Indianapolis Art Center – Blog

Next Saturday, October 29, 2011 is the Art Center’s El Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Celebration! In anticipation of the event, we’ve asked altar artist, Richard McGowan, to share with us, and you , what El Dia de los Muertos means to him.

From Richard McGowan:

I love being a part of El Dia de los Muertos for what the exhibit represents-the enduring nature of love. That understanding was impressed on me ages ago by Jessica Lowry. I attended El Dia de los Muertos as an assignment for a Spanish class and when I saw her altar, for her Uncle Con, it knocked me over.

The altar had cornstalks, a cigar, Autumn vegetables and fruit, a razor… anyone looking at Jessica Lowry’s altar met her Uncle Con. We knew him and the contents of her heart. Jessica trained me.

In Loveing Memory of Grandma Bloch by Cassidy and Jamie McGowan

And I ‘trained’ my son, who has designed several altars. This year, he and his wife created an altar for her grandmother. Anyone looking at their altar will meet Grandma Bloch. Like Jessica Lowry’s Uncle Con, Grandma Bloch grew up on a farm. She loved the color pink; she was a secretary for 31 years; she enjoyed playing cards, quilting, and crosswords puzzles; she rooted for her Wisconsin teams, the Pack and the Brewers; most of all, she loved her family and her family loved her.

The same can be said for Genevieve Lickona, my friend’s granddaughter born prematurely last November.

I got caught in her struggle to survive, asking my friend Tom for news. When Genevieve died in February, it broke my heart as it did her family’s. Genevieve’s short life appears to have little by way of presenting a personality, but for this: Genevieve was loved by many.

The Littlest Angel by Richard McGowan

My altar, therefore, displays that love, an enduring love founded in faith. The pink felt backdrop is in the shape of a church, with a cross on top and a shroud for cover.  A Bible, rosary, and angels show the faith Genevieve was born into. A saint anchors the altar.

I’d like to think that the altar opens hearts to Genevieve.

I know that the many altars in this year’s exhibit certainly opened mine to the wonderful people who have passed through this world.

Richard J McGowan lives in Indianapolis with his wife Barbara. They have the blessings of three children and one grandchild. He teaches ethics at Butler and has been part of the El Dia de los Muertos exhibit in past years.

The Art Center’s El Dia de los Muertos altar and shrine exhibit is on display until November 27, 2011. Visit www.DayoftheDeadIndy.org for more information. And, be sure not to miss the Dia de los Muertos celebration on Saturday, October 29, 2011 from noon-5pm. The event attracts more than 4,000 people to the Art Center for a day of traditional Mexican food and desserts, music, shopping in the Mercado, and hands-on art activities for the whole family, including: sugar skulls, mural, papel picado banners, embossed tin jewelry, face painting, and more! The altar and shrine exhibit will be up along with exhibits by three other artists. The celebration is free and open to the public, but donations are appreciated (just $10 for Skull Buddies, plush dolls made volunteers as a way to help raise funds). Shuttles to and from Park Tudor School run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 317.255.2464 for more information.

The Day of the Dead Altar Exhibit

The Indianapolis Art Center’s altar exhibition provides the community an artistic interpretation of Mexican Day of the Dead altars normally displayed in homes. Artists, community members, schools, organizations and individuals of all backgrounds respect and honor this tradition by creating both traditional and contemporary altars. Some altars incorporate many or all of the customary elements such as marigolds, food, water, papel picado, candles, incense, personal mementos and photos displayed in a tiered fashion under an arch. Other altars showcase new interpretations of the altar’s design or structure but still make use of traditional offerings. All the altars featured at the Art Center honor individuals who once walked the earth, respecting what we believe to be the heart of this beautiful tradition.

The Art Center and Day of the Dead Programming

The Indianapolis Art Center began providing Day of the Dead programming in 2000 as a response to the growing Hispanic and Latino populations in Indianapolis. It started as a way to engage this community through a celebration of culture, tradition, and artistic experiences. However, throughout the years the Art Center found Day of the Dead programming to bridge numerous communities, connecting people of all backgrounds through the universal experience of death. Communicating the history and importance of this celebration through art activities that reflect the tradition and engage children and adults in discussion regarding their own beliefs has connected people from all walks of life. The Art Center serves an educational role regarding Day of the Dead and continues to strive to bring people of all backgrounds together.

This mother and son team up for a truely compelling show. Eleanor Spiess-Ferris’  narrative paintings and her son, Michael Ferris Jr.’s, figurative scupltures and ink drawings all delve into the psychological realm.

ELEANOR SPIESS-FERRIS – ARTIST STATEMENT

My work reflects a deep involvement with my native New Mexico – not as much visually as spiritually.

My childhood was a melting pot of surreal attitudes surrounded by such diversities as the Spanish Penitentes, early Catholic retablos and American Indian artifacts. All were woven among family tales and myths. My ancestors were among the first Spanish settlers of Northern New Mexico.

Behind our house in Northern New Mexico and just beyond the irrigation ditch was a wild and unruly orchard of apple trees, plum trees and one cherry tree.

This untamed home to birds, snakes, lizards and small animals as well as to the occasional Holstein calf was my refuge throughout my childhood.

My family would often travel to Taos where my mother’s cousin had an art gallery.

While the works of Victor Higgins, Ernest Blumenschein, and Bert Phillips were the pivotal artists of the gallery, it was the folk art that held my interest.

I can remember sitting on the wooden floor admiring the cottonwood sculpture of a six foot snake, mouth wide, devouring a cottonwood rabbit.

The near life size skeleton, eyes of flaming mica, sitting in a rustic wooden cart, was another favorite.

The retablos and the bultos of the saints and Christ created by the native peoples enchanted me and captured my imagination.

So it is that these experiences are at the root of my own artistic endeavors and these images continue to inform my work all these many years later.

As I grew up, I felt the tragedy and the glory of the people and the landscape. Incubating within me, these attitudes and remembrances continue to inform my work.

I enjoy juxtaposing the frightening with the beautiful – the comin with the tragic – the real with the unreal.

My adult self, my schooled self, my Chicago Self has embraced such western artists as Hieronymus Bosch, James Ensor, Paul Delvaux and , certainly not least, the Mexican masters as well.

MICHAEL FERRIS, JR – ARTIST STATEMENT

Ferris creates many drawings in connection with each of his sculptures. He works on these drawings as the sculptural process progresses and develops, until completion. Each drawing has a different purpose and is connected to a specific stage of the sculpture’s construction. Initially these drawings take the form of straight portraits. At this stage, issues of likeness, proportion and mood are most important. As the sculpture making process unfolds, the drawings serve to work out ideas connected directly to the 3-dimensional piece such as pattern, form, scale, and concept.

In the sculptural work, Ferris creates a dialogue regarding the use of recycled materials, with the initial intent to render an accurate likeness of the subject. However more compelling, is communicating the sitter’s “inner world.” By contrasting the sculpture’s stoic, classical form with its contemporary multi-patterned surface, the aim is then to express the psychological and spiritual complexity of each subject.

Beat 2 the X is on view now through January 30, 2011 in the Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery. Exhibit opens with a reception this Friday, December 10, 6-8pm.