2021 Art Faculty Biennial presents professor artwork at the College

Last  Thursday night, the College held a virtual 2021 Art Faculty Biennial featuring five art department faculty members: Bradley Borthwick, Bevin Engman, Gary Green, Amanda Lilleston, and Garry Mitchell. They each presented their work, which is currently featured in the Davis Gallery in the Museum of Art.  

Led by Chief Curator Beth Finch, the program featured a formal showing of professor artwork followed by a conversation about current projects, collections, and exhibitions at the Colby College Museum of Art and the affiliated Lunder Institute for American Art. 

“I thought [the event] went really well,”  said photographer and Associate Professor of Art Gary Green. He explained his artistic outlook in an interview with The Colby Echo. “It’s nice to have a different audience and explain what I’m doing a little bit to people who have seen the work but don’t quite understand what I’m getting at, because I think my work is [...] probably challenging to most people. Like, ‘why are you photographing this or that’ or ‘it looks like you’re photographing nothing,’ or whatever.” 

Professor of Art Amanda Lilleston, who focuses on print and digital media, also felt that the event was a success, especially because she was able to present her own work to some of her senior capstone students and open up more dialogue between them. 

“It’s really wonderful to be able to share my creative practice and what I’m working on and hopefully get feedback from my capstone students, because we have this dialogue going about how to critique and how to talk about ongoing bodies of work,” Lilleston said. “I feel very excited to share my own work and to get feedback from my students, because I think they’re at a level where they can really have a really valuable dialogue about helping me make my work better and having mature conversations about what it means to share work and to talk about work.” 

The event was also successful because it allowed art professors to step outside of their well-known role as educators and receive recognition for their work as professional artists. 

During the exhibition, Green shared photographs that he took of Long Island, where he grew up. Though he grappled with emotional turmoil during his stay there and was not particularly fond of his home or the process of taking photos in the busy streets of New York, he  affirmed that the only way to grow is to step outside your comfort zone. For Green, taking photographs of Long Island allowed him to make some peace with his former home and try to gain a deeper understanding of his connection to it. 

“One of the underpinnings of my photographs is finding an order where I don’t see one, finding a way to look at a place. So, in a way, making photographs is learning to see what you can’t see and make some peace with it I guess. It’s not [going to]  make me feel any different, but it might make me feel a little bit more tender for the place I grew up, have a little bit more connection to it, feel a little more appreciation for what I may have missed when I was that age,” Green explained. 

While being  vulnerable and sharing pieces of oneself at galleries and exhibitions can be  nerve-racking, both Green and Lilleston said that it’s just part of the job, and that, with experience, the sharing becomes a whole lot easier. 

“You feel so vulnerable, because you’re putting yourself up on that wall and unlike, say, a singer or a performer who’s busy singing or performing, and not thinking about what people are thinking, you’re just standing there thinking ‘is anybody gonna come up and talk to me’ or ‘is this work good,’ so I feel like it’s important to understand that and I don’t mind doing it,” Green said. 

Green also believes that, as a professor, it is crucial to share his insecurities with his students, because making mistakes and having flaws as an artist is the only way to develop.  

“To say I have no insecurities or to not say that I have insecurities seems wrong, so no I don’t have a problem with it. I tell my students that all the time. I find ways of trying to get them to relate and understand that they’re not the first person that developed a roll of film that didn’t come out, or two rolls of film that didn’t come out, or three rolls of film that didn’t come out,” Green said. “As long as I’ve been doing this that still happens once in a while, you know you get sloppy, you miss something. I generally don’t make student mistakes, but I did and I think it’s important that they know it and I also think it’s important that when you put pictures on a wall, you feel very vulnerable.” 

At Thursday’s event, Lilleston showcased a series of images depicting her feelings at various moments while open water swimming during her early days as a swimmer. 

“Learning by seeing, by drawing, by carving it, and going over and over that information visually is kind of how I learn, and that’s how I think I learned as a student too. I was always kind of redrawing botany diagrams and, ..., just repeating things visually. So that’s where I start for sure, like these watercuts for instance, I’m really thinking about how light pattern is refracted through water, trying to understand that and see the patterning, and then I think like, while I’m doing that, I get really excited by the lines and the forms that are created and the ability to input color and embellish certain aspects with a freedom that’s maybe a little bit removed from the reality of things,” Lilleston said. 

Although she has experienced nerves before shows in the past, Lilleston expressed that she has developed a lot more confidence in her work with time. 

“Probably when I was first making work it was a little nerve-racking, but after graduate school, I find sharing my work is a really easy way to meet like-minded people and to make other connections with other artists and other people who have similar ideas or other ideas they want to share with me and I think it’s wonderful and I love sharing my work, and I love talking about my work, and I really love hearing about people’s opinions just because it’s great to communicate about these ideas that I’ve been marinating on for a while,” Lilleston explained. 

Ultimately, the event sparked much dialogue between members of the College’s community of artists and faculty after the exhibition presentations took place. For those who missed out on the event, the Art Department is planning to post the show on both their website and Youtube channel, so it is not too late to check it out.

~ Jenna Boling `24