University Union

Payton Lower, Ryan Piper, Thomas Rodgers

November 5 - November 15

Reception: Tuesday, November 6, 7-9pm
Printmaking

The three of us draw inspiration from areas that are different from one another yet revolve around the human condition. Ryan Piper’s work is based around his personal religious faith and how that impacts his life through viewing the complexity of love and grace in ordinary objects and people. Payton Lower’s work is a humorous satirical view on modern culture and the many absurdities within it. Thomas Rodgers’s work is based around the violent paths in which men will go to destroy one another or to protect the bonds that hold their families together. Stylistically our works are similar in that we all work is some for of representational expression, while are execution varies greatly from each other.

Laura Drapac & Adam Rowlett

November 12 - November 29

Outside Wall

Reception: Tuesday, November 13, 7-9pm
Printmaking

Laura Drapac

For the last couple years I have become interested in making images that explore the perpetual state of flux within and between persons. These bare figurative images look to the internal points of conflict, growth, and transformation. They are inspired by real physical situations and the imagined scenarios that are created in our minds as we try to make sense of our memories.

My current prints and drawings use pared-down figurative imagery to explore psychological complexities of identity. These images isolate narrative fragments that explore the memory of personal experiences, and ultimately survey how these ventures shape self image and projected identity. Figurative interaction and the body language of characters implies human discourse at it’s most banal level. Each figure’s gesture and posture says something specific about how we individually react to situations when confronted by a peer group.

Adam Rowlett

Over the course of the past five years, my work has consistently dealt with the recurring themes of death, myth, and religion, with a specific emphasis on Christianity. Underpinning each of the works is the conceptual ground of the elemental tension between the rational mind and the spiritual self. I am interested in the interplay of these two ostensibly opposing forces in which, in some cases, acknowledgement of one precludes the existence of the other – and both claim precedence. My work approaches the question of whether these two may coexist, and in what way, as well as if and how they interact.

Working within this broad, overarching theme has given me the freedom to explore this tension in many different ways – using traditional religious imagery of iconography and cathedral architecture as well as images culled from the religious education of my youth, my work at times adds a sense of otherness to otherwise familiar tropes.

Alisa Otto

November 19 - December 16

Reception: Tuesday, November 27, 7-9pm
Fashion Design

In every experience I have, I am inspired by colors, textures and patterns I encounter. I started hand sewing at the young age of five, which is why I find the most enjoyment out of hand work and concentrating on the details of my designs. Fully handmade creations are my greatest inspiration; more specifically, handmade quilts and art quilts. I constantly look to these inspirations for new techniques to explore and new ways to further push myself into designing beyond my comfort level. My ultimate goal is to tell a story through my designs the way quilters tell stories through their creations.