Art enthusiasts and academic voyeurs alike are set to converge at Utah State University's Gallery East this month, where the works of three gifted USU art professors have come to paint a picture of "Familiar Spaces." The collective exhibition, divergent in technique yet married by theme, is showcasing the art of professors Noel Carmack, Terry Powers, and Woody Shepherd, all interpreting the concept of frequented environments in their distinctive styles. Open to the public until April 4, the gallery is offering a singular opportunity to fully immerse oneself into the visual representations of spaces that these artists personally resonate with.
Within the confines of the Central Instruction Building on the USU Eastern campus, their artistry will not just hang on the walls, but also unfold in person during a closing reception and gallery talk on April 3, from 3-5 p.m., as reported by USU Today. During this event, Carmack, Powers, and Shepherd are to freely discuss the wellspring of their creative forays, inviting the students and wider community to a closer dialogue with the artists themselves.
Noel Carmack's brushstrokes depict the industrial contours of Southeastern Utah, coal tipples, smokestacks, and the rails that score the land. "The focus of my current work is the coal mining structures, tipples, powerhouse stacks, and rail lines of southeastern Utah," said Carmack, as per USU Today. His imagery is not a mere reproduction but a commentary on the interaction of mankind with nature, the impact of industry, weaving a narrative of its own on the canvas of the landscape.
Terry Powers, on the other hand, pursues the mastery of the moment, forsaking the static for the kinetic in his endeavors to capture life as it pulsates around him. Eschewing photographs, he chooses instead to paint directly from the life that unfolds before his eyes. "I find my subjects intuitively, discovered through the rhythm of daily life and an active engagement with my surroundings," Powers said, as obtained by USU Today. His paintings offer an invitation, to look again, and look better, at the quotidian spaces that might otherwise evade our appreciation.
Meanwhile, Woody Shepherd carries forth a different palette, where each stroke alludes to an experience or memory etched within natural environments. "Our perception of a place is shaped by memory, imagination and all of our senses working together," Shepherd confided to USU Today. His works are less about the geographic and more about the psychological landscape, aiming to evoke the serenity one might yearn for amidst the cacophony of the present.
