Despite the storms earlier in the day, the walk went on as scheduled Friday. Patrons had the option to visit many of the downtown galleries, including The Venue Fine Art & Gifts, Pictura Gallery and By Hand Gallery, among others.
The Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center Galleries hosted two artists on their main floor, while the lower floor was reserved for Ivy Tech’s fine arts students’ work. Claire Swallow, one of the main floor artists, displayed what she said is basically all the pieces she has made.
“I actually did it with this exhibition in mind, but also I’ve had this idea about doing these bird flocks,” Swallow said.
The exhibit, titled “Murmurations,” revolves around a singular image: a flock of birds in an open space. The collection, Swallow said, was inspired both by the image itself and the word used to describe it.
“I like the word, it’s a metaphor of sorts,” Swallow said. “I was pretty keen on the idea of the metaphor and I thought, I’m going to produce some work. I’ve just done a small writing course so that was what kicked off this idea and it just took off from there, so to speak.”
Swallow said her work in the writing course mainly concentrated on biographical writing and, though she appreciated the focus on metaphor the class allowed, writing itself is not her forte.
“I’m not very good at writing, it has to be said,” Swallow said. “It was useful for generating creative ideas for artwork in the end, especially metaphorical stuff. I’m quite good at the images in words, but not punctuation.”
This collection, Swallow said, is more commercialized and user-friendly than her next project, which will be more abstract.
Swallow said in her next series, she intends to deconstruct her writing and move around the punctuation in an artful way.
“I’m taking out the punctuation, putting it in one space and doing the images around that,” Swallow said. “It’s quite different, very conceptual, which is much more sort of creative.”
The Blueline Gallery hosted IU computational neuroscience student and photographer Eduardo Torres.
Torres said this is his first show in a gallery, though this collection of portraits is one he has been working on for almost five years.
“I’m very drawn to visual aesthetics and patterns to making things,” Torres said. “When I arrived here in Bloomington, maybe I was looking for a hobby a little bit. I think I’m just drawn to trying to make things that look clean to me. So I like drawing and I like spending time on the computer and this allows me to do a little bit of that.”
Torres said his inspiration is natural feminine beauty, which he thinks today’s modeling and fashion industries abandon in favor of highly made-up photographs.
The portraits in this collection, Torres said, are all natural, no makeup, because that is the type of woman he finds most beautiful.
“I find it surprising that all these models and things are showing that kind of stuff to show beauty when, to me, the most natural things are the things that are beautiful,” Torres said. “Like when people wake up, that’s what I find beautiful.”
The process has also been an educational experience for Torres, as he said he had no photographic experience or knowledge of cameras before IU.
“In some ways, it has been about trying to learn about photography, trying to learn about natural lighting, trying to meet new people,” Torres said. “Just experimenting, experimenting with light.”
This show, Torres said, is one step in a larger project he hopes to continue working on into the foreseeable future. This show, according to Torres, is a four- to five-year stepping-stone.
“For me this would be a 20-year project, where, at the end of 20 years, I would look over at what I have and see if I’ve tried to grow in terms of trying to portray feminine beauty in some way,” Torres said.
