Chicago, January 2004 -- The work of more than 60 young artists working in nearly a dozen creative disciplines will be on display at Columbia College Chicago's Hokin Gallery, 623 S. Wabash, Monday, February 9 - Saturday, March 13, as part of this year's Weisman Scholars Exhibition. Gallery hours are 10-5 weekdays and 11-3 Saturday. Admission is free. For information call 312-344-7696.
Weisman Scholars are awarded grants to complete communications projects from the Albert P. Weisman Memorial Fund. Four of these artists have spent the last year using their art to explore subjects of strong personal interest.
Graduating senior Heidi Beach investigates the changes women undergo when they are seen without cosmetics, versus being made up, in her series of studio portraits of diverse young women. "The differences begin in attitude, confidence -- their entire sense of self," says Beach. "I didn't realize how difficult this project would be, how many women would refuse to be photographed without makeup. This drove me to continue the project and discover why women feel more confident with makeup and what motivates those feelings. My project is not a negative statement about women, but rather a statement about our society and how it makes women feel less attractive unless they are completely made up."
Beach, who graduated from Lakeland High School in Lakeland Florida in 1991, came to study photography at Columbia College because of the department's reputation and technical facilities. "Columbia is also a school that helps artists wanting to find a career in the art world," she explains. "Many other art schools tend to only emphasize the fine art aspect of photography. Here, you get both."
Classmate Sarah Gillmore has also created a series of photographs exploring issues in women's lives. In her series "Bound," Gillmore combines theatrical setups, studio photography and digital manipulation to create visual stories about the ways in which women's lives are constrained. In one color photograph a grown woman is dressed as a baby doll. A black and white shot captures a hugely pregnant woman, her mouth bound, caressing a toy doll. In another image a partially nude woman with a camera for a head is roped with motion picture film. "When I chose to create this project, I was not really aware of many of the feelings that I was dealing with and the process of creating this body of work has been very therapeutic," says Gillmore. "I've been able to create visual narratives that resonate with lots of women, not condemning the paths they take in their lives, but rather encouraging women to think about their choices before that act and also to know that they have choices."
Gillmore, who grew up in Bensenville Illinois with her parents Karen and John Lester and currently lives in Kenosha Wisconsin with her husband Matthew Gillmore, came to Columbia on the recommendation of her brother, also an artist and an alumni of Columbia. "I've had a very positive experience here," she says. "I've gotten a solid basis in my craft coupled with strong support for developing my own artistic vision."
Graduate student Laura Manney uses both still photography and video to explore the anonymity of public urban spaces where people are in a constant state of coming and going. "This theme reflects my experiences as an urban dweller as I record and describe a series of moment to moment experiences that hold interesting detail when captured in an art context," says Manney. "The places of study I choose within urban landscape are accessible to everybody. I want the viewer to be able to relate to my images and infuse them with their own stories. For me, the narrative of an artwork is more important than the media used to express that narrative."
Manney, who grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan and graduated from Eastern Michigan University, brings a background in painting and printmaking to her work. She started working in photography to assist in her fine arts work and decided she wanted to pursue a graduate degree in the field. Her interest in the fluidity of time as an artistic theme led naturally to adding courses and project work in videography. "I chose Columbia for my MFA because the facilities here are amazing, like nothing you'll ever see at any other school. I wanted to have really strong digital skills. I want to teach and those skills will be essential. Keeping current with the technology is an absolute commitment of the department and that will give me a real advantage in the profession."
Undergraduate photography major Steven Stajkowski began photographing the sites of former steel mills in South Chicago, particularly Wisconsin Steel, as a way of discovering and examining his lost family history and the history of the entire generation of Eastern European immigrants whose labors were central to the Industrial era of the Chicago area. "My family - great grandfather, grandfather and three great uncles - worked in the mills from the turn of the twentieth century until sometime mid century. "I wanted to know about that, understand that, but there was no one left to talk about it," says Stajkowski. "So I began to create that 'oral history' as a kind of visual history." The project became almost like an archeological dig - just remnants and ruins left - a post-apocalyptic wasteland - the footprints of an era that is gone. However, although the project began as a record of history, the visual images reveal another aspect. "The other part of the project is about the land itself and the cycle of nature," explains Stajkowski. "At first glance it's just a contaminated steel site, but in the spring and summer the land comes back to life. There is still renewal that is happening; nature has reclaimed the land that has been poisoned by man and his industry."
Stajkowski, who grew up in Hometown Illinois and lived for a number of years in Colorado, returned to Chicago in 1998 to pursue a degree in photography and attend Columbia. "I knew that Columbia would be the best place to get an education in photography that would cover the technical as well as the creative aspects."
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Media Contact:Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383, mleventhal@colum.edu
NOTE: Beach, Gillmore, Manney and Stajowski are available for interviews.
Images of each artist's work available.