Local artists featured in exhibit

Bloomington resident David Long and IU senior Courtney Burke had their work shown in "Yard Damage," an exhibit at the IMU Gallery.\nLong, a former IU student and a Bloomington resident, said he has been painting in oils for about five years and has always enjoyed making drawings and watercolors. Long's paintings all done in the oil-on-canvas technique were on exhibit in the gallery from Nov. 13 to Dec. 9. They were taken down due to his concerns with the location.\n"I don't think any other kind of paint holds a candle to the workability or the brilliancy of color that you get with oil," Long said.\nRuth Witmer, director of the IMU Gallery, said Long's paintings focus on looking at people in trouble in a humorous light. For example, he exhibits a painting of a couple looking outside their window at a man frantically fleeing an unknown threat and a painting of a group of people carelessly lighting an unsafe bonfire.\nWitmer, who also serves as the IDS news production director, said she feels despite these dangerous situations, people will not be able to help but laugh when they view the paintings.\nA painting in which a boy is about to be hit in the head with a stick, titled "Throwing Sticks," is Long's most imposing work, as it covers three whole canvases. It depicts one boy protecting his face as he runs away from another boy, who is in the process of angrily hurling a stick toward him. Long said this painting was based on a similar experience from his life. \n"I wanted to create a high-intensity image that evoked some of that anxiety while at the same time was somewhat humorous for its camp value," Long said.\nLong has been out of school for a year working on paintings for graduate school, and when the opportunity arose to display his paintings in front of a large audience, he took it.\n"A body of work was coming to a close and I thought it would feel good to have a show and share what I had been doing with those that might be interested," Long said.\nLong said he hopes when people leave the exhibit they will have enjoyed his work and will leave with a smile.\n"I hope that the paintings I exhibit are fun for people to look at," he said. "I think a lot of oil painting takes itself too seriously because of its history and the work can be dry and unadventuresome. I try to paint with a sense of humor and wrap more serious themes within that."\nThe exhibit also features Burke's paintings, which are scheduled to remain on display through Dec. 18. Burke said she cannot put her finger on the muse that inspired her to begin painting.\n"I don't know why I started, I guess it seemed natural," she said. "Being in school for painting is good, because it makes you feel like what you're doing is legitimate." \nBurke said she prefers to do almost all her paintings in the oil-on-canvas technique.\n"I love paint. It smells delicious, and it responds immediately and completely to what you want it to do," she said. "Oil paint in particular is so sensual, and rich, and beautiful. If my house burned down and I could only grab one thing, I would take all the paint -- not the paintings."\nMuch of the inspiration for her paintings comes from her personal feelings, Burke said. She said her many paintings of poultry at the IMU gallery were generated because of her personal revulsion at eating this type of meat.\n"I…think it's disgusting that we eat these things," Burke said. "I can't imagine why anyone would see raw chicken in the grocery store and think 'yum'."\nIn Burke's largest painting at the exhibit, and untitled word, she said she tried to create a feeling of sleepiness, while at the same time possessing a suspended state of disaster, as if the people knew doom was approaching. \nShe described it as a "naptime and doom" feeling.\nWitmer said as soon as she saw Long's and Burke's work, she knew they had talent and their paintings would look great displayed together.\n"Their level of maturity and sense of humor," are what really impressed her, she said. \n"Those two really seem to complement each other, which is what you want to see in a two-person show." Witmer said. "You want to see the artists playing off each other, and I think they do really nicely." \n-- Contact staff writer Jamie Swhier at jswhier@indiana.edu.