Falculty Lecture Series at the Ulrich

Today I heard Ron Christ and our very own Monika Meler speak a little bit about their art and their approach to creating it at the noon time lecture at the Ulrich. Ron talked a bit about how he's evolved to making the art he does now and showed works ranging from his days as a graduate student in 1974 to his most recent paintings (2 currently on display in the Ulrich). He talked about his work now being a dance and collision between abstraction and realism. He showed paintings from 1976, still lifes, that were mostly formal but by 1981, he was painting thematic still lifes where objects began to represent other things. One of the most interesting things, I thought, he said was that in 1986 he spent a year experimenting and spent the year only drawing. During this time he developed a style he calls, "noodling" which are little curlicue lines he makes that suggest complexity, and he began to explore allusions that were outside the pictoral. He also mentioned that unlike Jim Dine, he was a "planner". He has a definite preconceived image in his head before he starts his work. One way he decides when his work is complete is by hanging his painting upside down in a mirror and examining it.

Monika also had an interesting presentation. In addition to learning that she had a highly developed sense of fashion at an early age (you had to have been there), I learned a bit about the print making process, and her own special way of making what she calls diffused relief prints.
She cuts patterns out of mattboard and then lays very soft handmade paper over it. Then she applies uneven pressure while creating the images. The results are beautiful and intriguing textures and ghost images. I like that she does many unconventional things inher print making including printing on both sides of the paper, pressing so hard that she tears the paper in places and even prints light on top of dark. Her images are more about mental space rather than the external which I found really interesting. I guess I have always viewed prints as external spaces and she has opened a new way of thinking and viewing this artistic medium for me. Some of her works are also on display at the Ulrich if you haven't had to chance to check them out.