SJRCC PRESS RELEASE October 2007 Florida School of the Arts Presents "Vanessa McKnight: Paintings" Florida School of the Arts will present the paintings of Vanessa McKnight with a reception on Wednesday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. The exhibit will be in the FloArts Main Gallery on the Palatka Campus of St. Johns River Community College, and will be on display through November 21. The event is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call (386) 312-4300. According to FloArts gallery director and instructor Michael Burban, McKnight portrays a psychological tension that is at once beautifully haunting and riveting. Burban said the parallels between traditional painting and film are updated and explored in a contemporary manner. "The works are unlike any that I have viewed before," Burban said. "The dramatic compositions and lighting captivate the eye and hold your attention. It is a pleasure to observe the masterful brushwork and technical skills of McKnight's realistic figure painting style." McKnight, who draws her inspiration from film, describes her work as images from refracted dreams, subconscious findings unearthed from a consciously constructed fabrication of another time and place. "The world I'm exploring is one of celluloid and plasma - light and vibration; the macrocosm within the microcosm, the eternal within the split-second ephemeral," she said. "I force my raw material - using any and all means I can - to tell my own psychological story, and thereby become temporarily part of the electrical narrative that shapes my fantasies." McKnight is a full-time artist and mom and a fourth-generation Flagler Beach resident. She received her bachelor's degree in fine art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has had several one-person shows in New York and Miami. McKnight has also exhibited in numerous group shows, and her work is in many private collections. Florida School of the Arts is Florida's first state-supported professional arts school that serves the entire state of Florida and awards the two-year associate degree. FloArts is located on the SJRCC Palatka campus. For more information, call 386-312-4300. "He and I" is a 30 x 40 oil on canvas. "A Fiction of Not Having Been" is a 48 x 60 oil on canvas. Return to FloArts home page. Return to SJRCC home page.