NIC’s Corner Gallery offers relief from winter cold

What do Roman soldiers, fall leaves and graphite-covered watercolors have in common? The Corner Gallery of NIC’s Boswell Hall has the answer.

Five of NIC’s faculty have made a collection of their own artwork and placed it on display for students to view. Only two of these works will be featured here, but students are encouraged to explore each exhibit in the Corner Gallery, open until March 25.

Three side-by-side canvases, nearly the same but for color and details, have one title: “St. Martin and the Beggar”. The artist followed ancient Roman and medieval painting techniques. He is Brian Falhstrom, a NIC art instructor.

For as long as he has been teaching art, he has focused on abstract subjects in his painting. Class topics helped change his focus recently to tangible things and story-telling.

“It’s good to try different things – that’s how we grow,” he said. “Teaching has changed my work.”

The story told is an ancient one, represented many times: a soldier gives part of his coat to a man freezing in the cold on the side of the road. Falhstrom hopes that knowledge of the symbols and layered meaning will deepen the appreciation of viewers.

Next, there is one exhibit you cannot miss – that is, without literally tripping over it. There is an array of matching pottery in the center of the floor, titled “Oculi Omnium”. It is an exhibit by teacher Otis Bardwell.

Like much of Bardwell’s work, it focuses on the eyes. The openings or “eyes” (a translation of the Latin phrase “oculi”) are perhaps the most remarkable feature of the individual figures that make up the piece.

In this he is inspired by Sumerian votive statues, which archaeologists think represent both seeing and being seen. “Here the eyes open out, have a hollow opening and it can go both ways,” Bardwell explained.

The sand island underlying the numerous ceramic pieces is the unifying medium.

Bardwell focuses on ceramics in his teaching and is glad whenever students create art useful to them. He said he has as many students take the course as a relaxant as those who do so for academic interest.

One student surprised him by finding this display similar to the kodamas of the Princess Mononoke fantasy film. Essentially, Bardwell’s work is an opportunity for interpretation and contemplation.

“I would rather not tell them what they should think about it.”