Karen Snouffer’s paintings and wall sculptures in “Seeking Joy” are lively, vibrantly colourful and without having exception, abstract.
The title of her show at the Ohio State College College Club refers to her system and its consequence — and the response, she hopes, of viewers.
“Because of what we’ve all been encountering these previous number of many years — socially, politically, medically — I assume trying to find joy is what I’ve been executing in making use of so much coloration and movement,” Snouffer reported. “Am I producing joyful objects or is the pleasure in the course of action? The joy is also up to the viewer.”
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The prevalent denominators of the 30-some will work in the exhibit are the use of architectural images and an abundance of contrasting and complementary colours. Snouffer, a Gambier resident and professor emeritus at Kenyon Higher education, stated she is regularly impressed by buildings and sights from places she has been to at dwelling and overseas.
She established “Scaffold,” for instance, right after a trip to Rome the place creating tasks involving scaffolding seemed to be almost everywhere. The acrylic portray, also crafted with stickers, glue and ink, presents clusters of exuberant thrives in orange, black and yellow — as nicely as a scaffold-like symbol.
The large “Apostrophe,” (72 by 42 inches) offers an animated apostrophe form versus an orange area in the major left portion of the canvas.
A more compact portray, “Red Boat,” shows what may well or may perhaps not be the pink vessel as the central figure surrounded by block-like designs in a variety of colours.
Snouffer, 75, who taught portray and drawing and has worked in figurative art, stated she is dedicated now to abstraction, a genre she finds additional creatively hard and absolutely free.
She cites neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel’s theories involving the viewing of abstract artwork versus figurative operates. With figurative artwork, pictures draw the viewer’s memory to folks, destinations or factors he or she can recall. With abstract artwork, the viewer is compelled to draw upon their imagination to make your mind up what the artwork signifies.
“I appreciate that various people see unique items in my function, and I really like that from time to time they commit time with a painting,” Snouffer mentioned.
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Snouffer also obviously enjoys the elements of her do the job. In “Totter” and “Duck Under,” she employs wisps of slice paper in black, yellow and gray — and occasionally even black glitter — to vogue motion-loaded wall hangings. Yellow, she reported, “can be a joyful coloration or it can show warning and panic — and it will work artistically with black and gray.”
Lots of much more supplies are discovered in the wall sculpture “Push Out,” a black-and-white relief filled with lacy paper, black fuzz, a black-and-white checkerboard and even replicas of cicada wings.
As always, Snouffer invites her viewers to discern that means in her will work. She has studied and explored the chaos principle and enjoys the idea of and introducing contradictory themes in her work. She is relentlessly curious and experimental with components and themes, all of which add to the delight she finds in making art.
As a septuagenarian, she suggests, “I program to be undertaking this for another 20 yrs.”
“Looking for Joy” is a worthwhile purpose for the artist and those people who investigate her operate.
At a glance
“Seeking Joy: Karen Snouffer” continues by Feb. 18 at the Ohio Point out University Faculty Club, 181 S. Oval Travel. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Masks are essential. For details, get in touch with Lisa Craig Morton at 614-309-0191 or check out www.ohio-statefacultyclub.com.
This short article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Karen Snouffer exhibiting summary art at Ohio State Faculty Club
