Paper and Ink: Prints/Drawings/Installations Exhibit Reception

Last Thursday, September 14, I attended the Paper and Ink artist reception in the Reece Museum. I'll have to admit, this was the first art exhibit I've ever attended, but I enjoyed it very much. There were two artists, John Hilton and Laken Bridges, whose works were displayed. John's work was primarily black and white, and inlcuded himself incorporated into his work. For example, he had one piece that showed his face on the body of chicken. He explained that this reminded him of his humble beginnings and how far he'd come because he had grown up around cock fighting, but that kind of culture does not represent the person he is now. While I loved John's art, I was truly inspired by Laken's work. Her work portrayed some of the "dirty work" in society that we often don't think about when we think of beautiful art. Laken explained that growing up, her family relied on blue collar jobs and they weren't always the most glamorous. Still she found beauty and love and meekness in her childhood and drew from that beauty in her artwork. She had works that showed toilet brushes and other not so attractive objects, but the way she poured her heart into her work shines through them and makes them truly beautiful. With her art, Laken said, she wanted to challenge commonly accepted ideas of art and beauty and feminism, which was perfectly portrayed in her work that showed tools that were used for manual labor, much like the labor she explained that she had to put in to create the works of art. The piece that I found the most thought-provoking was a large display hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. Attached to strings from the ceiling, there were about 250 ventilation masks that had been worn in a factory. The story behind these masks was not a pretty one: the workers who wore these masks faced terrible working conditions with high temperatures and toxic air. The conditions were so bad that the workers were only allowed to be in the factory for 30 minutes at a time, even with the masks on. All of the masks in the exhibit had the words "in" and "out" on them, with times that never exceeded 30 minutes. Laken explained that much like the factory workers clocking in and out of the job, we as human beings only have a limited amount of time on earth. We have an "out" time, and we don't know how soon or how far away that time could be when our life on this earth ceases. This was truly inspirational to me because it made me realize that time is short, and I need to spend the time that I do have doing something that makes me happy and has a positive impact on the world. All of the art at this reception was phenomenal, but that piece really hit home with me.

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