Art exhibit showcases body, work - Features

Art exhibit showcases body, work - Features

Expressing your feelings through art may be a lot easier than doing it with words. At Sacramento State's exhibit "The Body: Vessel for the Soul," students, faculty and members of the community were given the opportunity to express their interpretation of the exhibit's title through different forms of art.

The exhibit was created through collaboration between Kalyn Coppedge, health educator for the Fitness, Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Program called Fit HELP, and Sue Anne Foster, an art department lecturer.

Foster said a lot of times, the exhibits at Sac State showcase work by art students or art faculty. Her purpose for this exhibit was to get the community involved and to display artwork from a variety of people.

"There will be some more naive beginner work and then there's some very professional work that's in the show," Foster said. "I like that continuity of odds and ends coming together around one great form."

There is a wide variety of artwork displayed at the exhibit, including paintings, sculptures, metal work, drawings and photography.

Jeremiah Jones, senior art studio major, said he liked the different types of media used at the exhibit.

"I definitely like it. There's a lot of diversity and different artist expressions," Jones said.

Coppedge said she and Foster wanted to have a gallery that would give artists the opportunity to show beauty in a lot of different ways. They also wanted to give them the ability to showcase the human body.

"So many times in the media we see kind of the same Photoshop image all over the place," Coppedge said. "It's nice to let people see a different interpretation of the human body and the different ways that it's beautiful."

Maria Winkler, art department professor, has an artist book displayed at the exhibit. An artist book is a non-traditional book that's like a sculpture.

Winkler said she thinks society is so caught up in the exterior of women that she wanted her artist book to point out the interiors of women, both the good and the bad.

Winkler's book cover has a secondary cover called, "The Book of Vices and Virtues."

"The dark pages are the vices and the luminescent or translucent pages are the virtues," she said. "The inside book cover says, 'It's what's inside that counts.' The whole book is in a shape of a woman's torso, so as you open the book, you're also opening her up and looking inside."

Ernylla England, one of the artists featured in the show, heard about the exhibit through Foster. England said the idea for her piece, "Turning Inward," came from a bad time in her life.

"I wanted to show how one turns in on itself. Being by one 's self - sort of withdrawn from the world. That was my feeling," she said.

England said her artwork for the show is an expression of her feelings.

"It was very important at the time, kind of a self-therapy. It helped me get over the bad times," she said.

Foster has two pieces in the exhibit. One of them is called "Sunbaked Beauty."

"One is a handmade paper torso with a copper swimsuit on, and the handmade paper is very parched and dry," Foster said. "I call it 'Sunbaked Beauty' because it's like you've been in the sun for too long. We tend to worship the sun and I love the sun too, but too much of it isn't good, so here's this body with very tanned and rugged skin and this beautiful bathing suit," she said.

Foster's "Sunbaked Beauty" piece can have several messages.

"One is, even though you are not perfect with the skin, you still have a good time donning a wild, fun suit, or it could be the irony of too extreme interest in tanning your body."

Foster's other piece, a handmade paper bra with a bird in one of the breasts, is called "Nest in my Breast." The idea for this piece came from her experience with breast cancer 15 years ago.

"I had breast cancer so I lost a breast, and I had to contend with that," she said.

During her treatment, Foster raised African Grey Parrots. She said she would carry one of the tiny, baby birds around to keep it warm and to let it have contact with some life.

"I made a little soft thing and put it in my empty breast and carried the bird around in it. It was kind of a way to humor myself. At the same time I was experiencing a loss," she said. "It's my symbol of accepting what is and finding humor as you go."

Rene LaRose, junior art major who works for the gallery, said she really likes Foster's piece, "Nest in my Breast."

"I like the idea that you take something that is a terrible experience and turn it into something quite beautiful," LaRose said. "She got that baby bird next to her and she found a place for it. I think that's really precious. I think that's what art is really all about - giving meaning to the difficulties people have."

Coppedge thinks it's nice to be able to showcase the human body and to see how our flaws can make us special.

"So many people have different views of what beauty is, and I think it's really nice to appreciate that and hear from other people about the good stuff, not always the bad stuff," she said.

Foster and Coppedge chose the pieces for the show according to whether or not they fit with the overall theme.

Foster said the theme deals with inner beauty and knowing who you are and owning what that is. She hopes this exhibit will have something for everyone.

"People look at art once over lightly, and I'm hoping people walk into this and they'll find at least one thing that just really makes them stop in their tracks and think," Foster said.

