Art show at McDonough features YSU alumni
It's easy to view the world through someone else's eyes at Youngstown State University McDonough Museum of Art, where the 2004 Alumni Exhibition opened last weekend.
Juror William E. Mullane, principal of Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, chose 81 pieces out of 147 submissions. It's truly a coast-to-coast show, with works coming from New York, California and points between.
The artists represent many decades in school history, from watercolor specialist Mary Kay Buckley D'Isa -- who graduated in 1950, when YSU was Youngstown College -- to graduates of the last few years. Their mediums are as classic as carved alabaster and as current as digital photography.
There's no official theme for this diverse show, other than the fact that all participants are products of YSU's art department. Unofficially, visitors will be struck by how resourceful these artists can be with materials the rest of us would associate with construction sites, factories or recycling centers.
Take, for example, "Psalm 66" by Bryn Zellers of Youngstown. If you don't see this huge assemblage of old organ pipes and other pipework right away, you'll hear it every time someone steps on the rubber mat in front of it. A small motor whirrs, rushing air into the cylinders, and patrons can turn any of the bright-yellow valve handles at eye level to produce sounds at various pitches.
Psalm 66 is the Biblical verse that encourages us to "Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth."
It's all art
How does Zellers' invention, grand noisemaker that it is, qualify as art? Inventing is a creative process, says exhibit installer Robyn Maas. Zellers invented something that also is very visual, she notes.
Another not-to-be-missed piece is Tony Armeni's "Round and Around," a gyroscopelike sculpture consisting of many individual parts that are circular by design. That and Armeni's "T.A.S.A" -- also curvy by nature -- are made with pieces of rusted steel, which Armeni says is his way of honoring his local roots.
Others see art in everyday materials. "Mary's Red Weave" by Brent Young is simply newspaper, wire and red and black paint. Former nurse Georgia Tambasis, now of San Antonio, Texas, fired small pieces of rubber in a porcelain base to get the porcupinelike surface of her work, "Sexy." Tom Bowher's "Coyote Traversing the Landscape" consists of scraps of plywood and particle board; the animal is copper. Its companion scene, "Coyote in Pursuit," is similar.
Fred Sheperd photographed the remnants of promotional posters on an outdoor pole for his "Past News of the Day." It's how the paper notices have weathered, curled and accumulated that gives it visual appeal.
Nature inspired the watercolors and oils that have been grouped in one gallery. Tracy Segreti used a natural fiber, silk, that she then quilted, embroidered and beaded to create a trio of colorful wall hangings titled "Forcing the Bloom."
Optical illusion
An optical illusion awaits those who look at Michael Fabian's "Silver Ovals" by standing opposite of them first, then to one side.
The Alumni Exhibition not only represents the YSU family, but blood relatives. The soothing blues and burnt oranges of Judith Szabo's "Autumn at Newport" -- three acrylic-on-canvas panels that create one Impressionistic scene -- are mounted on one wall perpendicular to son Justin Terlecki's pair of abstract works that he sent from Minneapolis.
His "Japanese Restaurant -- New Year's Eve" isn't going anywhere; it's the McDonough Museum Purchase Award recipient and will become part of the permanent collection.
Other awards are as follows: Ed Hallahan, Award in Memory of Edward J. Noga; Richard Jurus, Award in Honor of Michael T. Moseley (of YSU's art department faculty); Paul Strahm, Carson C. Cook Award; Michael Fabian, Department of Art Award; Armeni, Christopher Leeper and Marlene Aron, Alumni Association awards; Zellers and Dominic Aimino, Juror Award; and Maas and Segreti, Star Supply Award.
The Alumni Exhibition is on display through Oct. 8. See the Where to Go/What to Do calendar for museum hours.
XDebora Shaulis is entertainment editor. Write her at shaulis@vindy.com.