotton swabs, buttons, glitter and a variety of beads to create the geometric pattern in her bold “Patchwork.”
The slats of an outdoor fence that precludes any view of the other side are reflected in sterling silver in Andrea Kaiser’s lovely necklace, “Curiosity: What’s Out There?”
Part of the intrigue of the exhibit is imagining how the artist moved from the photo to deliberation, inspiration and finally fabrication. Jonathan Blake was given a photo of a painting of a bowl of apples. He turned it into “Before the Bowl,” a charming sculptural scene of wooden apple and pine trees.
Andrea Pelfrey’s horizontal wall sculpture, “Scattered,” is a gorgeous abstract assembly created in alcohol ink and resin in shades of black, silver, gold and amber. Her photo prompt was a row of tweezers and other jewelry-making tools.
Gayle Van Marker was given a photo of the printmaking studio’s refrigerator that carries a sign reminding users to “close it gently.” Van Marker used fused glass and stained-glass for her piece, “Please Open Gently,” with a door that viewers can open to reveal a bunch of glass violets.
And those cleaning tools – mop, hose, squeegee – in the hands of Erin Wallace became a cheerful abstract watercolor of lines, dots and shapes.
The exhibit is at once a celebration of the Cultural Arts Center – both the architecture and idiosyncrasies of the building and the activities that go on there – as well as the seemingly limitless creativity of artists.
Geoffrey Martin, Arts Administrator of the Cultural Arts Center, said that he and his staff had been concerned during the pandemic year how people – especially those taking art classes at the center – could remain creative. He needn’t have worried.
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