Two exhibits open at Waldron Arts Center

Queen Elizabeth's ancient adornments and the newest cutting-edge photographic technologies inspired two local artists to pursue the enigma of personal space. \nFriday night, the dance photography of Tom Stio and copper accessories created by Jesse Mathes opened to the public in the Rosemary P. Miller Gallery at the John Waldron Arts Center. The Bloomington Area Arts Commission also presented the 2004 Monroe County Postcard Competition Award Winners Exhibition at the center.\nA few minutes before the exhibits opened, Stio, Mathes and the postcard contest award winners paced the galleries, awaiting the first taste of public approval.\nStio said he hoped others would appreciate the unique beauty he found in the art form of dance. \n"After I started doing the ballet and really getting into it, I realized that there was a real magic to dance. It's sort of a supernatural quality, and I try and capture that," he said. "I try and capture something other than just what hits the eye. I go for moments when something happens that maybe somebody wouldn't catch when watching a performance."\nAs a freelance photographer with The Bloomington Independent, Stio quickly discovered his love of photographing dance. \n"After shooting the ballet once, I was absolutely hooked on it," Stio said. "I thought it was absolutely wonderful -- it worked very well with the type of photographs that I liked to take, and after that I tried working with as many dance companies as I could hook up with."\n"This doesn't contribute much to my income. This is a labor of love," said Stio, who works as a portrait photographer.\nStio said he is happy he is able to make a living doing what he loves, even if he has to save the artistic side of his work for after-hours.\nStio's photographs display the shapes dancers can make with their bodies, while Mathes' work questions whether the physical shape of a person affects perception.\n"I started making work about personal defense when I first got to graduate school at IU," Mathes said. "I started exploring that and combining that with the clothing that Queen Elizabeth I wore, because she used adornment to make herself larger and more powerful in front of a lot of men and women who weren't considered capable to rule."\nMathes said she liked the idea of making oneself larger to convey oneself as more powerful. \n"I wanted to blend it with personal space, because I had some encounters when I was in Paris (studying art) with men being really aggressive, and I remember thinking that I wished I had a sign or something to say 'get away from me,'" she said.\nSpiking out menacingly from the black stands upon which they rest, Mathes' copper adornments combine beauty with danger. She said she enjoys wearing her creations. \n"I get them photographed," she said. "They look much better on a person."\nLike Stio, Mathes wants to someday call herself a professional artist. So far, she has sold one piece of her work. \n"At first, I wasn't ready to let it out into the world," she said.\nNext door, in the Flashlight Gallery, Bloomington resident Jane Hewitt celebrated the release of her photographs into the world. Hewitt was one of the top 10 postcard contest winners.\n"My friends pushed me into entering," she said. "I take photographs, and I mount them on cards and give them to people. And they decided that I should enter."\nHewitt's winning photo featured a scene near the campus art museum reflected into a nearby window. Postcard contest winners received $200 and 100 free postcards. Additional copies of the images are for sale at the John Waldron Arts Center for 50 cents a piece.\nThe exhibits will be displayed until Sept. 25. \n-- Contact staff writer Stacey Slaskin at slaskin@indiana.edu .