Dordt College Campus Center Art Gallery (entrance)
Dordt College is hosting a series of 10 large-scale (40" x 60") digital images of the “Iowa Insect Series,” a collection of collaborative work by artists and graphic designers, Roy R. Behrens and David M. Versluis. The exhibit, subtitled, “Attention to Detail,” will be displayed in the gallery until the end of August.
The idea to produce large scale images came from designer Joseph Michael Essex who suggested that the images would have greater impact if presented in a larger format. Essex was in the audience when Versluis presented the project at the Society of Typographic Arts winter retreat in Chicago in 2013.
Dordt College Art Professor Versluis and University of Northern Iowa Graphic Design Professor Behrens combine rich imagery as they juxtapose representational imagery with graphic elements to create a strong visual dynamic, says Larry Bradshaw, art professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha. In addition, Jonathan Neal an Associate Professor of Entomology at Purdue University and author of the textbook, Living With Insects writes this about the show, “Behrens has an interest in camouflage and how people perceive broken images. The works can be appreciated both for overall effect, for the multitude of details embedded in the work and the prominent use of insects.”
“The process began in 2012 with David sending me scanned images of insects from his personal collection. One image at a time, we challenged each other to respond to each image, building a digital montage, using Adobe Photoshop,” said Behrens. “We would then pass the image back and forth, responding to each other’s move.”
The image was built with about five or six back and forth turns, until the two mutually decided that the work was finished. Here’s a link to a fuller description of the collaborative process in a piece published in Behrens’s blog, The Poetry of Sight.
This is one of the first times that the collection will be shown all together. Various images from the collection have been exhibited in group shows at the Washington Pavilion Visual Art Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Northwestern College DeWitt Theatre Arts Center in Orange City, Iowa; Nemeth Art Center in Park Rapids, Minnesota; University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art in Cedar Falls, Iowa; and the 27th McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition at McNeese State University Grand Gallery in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Several pieces have been included in Dordt College’s annual arts issue of Pro Rege.
Gallery East Wall
Gallery West Wall
Exhibition graphics
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Dordt College summer art exhibit features Behrens/Versluis Iowa insects
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Corita Kent: “come alive!”
“come alive!” 1967
Silkscreen
Dimensions: 13" x 23"
photograph by versluis
courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles
Corita suggests a parody of brand graphics from the Brillo box and Tide detergent.
The following is from the Corita Art Center:
Text:Read More......
come alive! you can make it—The glory of Christ is man fully alive man fully alive is the glory of God the blue cross way is very simple we walk together don’t you need somebody to love jefferson air plane you can make it
Quote by Jefferson Airplane, Pepsi generation ad slogan, Saint Irenaeus
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Corita Kent: “Mary’s Heart”
Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita)
May Mary's Heart Immaculate be Forever Praised (1960)
Silkscreen
Dimensions: 7.75" x 10.5"
photograph by versluis
courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles
Luke 1:46-55
Mary’s Song:
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.
New International Version (NIV)
Friday, May 2, 2014
Corita Kent: “Lucky Earth”
Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita)
Silkscreen
Dimensions: 25.5" x 30.5"
photograph by versluis
courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles
The following is from the Corita Art Center:
Spring has come back again. The earth is like a child who has memorized poems, oh many!...now it seem worth the effort for she wins the prize. Her teacher was strict. We loved the white hair of the old man's beard when we asked what the green and the blue are, right off she knows every word. Lucky earth, with your holiday, and all the children coming to play! We tried to catch you. The gayest will do it. Teacher trained her until she knew it, and all that’s printed in roots and long unruly stems she sings in a song. —Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, Part 1, no. 21Read More......
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Czech Graphic Design (book covers) from the 1920s—on display in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, AIC
Zdeněk Rossmann (1905-1984)
Fronta, Mezinárodní Sborník Soudobé Activity (The Front: International Review of Contemporary Creativity)
Brno: Edition Fronta, 1927
photograph by versluis 2014
Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Library label for this piece states:
The architect and designer Zdeněk Rossmann was a member of the Brno chapter of Devětsil from 1923-1927 and studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928-1929. Rossmann designed the cover for the compilation Fronta, produced by Brno Devětsil in 1927, which concerned the design and construction of an experimental housing colony. The cover design reflects avant-garde aesthetics of the time with the incorporation of typography into designs based on simple shapes.Read More......
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Czech graphic design (book covers) from the 1920s—on display in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, AIC
Otakar Mrkvička (1898-1957) [Czech painter, illustrator, cartoonist, art critic]
Plán, Revue pro Literaturu, Umeni a Vedu (Plán, Review for Literature, Art and Science)
Prague: Fr. Borový, 1929-
Number 1, 1929
photograph by versluis 2014
Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Library label for this piece states:
Magazines and JournalsRead More......
Devětsil members [avant-garde artists], student groups and publishers involved on the Czech avant-garde produced a number of magazines and journals. These often feathered the same techniques of photomontage and innovative typography found n the book covers of the period. Otakar Mrkvička designed he cover for the journal of literature, art and science Plán.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Three-dimensional design: polyhedral structures—“geodesic domes”
The Three-Dimensional Design Foundations class produced the
geodesic domes pictured above.
Plan view shows the base (in red) as a 16-sided hexakaidecagon. Right: an elevation view.
During the last two weeks while working in two groups of four students each, the Three-Dimensional Design Foundations class produced the geodesic domes pictured above. After a brief introduction and study of Buckminster Fuller the students began to plan and build their domes. One of the objectives of the project was for students to experience the space within the enclosed structure.
The geodesic dome in the background was constructed using roughly 144 struts made from half-inch EPT conduit. The structure itself is tall enough to stand straight up in the center at 2.575m tall and 3.658m in diameter. The project took over 14 hours to plan, to hammer the ends of each strut, drill the bolt holes, and assemble with fasteners. Group members include: Wade Vollink, project manager; Jordan Shaffer, Nathan Morehead, and Erin Francis.
The dome in the foreground is a geodesic 2V dome, constructed using 65 struts made from half-inch (EMT) conduit. The structure itself is 1.524m (5’) tall and 3.048m (10’) in diameter. A plan view would reveal the form of a 10 sided decagon. The group decided to suggest an enclosure by cutting and adding triangular orange fabric to fill the shapes.. Group members: Kim De Boer, project manager; Caleb Vugteveen, Kit Drennon, Kathryn Van Groningen.
Information supplied by the students.
