Facul-excellent-to-a-TEE

If you haven't been to the Owens Art Gallery in Sackville, NB yet this year, what is a better time than now? Fly, bike, walk your way over to the most historical and important building on the campus of Mount Allison University to see some of the most recent work of Fine Arts faculty and technicians in one encompassing show Ornamental Branch.  

The show is located on the second floor of the gallery, where the Owens has its annual cake walk. It is the “white box” which you would expect a gallery of contemporary art to be, but the faculty and technician show has been currated to the tee in this space.  Overall the artwork is equally represented and well balanced in the space, this extends to the floor and walls where artwork is displayed.  There seems to be a theme via symmetry and work which mirrors each other by presentation and by representation. The first words which come to mind are “diverse”, “tactile” and “tangible” and the spattering of color in the show couldn't be better played. As you enter the room there are four black and white photographs by Thaddeus Holownia which contrast nicely on the same wall as Jerry Ropson's coloured and spherically formed “Retired Paintings”.  More highlights of the show include Karen Stentaford’s series “Raw wool”, which consists of eight large and incredibly stunning portraits of the raw wool. They are a 'must see' of the show.  Nearby Dan Steeves has a couple etchings displayed on the wall and a series of etchings paired wih a printed book of poetry under a veneer, which is both worth seeing and reading. 

Immense sculptures by Paul Griffin hang from the celing and roll on wheels. One is mostly red  the other charcol black, more I will not give away. Two more sculptures which occupy equal the amount of space and capacity are by Adriana Kuiper and Leah Garnett. Adriana calls hers “Plug” and Leah's is called “I have five wooden senses a sixth like water”. Each is as clever, as the title. Leah also has two drawings up which echo her sculpture and beside Jerry's “Tired painting” hung on the wall reflects upon his other work in the show.  

Erik Edson a printmaker in the department, has two canvases up which pay close attention to textile prints. Next to these Chris Down has a painting of his painting class, “FINA-3311-A W/12” which portrays recognisable faces of fourth year BFAs. 

Last but not the very least of works to see, are Ryan Suter's “ink-jet prints” which should stop anyone in their tracks to look closer as to an image which appears in the middle of the familar rich black ink, and leaning up against the adjacent wall are two sizable paintings by Jon Claytor.

(That's all for now folks)

- Van Ran, Certified Badass

You Can Tell I Went to School on a Small Yellow Bus

Hello and welcome! This is Duckstaposition, a blog run for and by the Mount Allison Fine Arts department graduating (hopefully) class of 2013.

One of the requirements of a BFA at Mt. A, for those not in the know, is the completion of a Seminar course in the fall semester of our final, fourth year. Google, the finest of latter day prophets, tells us that a seminar is defined in this way:

sem·i·nar/ˈseməˌnär/

Noun:

A conference or other meeting for discussion or training. A class at a college or university in which a topic is discussed by a teacher and a small group of students.

So what we do is discuss. What we discuss is a little harder to define and pin down, but it runs the gamut from the contemporary art world to our own artistic practices, and a bunch of strange minutia in between.

Hopefully Duckstaposition can be an outlet to both further the discussions we foster in class and bring other people (the ~*internet*~) to them, to engage and insert new voices. Or maybe nobody will read this and it will fall into the cavernous pit that is the blogosphere. Either way, maintaining this blog has been required of us by our fearless leader Jerry Ropson, so we have to do it.

That aside, however, I really think that this blog is a great opportunity for us. To write down what we sometimes fail to articulate in class, to share ideas, to talk about Madonna or just to engage in this POST-POSTMODERN (to be defined shortly - I'm looking at you, Jamie Fagan) world.

So, if you're reading this, thanks! You have just legitimised us. Nice. Let us know what you think, and I know that at least half of us* apologise for our silly, Sackville-centric, duck-themed name.

- Claire, BLOGMASTER Ph. D

*I am not one of that half - I think it's awesome and I also think "APOLOGISE FOR NOTHING", which is a thing that I remind myself several times a day.