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SJRCC Press Release
August 2009
Florida School of the Arts presents faculty exhibition
Florida School of the Arts will present its fall faculty show with a gallery opening on Thursday, September 3 at 7:00 p.m. The show includes works from six faculty members and will be on display through October 8 in the FloArts main gallery located on the Palatka campus of St. Johns River Community College. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
According to FloArts instructor and gallery director Michael Burban, the show will highlight a variety of works involving mediums in oil, acrylic, photography, mixed media and installation. Burban will be featured in the show along with graphic design instructor Aaron Alexander, scenic and lighting design instructor Robert O’Leary, adjunct instructor Sarah Alexander, graphic design and photography instructor Charles Marsh III and costume design instructor Lynnsey Slanina.
Some of the works Burban will display include a series of oil paintings that depict the rural landscape of eastern Putnam County. Burban said the paintings serve as a reminder of a world worth protecting and preserving. “I feel compelled to try and capture some of the sense of peace and beauty that I feel when I observe and live in the landscape of our area,” said Burban. Burban will also exhibit works involving mixed media and installation artwork.
Aaron Alexander will be exhibiting images from the expanding series "facies simulacra," a larger body of work he has been creating since 2006. The most recent images to be included in the series are modern tintype photographs. The sequence consists of hand coated images of life size faces made using double exposures and reveals the slightest expressions of the models and seeks to communicate sublime tension through materials and form.
With inspirations from New Orleans to Cape Hatteras and St. Martin to St. Augustine, Robert O’Leary will display works from his current study of architecture, earth, sky and sea. “As a set designer, I am often called upon to gather, compose and simulate these things within the frame of a theatre’s architecture,” O’Leary said. “With my eye, I continually seek emotion, line and detail and how to frame it to best display all those things to my audiences.” O’Leary said he attempts to gather artistic information from his travels and incorporate these ideas into stage designs.
Sarah Alexander said her works are an exploration of nature. The use of pressure, erosion, gravity and flow in the making of the paintings serves as a metaphor for an overwhelming outside force. “It is our ability to reason, to look for order in the midst of chaos, to move with nature rather than against her, that essentially saves us from these forces,” said Alexander. “By doing so, we transcend ourselves and become connected to the earth we are made of.”
Charles Marsh will display photographic collages which entail the digitizing of photographs, using digital photographs or scanning real objects into a computer, and then combining a variety of images to create an alternate or altered reality. “The collages usually involve nature and the natural world, referencing the circle of life, birth, death and decay or sometimes metamorphosis and rebirth,” said Marsh. “The images are often abstract, comprised of many layers and with many hidden or obscured images.”
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 CAPTIONS:
“Memories from Cracker Swamp Road #2,” an 18x24 oil on canvas by Michael Burban.
“1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe,” an 18x24 oil on canvas by gallery director and fine art instructor Michael Burban.
Modern tintype photographs from the series “facies simulacra” by graphic design instructor Aaron Alexander.
Photography by scenic and lighting design instructor Robert O’Leary.
Leaves and Shell Bubbles - Digital photography collages by graphic design and photography instructor Charles Marsh III.
Return to SJRCC home page.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Susan Kessler
SJRCC Director of Public Relations and Publications
5001 St. Johns Avenue
Palatka, FL 32177
(386) 312-4020
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