Happy faces on display at Union Gallery

Bright colors and happy faces characterize the latest exhibit at the Indiana Memorial Union Gallery. The exhibit, "Our Face", is a collection of works by Sheila Sundquist Berkes and will be on display until June 3. \nAt the exhibit, a placard explains the paintings on display -- "Each person has a story, and each story is the circle of itself, the circle in the face." \nThe exhibition is composed of 21 paintings, two photos, and seven prints all portraying people who have special relationships with Berkes.\n"Portraits are very personal because they are very individual, yet they are also very universal," Ruth Witmer, coordinator of the IMUG said. \nBerkes started out as an actress in New York City, and later decided she wanted to become a teacher. She continued acting on the side while teaching literature for 20 years. She also gave historical monologues about women of the past with the Chautauqua American Indians throughout the West and Midwest. She started the paintings in this exhibit after moving to Bloomington in 2001.\nOne oil painting, titled "Do You Think I Should?" shows a girl flipping her black ponytail back over her shoulder as if she were caught gossiping with a friend. The figure looks at the viewer while motioning to something to the right. With brilliant colors and broad brushstrokes, the painting has a playful tone. \n"I really enjoy the simplicity and the easy lines," said the artist's husband Lee Berkes. \nAnother portrait, "Would You Like to Swim?," shows Berkes' daughter who stares out at the viewers with a red-tinted face, possibly flushed from her swim. Bending over with her hands to her sides, she looks as if she might be waiting on the blocks for a race to start.\nBerkes said she uses her cheerful work to combat the harsh realities of life. \n"I know there are terrible things in the world and I can get so tearful. Yet, I can only influence what I can reach, so this is what I do to say to people, 'Just like each other,'" Berkes said. \nIn "Gold," a woman's face becomes larger than life in a 60-inches by 40-inch oil painting. A toothy grin overwhelms the face of a middle-aged woman with graying black hair and a few laugh lines. The gold background makes the woman dressed in all black pop out at the viewer. \nIn addition to her paintings, Berkes has many of her dichromatic prints on display at the exhibit. She creates these images by exposing black and white negatives to light while painting them with water color and light-sensitive chemicals. Each color depicted in a print represents a different layer of negative she needed to create the color. \n"It takes many trials to get it right," said Berkes.\nThe result is black and white photos with traces of color in them. One depicts a woman in a large brimmed hat and a collared shirt. The image is black and white with only hints of red and blue in the checkered pattern of her shirt.\nIn addition to her artwork, Berkes also writes poetry and is currently working on a book. Her exhibit is the third and final of the IMUG's Spring 2004 line up.\n-- Contact staff writer Jessica Dalsing at jdalsing@indiana.edu.