Artists share their views

“PRIME AND PREJUDICE,” series 2020, cardboard, charcoal

“When Colorado’s stay-at-home orders came into effect, I homed in on the Amazon boxes that started to show up every couple of days. My ‘home’ during quarantine has been in flux and everything has shifted to a temporary state. Currently, in a household with five roommates, our purchases grew as our social lives shrunk. I enjoy the temporary nature of using recycling materials. In my “Prime and Prejudice” series, I’ve been returning boxes to Amazon. Like a one-sided pen pal, I imagine the box returning and upon seeing no tangible return, it’s crushed and the cardboard is recycled.”

CJ O’Reilly ’07 Golden, Colorado

Montana spray paint, Posca paint markers, acrylic paint, clear coat gloss varnish on wood

“I fused a combination of my two joys in life which are creating art and cooking. This cutting board was on its way to the ‘chopping block,’ as in it was about to be thrown out, until I saved it from its ultimate fate. I gave it a different destiny by painting it in bright colors that match my inner energy. Both sides are painted and the model pictured is my muse and collaborator Greta (no affiliation to the climate activist).

“We’re all going through a tough time right now. We all might feel like we’re next on the chopping block, whether it’s losing work, health or a loved one. There’s still hope. We can take that chopping block and make it our own. We can make the world a special place with our vibrant colors and the warmth of home cooking. This kitchen item brings people together to the dinner table and sometimes it can be taken for granted.” Visit thecreativefinder.com/habit_701

Abdel Morched ’10

Chicago, Illinois

Made during quarantine in Barcelona, Spain

Woven Works

Jill Williams Bishop ’68 Annandale, Minnesota

MASK • non-woven fabric

“The mask has become a major symbol of the COVID-19 era. In recent months, I reacted to the lack of PPE (personal protective equipment) across the nation, like thousands of other people, by joining a mask-making initiative. Staff members at the Eisenhower Hospital in California near where I was living developed a design that volunteers could fabricate quickly with glue guns.

“Once a week at collection sites, supplies were dropped off and completed masks picked up. My local group, the Coachella Valley Mask Makers, generated 6,000 masks from mid-March to mid-May. They were distributed to workers at hospitals and nursing homes, and to the homeless. I never came in contact with any other mask-makers, since we were all under the California stay-at-home order, still I felt a strong sense of solidarity.

“This mask is a blow-up of the Eisenhower design made from leftover scraps. It’s pretty homely compared to the stylish, colorful masks that we otherwise sew and wear. Perhaps for that reason, it is a sober symbol of the pandemic.”

Evelyn Kain Professor of art emerita, Ripon College Madison, Wisconsin

Ceramic Puzzle

“This is a prototype for a ceramic puzzle that I am working on. I started working on these repeating pattern designs after a trip to Spain and Portugal in 2011. At the beginning of the outbreak, I bought a 5,000-piece puzzle that took me three weeks to finish. When that was done, I started making my own.

“During this time when so much is out of my control, I found it soothing to be making something that was meant to be solved. The piece is made out of clay, underglaze and glaze.”

Liz Duarte ’99 Seattle, Washington

“ST. NICHOLAS: PRAY FOR US,” needlepoint

“During COVID-19, faith and prayer are critical. I saw a picture of St. Nicholas and decided to create this needlepoint.”

Stephanie Greene ’72 New York, New York

“THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL” • quilt square

“This is a 12-inch square that I created for the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts in Cedarburg. They asked for COVID-related squares and will be putting them together for a fall show. I believe they received hundreds!”

Linn Clark Woodard ’68

Port Washington, Wisconsin

“BARREN: COVID-19” • digital print

“With this specific work, I have found myself highly influenced by Depression-era photographers and documentary photography, notably artists who document organic emotion from distinct moments of the world’s history. The entire world was struck with an instantaneous rush of fear, uncertainty and uncovered emotion that evolved overnight. By documenting details of the world during this historical event, as other photojournalists have, I’ve been able to collect evidence of a crisis that will communicate the same organic emotion to generations that will follow.”

Kailee Betler ’20 Berlin, Wisconsin

“JUST LOOK AHEAD”

Vince Padilla ’95

Livingston, Texas

“2020 VISION” • photograph

Slow-shutter speed image from an essay on being alone in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

Scott Strazzante ’86

Mill Valley, California

“THE EDUCATION OF THE PETS” • self-portrait photograph

“I decided to focus on one of the things that I found uplifting this semester, when the teaching, advising, office hours, meetings and more were done at home via video chat. Those video interactions can feel personal, and pets tended to come to class. Sometimes they came for an entire class meeting and other times they just passed through. My piece … includes my dog, Kiffen, whom the students all got to meet in online classes as well as at the virtual Paws and Relax event that Counseling Services organized.

“I am also wearing my mask, which my partner tailored to fit my face. It is made from fabric with an abstract art pattern. Thus far, only a few students have seen me in the mask, as I do not wear it when teaching online. I anticipate that in the fall, however, we will see a range of ways that people in the College community use these pieces of cloth to express their personal style.”