"Body: Vessel for the Soul" will be showcased in Kadema Hall's Witt Gallery through Friday. The gallery's hours are from noon to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Senior stars as Mexican painter - Features

Senior stars as Mexican painter - Features

Many have seen her picture. Many have heard her name, but not a lot of people are familiar with the life and history of legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

At the Wilkerson Theater in midtown- Sacramento, the California Stage Company is performing the play "Frida Kahlo." Sacramento State senior Diana Tercero is starring as Kahlo in the production. The play is directed by Manuel Pickett, professor of theater at Sac State, in association with Teatro Espejo, and produced by Ray Tater.

Tercero, who grew up learning about Kahlo, said her main reason for trying out for Kahlo's part was because of her parents.

"It would make my parents so proud if they knew I played a Mexican-hero," she said.

Tercero has noticed a lot of people carrying bags or wearing T-shirts with Kahlo's picture. She said people know Kahlo as an icon, but they don't know the real person. She wants people to understand who Kahlo was, her life and the reasons behind her art.

"I want people to leave the show and think, 'Wow, she's an amazing person."

Tater got a hold of the Kahlo script due to its popularity and spoke with Pickett last year about putting on the play.

Tater said the play is about the life of Kahlo and her inner life of pain. Kahlo had physical pain when she suffered serious injuries after a bus accident. She also contracted polio as a young child. Her marriage to famous painter Diego Rivera, who Tater said was a womanizer, caused her to go through a lot of pain as well.

Tater noted that this play gets down to the real Kahlo and focuses on life experiences that influenced her work.

"(She was) determined to paint and determined to try to have a relationship with her husband - a good one," he said.

The play is being performed in English and Spanish.

Pickett said he wanted to have the play in Spanish because he thinks it is important to reach out to the Spanish-speaking and bilingual communities. He realized he wanted the play performed in Spanish when he was at an immigration march in Sacramento.

"There were also the people marching for immigration rights and when I saw over 20,000 people marching down L Street and probably most of them didn't speak English, I realized the potential of the audience that we could have," Pickett said. "In addition to that, many people throughout my career in theater have asked me to do plays in Spanish, so that pretty much motivated me."

The actors and actresses performing the English version are also playing the same roles for the Spanish version. Pickett said it has been very difficult because it's as if they are putting on two different plays.

"The way you approach the words is very different," he said. "You almost have to transform into an entirely different character," Pickett said.

Tercero said learning two parts has been really tough.

"I grew up speaking English at school, so I completely forgot the Spanish," Tercero said. "I know the English script so well. I know I can't translate English word for word in Spanish. It's been really tough."

Tater has noticed that Kahlo herself has become larger than life.

"When you walk into a store and see buttons and pins and pictures of Frida Kahlo, or go into an artist's studio and see the Madonna that was Frida Kahlo, you know there's something about her which is almost saint-like," Tater said. "It has an effect on people. Some people - they couldn't even tell you what kind of things she's painted, but they know Frida Kahlo."

Pickett thinks Kahlo is an example of one of the stronger female painters featured throughout Mexican history. He said this play is part a of the Mexican culture and heritage.

"Part of our culture goes beyond dancing and the singing," he said. "Part of our culture is also being able to appreciate those heroes and those models that we have in our past that help shape our future."

Pickett thinks this play is important to see because watching it live is a lot more different than watching it at a movie theater. Live theater gives the audience the chance to experience the senses.

"People love her paintings. People have seen her visually. People have seen a movie about her, but they've never really been to see her breathe or to see her walk across the stage, or to see her pain or her anguish," Pickett said. "This is live theater and what you see are actual emotions on stage."

Corin Ramos, senior psychology major, has seen the English version of the play and is planning to see the Spanish version with her organization M.E.Ch.A., a group that promotes political and culture awareness to "LA Raza," a group of Spanish-speakers in America. Ramos thought the play was powerful and intense because of its raw emotions.

"You could feel the emotion at times," she said.

Ramos said many people think that if Kahlo didn't have such a difficult life, her art wouldn't be as successful. The play, however, shows how much Kahlo struggled because of her famous art.

"She actually just wanted to have a normal life. She just wanted to be married and have kids and not have operations all the time. She would rather have that than all of the fame."

The performance will be at the Wilkerson Theater in midtown Sacramento on 1723 25th St., on the corner of R Street.

For more information visit: www.calstage.org.