The Gallery celebrates birthday

On a campus so rich in the visual and performing arts, it is difficult to imagine 33 years ago there was little or no outlet for local painters, potters and sculptors to market their work. \n"I knew four or five women -- all painters -- who were selling their work from their garages," said Rosemary Fraser, owner of The Gallery, a downtown Bloomington art gallery. "This was a time before art fairs, and there was a big need to create an outlet for these artists."\nFraser, a local potter and painter, opened The Gallery 33 years ago with friend and fellow artist Peggy Gilfoy. The Gallery\'s intent was to create a market for local artists during the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of the artists featured in the gallery are local figures that have continued to cater to the art market in Bloomington, some of them for the entire period since The Gallery first opened its doors on Grant Street in 1968. One such artist is retired Indiana University professor Rudy Pozzatti. Pozzatti's experience with Echo Press in printmaking has placed his work in such venues as The Library of Congress, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Albertine Museum in London. \n"Printmaking was considered a more legitimate art form than it is now," said Tina Jernigan, employee of The Gallery. "Printmaking uses the same basic principles and knowledge of other types of art, but the artist has to be able to visualize an image in reverse, since the printing process transposes the image. The printmaker does not use just a brush and canvas; instead he must learn to use stones, metals, silkscreen, and he must make decisions about color. Printmaking is a very calculated art form."\nPozzatti\'s displayed work mixes his experience in printmaking with an Egyptian influence. Two of the works, "Double Falcon" and "Egyptian Scrabble II," are mixed media arranged in a collage and mounted on linen. Hieroglyphic elements and the use of triangles and pyramids create an element that lends both uniqueness and exoticism to his work. \nA local artist who has strayed from the traditional ideals of her trade is sculptor Nell Devitt. Devitt, whose studio is located in nearby Bloomfield, works mainly in wood and smoke-fired clay tiles. Against the grain of traditional sculpture, Devitt\'s work is meant to hang on a wall instead of being placed on a pedestal or on the floor. Her work is meant to be eye level so that human interaction with the sculpture is possible. Devitt uses clay to create her geometric designs and to push the intellectual limits of society. \n"The architectural feeling of a grid combined with the curves and references to organic images challenge me to see the ever-changing abundant world within the context of social constraints and political limitations," she writes in her artist\'s statement. \nHer Rectangle Box Series is a monochromatic study of geometric shapes and images as they relate to space and thought. Rectangle Box with Change includes the words: "unanticipated images, deeply ordered chaos, and rules of change." By including these phrases, Devitt is forcing the viewer to interact with not only the piece of art but with their own thoughts. \nRetired Bloomington High School North English and photography teacher Roger Pfingston has moved away from his traditional sepia format and is experimenting with archival ink jet prints. This method uses the computer and special printing paper to create high-resolution, life-like photographs, using little or no manipulation of the original print. The result is a shockingly crisp and brilliantly colorful nature series. \n"Yellow is the weakest color of the spectrum, and this method of archival printing guarantees that the yellow colors will last 100 years, so imagine how well the other colors will hold up over time," said Jernigan.\nIn addition to painting, sculpture and photography, The Gallery also carries an extensive series of pottery by local potters. Richard Burkett's pottery was influenced by his exposure to rural Indiana, and much of his work is reflective of his grandfather's farm implements and tools. His work is truly an example of functional art, works that can be used in everyday life, as well as being an item that carries aesthetic value. \n"My work hovers between pottery and sculpture," Burkett said. "I find this a fascinating interplay, with one body of work informing the other and making both stronger for their interaction." \nThe work he is displaying is designed with the common man in mind. It is Burkett's intention that the pottery becomes an everyday object in an everyday life. \n"(The series displayed is) an ongoing series celebrating both the industrial worker and the ability to make do with what is at hand."\nFraser and her employees are interested in keeping The Gallery a local operation, showing works by mainly local artists. \n"I don\'t believe in the homogenization of art," said Fraser. "Each region has its own areas of artistic interest, and those areas should be preserved." \nAlthough many of the displayed artists have gained praise and acceptance across the country, as well as overseas, the artists continue to be true to The Gallery. \n"We represent art on a continuous basis, which makes it an 'art gallery' as opposed to simply a showing space," said Fraser. "Someone can always come in and view a Pozzatti or a Devitt, regardless of how far-reaching their work becomes."\nThe Gallery, located at 109 E. Sixth Street, is dedicated to educating people about the art and helping new buyers develop an eye for certain styles that are of interest. The Gallery markets work in all media, including oil, watercolor, sculpture, pottery, collage and the newly developed archival ink jet prints.