News

Southwestern Michigan College’s faculty and staff art show, absent since the pandemic, is like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

With its return March 5, at least that hasn’t changed.

Kenneth Creameans, theatre technician in the Dale A. Lyons Building, where he can also be found playing upright  bass with the Jazz Combo, exhibited chainmail.

His 40-pound hauberk is a traditional four-in-one weave made with 14-gauge, three-eighths of an inch inner diameter stainless steel.

The coif is made with 16-gauge, three-eighths of an inch diameter stainless steel and weighs four pounds.

“I made a bunch of small dice bags and other figures from kits online,” he said. “After a few years of that I decided to start making the coif, then the hauberk. It took me about a year and a half to finish both pieces, with a lot of research and trial and error.”

Creameans paired the chainmail with a long-handled wooden mallet with an elm handle and poplar head and a Byzantine weave necklace made of blue-colored aluminum with copper coiled blue quartz crystals.

Wood carver Dr. Doug Schauer’s day job is being a Professor of Chemistry. Environmental Science Professor Deirdre Kirk displayed pottery.

Library assistant Angie West showed a collection of marbled prints.

Emily St. Germain, coordinator of the Carole A. Tate Teaching and Learning Center, hung a painting, Tartarus. Her colleague, Jana Tahtinen, submitted embroidery.

For students, it’s visual proof positive that their art professors know how to “walk” the talk, from painting to ceramics.

Sherrie Styx, who teaches everything from two-dimensional design to art history, catches everyone’s gaze with Breaking Dawn, a big, blue pottery disc. Less noticeable is The Gathering, a necklace.

“I’m a travel bug,” Styx explains. “I love new places, exploring new eateries and hiking. Wherever I travel, I love to watch sunsets and sunrises. Breaking Dawn is my reference to the wonderful blue early-morning sky. How wonderful it is to stop a moment, catch our breath and listen to the early morning.

“Taking moments to walk gives my soul time to reflect on the world and give thanks for each new day. My favorite moments have been at the Grand Canyon, where I camped at the edge of the North Rim, Times Square, Jersey Shore, the Florida Keys, Alaska and Nashville. I have one state left to explore — Hawaii.”

The Gathering “is a mash of items from my travels, including an abalone shell from Newport, Ore., and driftwood from Alaska. I’ve included chocolate diamond and chocolate Tahitian water pearls. No calories in that chocolate!”

Cathi Isza, who teaches art appreciation, shared The Memories of Landscape Past, an oil on canvas.

“Growing up in rural Indiana,” Isza said, “I had always loved nature and landscape but looking at the contrast of what happens with urban sprawl and the development of the landscape around our home was how I learned to express the feelings about development visually.

“Earning my undergraduate degree started with a few classes at Notre Dame,” Isza said, “and then transferring to IUSB to finish my BFA in painting. I was fortunate to do a stint of teaching, then moved to Grand Rapids to earn my MFA in painting.

“Through 40 years of watching our landscape turn to malls and cement jungles, I still feel the same expressing my passion in the beauty of our surroundings with a hint of recording the effects of climate change and the drastic changes that can happen when the architects and developers take over some of these beautiful places.”

Associate Professor of Graphic Design Sam Walker exhibited his 25-hour vectorized map of Middle Earth from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In books published in the mid-’50s, son Christopher drew a rendition.

Tolkien once said, “I wisely started with a map and made the story fit.”

“Tolkien’s meticulous attention to accurate detail is one of the reasons I love his work,” Walker said. “I wanted to display a large-format version in my home,” but “one was not available, so I made my own.”

With an original map measuring 15 inches square, and increasing the size by almost 500 percent, “The challenge was to keep the images smooth and clear,” for which he relied on Adobe Illustrator tools and tracing it himself. He added lines and imagery in the same handmade style to fill awkward gaps left by the changing aspect ratio.

Gallery hours:

Weekly:

Mondays, Wednesdays: 10:30 a.m.-noon

Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays: 5-6:30 p.m.

Also open during other Lyons events:

Thursday, March 21, 6:30 p.m. - end of event

Friday, March 22, 6:30 p.m. - end of event

Saturday, March 23, 6:30 p.m. - end of event

Sunday, March 24, 12 p.m. - end of event

Thursday, April 25, 6:30 p.m. - end of event

Tuesday, April 30, 3:00 p.m. - end of event