By Laura Koenig | Echo
A large, stiff leather suitcase opening down the middle-this is a portmanteau. Words like smog, brunch, infomercial-each a portmanteau.
This seldom-used word expresses the fusion of two contrasting sides or ideas, and Taylor art professors Joshua Welker and Suzanne Dittenber hope to do just that. In their upcoming "Portmanteaux" exhibit they will combine their individual ideas and pieces of art for the months of September and October.
There isn't one theme that binds all of the art, nor is there one thread that ties every piece in the show together.
"We are pulling together work of the moment," Dittenber said. "We are taking separate ideas and different materials to create a fusion . . . something new."
Most of the artists' pieces have been created since last winter. They want to display works that are on the fringes of their practices, showing fresh thought processes and new interests.
While discussing some of his pieces, associated with his main mediums of painting, sculpting and drawing, Welker hinted at a few artists who helped him: his three children, ages three, five and eight. He hung some paper and had his little artists draw on the blank surface.
He described these paintings as domestic, created at home between the routine and daily activities of life. Originally, he just wanted to give his kids something to do.
"They are always into everything I'm doing. It made sense to do something together," Welker said.
They worked together on the artwork until he took the paper away and tried to make sense out of the lines by putting some order into the chaos of the drawings.
"Everything truly productive and fruitful comes out of a place where there is a balance between chaos and order. In nature, if there is too much chaos, then everything falls apart, and if there is too much order all you get is repetition," Welker said. "The challenge is keeping it right where the two meet and intermingle."
Apart from working with his kids' drawings, Welker also created drawings and collages of pictures from old fashion magazines. The images display the do's and don'ts of the fashion world.
Dittenber, whose main mediums include oil paintings and drawing, also experimented with new subjects by creating oil paintings of books and magazines suspended above water. She decided to study different interactions with water when she noticed the relaxing nature as well as the tension between the two subjects.
Inspired by American abstract painter Agnes Martin, Dittenber worked extensively with grids, using them throughout the structures in her paintings.
"I've been thinking a lot about that structure of the grid in my work and it's coming into my paintings in the form of lines in a book or the geometry or right angles of a magazine or book. Grids are also coming into the paintings I'm making of windows," Dittenber said.
Dittenber uses the world around her as her inspiration.
"My inspiration would be experiences I see in my life that resonate with me emotionally or strike me as a potential subject matter."
Even though the two professors have a wide variety of pieces, they are still unsure which ones are going to be in the show. This week, they co-curated each other's work-meaning that they looked at each other's pieces and decided which ones to include in the exposition. The final presentation of the show is still a mystery to them.
Because of the unorthodox structure of the show, "Portmanteaux" is open to the viewers' interpretations, but each artist hopes that the people have the chance to ponder life.
According to Dittenber, "We want a beautiful show that challenges people to look at their world from a different perspective."
