Spokanvas: September 2011

The reception and lecture for the Lang and Rue: Verses exhibit took place on September 15 at 6:00 PM at the Jundt Art Museum. Both artists are from the Spokane area; Melissa Lang spends her days either painting in her Spokane studio or retreating in nature, and Stephen Rue is a lecturing professor at Whitworth University. There were about 75 people at the opening, ranging from a handful of Whitworth students and faculty to a group of elderly art enthusiasts from the community. The Jundt provided a grand, clean space for their work and the lecture took place in the adjacent Jundt Auditorium at 7:30 PM.

Although there is a large contrast in these artists’ work in terms of their form, content, and process, there are stark similarities that unite them and create a strong show. For example, both artists use the art-making process to achieve psychological release and consequently embed their work with themes of the human condition. In addition to this conceptual unity, the artists’ work relates well in their use of color, line, movement, and medium of oil on canvas.

Through her work, Melissa Lang wishes to explore, dissect, and transform nature into an energetic emotional state. Amongst other aspects of nature, rock forms and bug structures fascinate her, especially in their mysterious change and infinite detail. She finds that she approaches painting much like drawing and attempts to achieve a loose drawing style in terms of paint. The process revealed in this painting is essentially “a mapping of the dialogue between emotion and human intellect.” It is abstract, colorful, and primarily consists of markings of paint that reference animal or rock formations. Especially when creating large work, Lang views this process as a performative act and aspires to be one with the piece.

Stephen Rue is similar to Lang in his desire to express emotion, but his inspiration for spirituality stems from the Christian faith and his own subconscious mind rather than from physical objects. His paintings in this show are all large-scaled portraits of his family, friends, colleagues, and himself and contain religious imagery and titles. He creates these paintings “not really knowing what they mean, but discovering the meaning in the process” and notes that he finds a therapeutic quality in painting. During the process of creating this series of portraits, which reflect more on Rue than on his sitters, he has come to even greater peace with religion and with the events in his life. As denoted by an increase in scale, a more vibrant color palette, larger brush strokes, and a standing technique, Rue suggests that this body of work signifies a new freedom in his life.

Rue’s piece, “Creation of Adam” (72” x 48”, oil on canvas) is of two profile-view heads facing each other on a gradated black-to-white background. The heads are Rue himself and are shown exhaling and inhaling the breath of life. Although alluding to a Biblical narrative, Rue notes that the paintings are mystical in themselves and contain his own, non-Biblical meanings. In this piece, for example, he is exploring his interactions within his relationships and within himself. Therefore, he hopes that people not immersed in Christianity can still relate and interact with his work.

The reception and lecture were free and drew in a diverse crowd from the community. It allowed for people of all ages to appreciate, be inspired by, and bond over art. The experience was educating and provided safe entertainment for the evening. Observing the paintings of Whitworth art professors was exciting to the student attendees, especially because many of the subjects were present at the event.

When attending this reception, I knew I held a bias toward Stephen Rue’s work prior to, during, and after the event. I was intrigued prior to the event, because I had only seen a few pieces from his body of work in the past; I was intrigued during the event, because I was curious to learn more about his process and life story; and I was intrigued after the event, because I was left pondering his depth and the potential of that depth and personality in our other professors. Is it possible that our other faculty has been hiding a body of work or an important story? Would we respect them more if we could learn more about them and relate to their humanity? How can we, as students, take initiative in getting to know professors more deeply?