Review: Christopher Saucedo's "Red Cross Blankets"

Christopher Saucedo's talk in the Cochenour Gallery.
His work is on view until November 29.

On November 8, 2013, the latest exhibit at Georgetown College’s Cochenour gallery opened with an art talk by sculptor Christopher Saucedo and his show Red Cross Blankets. The show primarily consists of unorthodox self-portraits composed of mixed mediums. The images used are related to the artist’s measure in fluid volume through familiar liquid containers such as soda cans, coffee mugs, milk cartons, gallon jugs, shot glass, and other glasses. According to the artist, he was inspired the aftermath in his homes in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and in New York following Hurricane Sandy in 2012 when water remained in various containers from the flood water.

Saucedo is known as a sculptor and three-dimensional images, yet this show seemed to be made up mainly of two-dimensional works including two embroidered Red Cross blankets, three wooden canvases that have been branded with images of Saucedo’s container as well as ‘puzzle’ like piece with the container images broken up and rearranged, and a wooden and aluminum mobile that would remind one of a wind chime. These works prove that Saucedo is capable of breaking the rules in the area of traditional portraiture by presenting a different kind of visual representation of an individual.

In the traditional sense, one expects a portrait to be a realistic image to mimic the likeness of the subject and their features. This means it is an image meant to recreate life. However Saucedo takes this idea of a self-portrait being a visual presentation and puts a conceptual spin on it. He represents himself through empirical measure by fluid volume and the containers that hold the amount that equal his mass. So it places Saucedo’s representations on a grander scale through an intellectual perspective and yet a simpler scale through the common images used in his self-depiction.

Overall, it was good talk as Saucedo was very encouraging for questions and comments and the group was able to a good discussion of his works and the sentiment behind them. Also it was interesting to see an artist known for working mainly with 3-D pieces to execute somewhat 2-D works very well. Though on another note, I feel that the show could have been renamed to fit the titles of the works, like Fluid Volume Series instead on Red Cross Blankets, as the blankets only made up two of the pieces present in the show.

--Rebecca Siever, art history major, class of 2014

Guest Post by Catherine Shelburne

Drawing Exhibition Comes to Georgetown College: Experts’ Theories on Drawings, Methods, and Artist Selection

By: Catherine Shelburne, freshman, intended art major

All that attended Tuesday’s “State of Drawing” found the gallery show to be impressive. The Anne Wright Wilson Fine Arts Gallery currently holds drawing samples that represent art faculty from almost every college in Kentucky. Many of the artists whose work is shown said they enjoyed the range of pieces, and one artist, Russel Weedman of the University of the Cumberlands, described the show as “beautiful and diverse.” It goes without saying that everyone enjoyed themselves and the artwork, but I found myself enraptured not just by the breathtaking artwork but also by the round table panel discussion. Moderated by our own Professor Boris Zakic, the panel consisted of gallery directors Andrea Fisher of Transylvania University, Ester Randall of Eastern Kentucky University, Kristina Arnold of Western Kentucky University, and Jason Franz director of Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center in Cincinnati.

The panel generally agreed upon the resurgence in drawing due to economic and technological changes in the past century, and the shift in the hierarchy of artistic media. They also all generally believed that a drawing needed energy and je ne sais quoi to please them, but what made the discussion so interesting was not the agreement, but the disagreement. The contrasting views gave everybody something to think about. Is that not the best part of academic discussion?

Most exciting were the varied teaching methods. While Fisher declared a more liberating drawing class with mixed media and less attention to technical skill best, Franz found that the rules imposed upon students while learning the foundational skills of drawing encouraged creativity within a structured setting and fostered free expression in more advanced levels of studio classes. Arnold looked for a happy balance because she often starts drawing classes traditionally but grows tired of what seems to her that repetitive teaching style. Abandoning the structure mid semester, she branches out into other media forms. These teachers, all from different schools and backgrounds, have such different ideas about the best methods of instruction. I look forward to the crop of new artists Kentucky will soon have under the tutelage of these fine people.

The panel also discussed the selection of works. Fisher once again wanted to see more popular modern drawing styles such as anime and cartooning. She found this exhibition traditional in its selection, and assumed the cause was the generation of the artists selected to contribute. She suggested a gallery show filled with the drawings of the students instead of the professors. This statement most likely got almost every student artist in the room thinking about what they would like to see or present to the public. Franz disagreed about the generational gap, and Randall found it interesting that the works selected by the artists did possess some traditional thinking. It gave rise to many other unanswered questions about the cause of the traditionalism, the affects of the age gap between professor and student, and how they played a role in the works selected.

So many questions, so many ideas, so much to think about! I could not imagine a better way to spend my Tuesday evening, and if you haven’t seen the show yet you should definitely look, observe, see what I am talking about for yourself. The exhibition “State of Drawing” is on view until December 15^th. The works will only make you think about all the wonderful possibilities the art world has in Kentucky.