SJRCC PRESS RELEASE February 2008 Florida School of the Arts presents annual faculty exhibition Florida School of the Arts will present its largest faculty show to date with a gallery opening on Wednesday, February 20 at 7:00 p.m. The show includes works from nine faculty members showcasing mediums in oil, sculpture, watercolor, drawing and photography. The FloArts main gallery is located on the Palatka Campus of St. Johns River Community College. The show will be on display through March 14 and is free and open to the public. For more information, call (386) 312-4300. According to FloArts instructor and gallery director Michael Burban, the show will highlight the best faculty pieces from the past year as well as works by adjunct faculty and technical theatre and costume design instructors. "It shows that the instructors are active artists in their field," Burban said. This will be Burban's first exhibition since joining the faculty in August. Burban studied under artist Robert Beverly Hale and taught 23 years at the Art Students League in New York. Burban describes his exhibit as a broad spectrum of paintings and drawings from his early academic years to more recent experiments in paint, mixed media and installation art. "In my early work, I focused on perfecting skills and learning from traditional masters; however, more recently I have become interested in the effects of a technological world on people," Burban said. "I have painted a series of robot images as a metaphor for human behavior in high-tech society. I remember when in New York City, people on the streets, on the buses and in the shops used to talk to one another and socialize. Increasingly it seemed to me that direct human interaction was occurring less and less. I would see many people on the buses looking down at some hand-held technological device. Each person was in his own world. Then one day walking down Broadway, I noticed that the man walking in front of me had an antenna coming out of the back of his head. I thought, 'wow, they are all becoming robots!' Each was acting and behaving the same. It was from all those thoughts and observations that I became interested in doing a series of paintings of humanized robots." Charles Marsh, photography, drawing and print-making instructor, will display two types of work: color photography and digital photo collages involving nature and the natural world. "I look for intimate portraits of nature or things that are normally overlooked by the casual observer, sometimes focusing on the extremely small world just under our feet and sometimes looking for abstracts in nature," he said. Marsh said the theme of his work often revolves around the circle of life: from birth, to death and decay, to an occasional metamorphosis and rebirth, he said. "These images are made up of many layers of both partially hidden and obscure images as well as the obvious," Marsh said. Graphic design instructor Aaron Alexander describes his digital works as experiments in observation shaped by seemingly insignificant and ephemeral moments. "Relatively small things are amplified through proximity and resolution," Alexander said. "By amplifying what might go unseen, I hope to remind the viewer of our own brevity - how significant that makes even the smallest event." Lynnsey Slanina, costume design instructor, will exhibit her costume design concepts created in watercolor and acrylic paints. "As a costume designer, it is my job to execute the concept or look of a play through the costumes the actors wear. The costumes are often what an audience looks to for a connection to a time period," Slanina said. "Watercolor paint best imitates the way light hits a costume's fabric on stage while acrylics are used when the costumes command a dark, opaque feel." Robert O'Leary, scenic design instructor, will display work that exemplifies how the process of set design is not only geared toward creating an elegant and meaningful set but also as an end product. "My hope is to show how a good designer discovers that the pieces of the process from drafting to painting to model building become artworks themselves and inspire the set as an end product," O'Leary said. Works will also be contributed by fine arts adjuncts Sarah Alexander, Steven Forster, Tiffany Sage and Mitch Mitton. Florida School of the Arts is Florida's first state-supported professional arts school that serves the entire state of Florida. Florida School of the Arts awards the two-year associate degree and is located on the Palatka Campus of St. Johns River Community College. For more information, call 386-312-4300 or visit online at floarts.org. PHOTO CAPTION: Top photo - "Entombment" after Titian, by Michael Burban. The 24x30 inch oil on Belgium linen is one of the pieces to be exhibited during the Florida School of the Arts faculty show. "Humanized Robot #1" by Michael Burban. The 18x24 inch watercolor on archival paper is one of the pieces to be exhibited during the Florida School of the Arts faculty show. The painting reflects Burban's interest in the effects of a technological world on people. Return to FloArts home page. Return to SJRCC home page.