Travis Nygard

Associate professor of art, Ripon College

Ode to My Public Library

—for Tricia Knoll, after her “Ode to the Library”

I miss my public library, where Whitman’s ragged multitudes saunter, loafe, blurt, and yawp, where a self-published self-help guru and bestselling novelist can rub spine and jacket in common cause. I miss book dust and cover warp, the gray histories no one has opened in twenty years. And how the boy who doesn’t read roams the stacks saying Hello and Hello, then telling everyone his name. Just as I miss the checkout grandma on her phone with a different grandkid every time you visit, till finally you realize you are her grandchild, everyone is, and she’s smiling at you all the while just as though she’d been expecting you.

I don’t want my due dates extended or my fines forgiven, I want to lean my blunt American shoulder against the big glass door and enter like a deer emerging from dark woods, standing there a blessed minute just looking around and sniffing the air.

Most of all I miss the New Arrivals shelf where my life will begin anew, and where it’s an awkward and perpetual cocktail party — field guides making stiff small talk with slim-hipped chapbooks and sturdy car repair manuals. Where first novels sneer at ghostwritten celebrity bios and poetry by cats, and every cover, without fail, still glistens like April wildflowers arising from the luscious mud.

David Graham Professor of English Emeritus Glens Falls, New York

Visit davidgrahampoet.com

“ICARUS II” (above) • black ink etching

“CHILDREN’S PUPPET THEATER” (below) • mixed intaglio etching

Human/bird form swirling around central axis. In Greek mythology, Icarus attempts to escape from Crete using wings constructed from feathers and wax.

Jon Fasanelli-Cawelti ’75

Muscatine, Iowa

“INHALE/EXHALE 2020” (above) • fumage

“REPETITION” (below) • fumage

“I am interested in dichotomy and relationships between the beautiful and the unsettling; evocative imagery which both disturbs and intrigues. I like pushing the viewer to respond to the discomfort they might experience when interacting with my work, as well as interrogate the roots of their associations with symbols. I am drawn to organic media, such as fumage (also known as fire painting). There is something invigorating and teaching about working with a medium that cannot be controlled; a process that is both destructive and creative.” Visit allywilber.com

Ally Wilber ’17

Bonduel, Wisconsin

UNTITLED (“ENCLOSURE”) • oil on canvas, 40x 32 inches, 2020

UNTITLED INTERIOR (“HORSES”) • oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches, 2020

UNTITLED LANDSCAPE 1 • oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches, 2020

For an online exhibit at Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, gallery owner Debra Brehamer said: “No other artist creates an atmosphere of contemplation as well as Salas. His drawings and paintings embrace deep histories while staying rooted in a specific present, both conceptually and physically. This new body of corona-era drawings even more lavishly refers to Daumier, Dürer, Goya and German photographer August Sander. Salas applies the underpinnings of classical art — its formal finesse, drama, emotion — as an overlay to the severely An online exhibit at Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, declared: “No other artist creates an atmosphere of contemplation as well as Salas. His drawings and paintings embrace deep histories while staying rooted in a specific present, both conceptually and physically. This new body of corona-era drawings even more lavishly refers to Daumier, Dürer, Goya and German photographer August Sander. Salas applies the underpinnings of classical art — its formal finesse, drama, emotion — as an overlay to the severely underrepresented monumentality of rural Wisconsin.” Salas adds: “My artwork reflects on American tradition and identity. It speaks to an indignant desire for a dream continually just beyond reach. It is a strange, rural poetry of aspiration and poignant reality, a striver’s endeavor of high and low culture, situated between the elevated and the abject. Country music is the appropriate soundtrack.” Visit rafaelsalas.com.

Rafael Francisco Salas Associate Professor of Art Ripon, Wisconsin

2020 Senior Artists Respond To Isolation

Images of self-expression and isolation were shared online in a Senior Art Exhibit during the societal lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The work can be viewed at ripon.edu/senior-art-show.

“THE FRENCH CHAIR” • gouache on Arches paper “FACE MASKS IN A ZIPLOC” • gouache on Arches paper “VANITAS (CORONA)” • gouache on Arches paper

While New York City was on lockdown, artist Charles Dare Scheips ’81 created dozens of new paintings in his Manhattan home. He shows at the Richard Taittinger Gallery in New York and has had several recent works featured on Airmail, an online magazine. Visit charlie-scheips.com.

Charles Dave Scheips ’81

New York, New York

“SIMPLE SMILE” • digital art

“While scrolling through social media, you see all these people smiling and being happy in photos. I thought of the times I had to go through Walmart and the number of times I had to remind myself that people cannot see me smiling at them (while wearing a mask). I saw the people who kept saying how much they miss company and miss seeing people smile. For this piece, I decided to go with the person who has a contagious laugh and a beautiful smile. We need more smiles in our life.”

Becky Bajt ’19

Mazon, Illinois

This painting, Michels says, represents that we cannot have death without birth, and COVID-19 reminds us that death is lurking and waiting. “Being invisible, this enemy brings us closer to our humanity and an appreciation for the birth we received — which is life itself.” visit lonmichelsart.com.

Lon

Lodi, Wisconsin

“Living in a COVID-19 world has been a tumultuous experience and people are feeling deep ranges of emotion. This piece was created to highlight six major emotions that I felt and saw expressed during the first couple of months of the pandemic. The use of exaggerated eye sizes and bright, vivid colors are meant to help the viewer understand the emotional intensity during such a surreal time.”

Top Row from left: Fear, Frustration, Stress.

Bottom Row from left: Anger, Sadness, Exhaustion.

Maddie Hantzsch ’19

Wauwatosa, Wisconsin