Show exhibits 'Devotion' to non-traditional artwork forms

Devotion can be interpreted in many ways: love, dedication and attachment.

This individual passion is what was exhibited Friday at the second annual Devotion art show. The show was at The Lodge on Sixth Street.

Upland Brewing Co. donated drinks to the event, which allowed for those of age to sip beverages while looking at the artists’ work.

“Devotion is a commitment to a lifestyle,” Jeremy Sweet, the producer of the show,said. “It’s a struggle to make a living with your art. It takes devotion to spend time to achieve those goals.”

The nature of the show allowed artists to show their work in a less competitive and more artistic environment. The easy ambiance allowed for the artists to show their true selves in their artwork.

The presence of non-artists and non-art students at the show allowed the exhibitors an opportunity they couldn’t get in an academic setting.  

Many of the artists who were IU students saw this as an opportunity to show what they had been working on without the pressures of being critiqued.

“Having work in a show like this allows me more communication in a non-art student setting,” senior artist Jessica Courtney said. “I feel more free to exhibit things here that I couldn’t show in SOFA.”

The show exhibited many different types of art; there was sculpture, ceramics, 2-D art, watercolor painting from tattoo artists and multimedia works.

With the rise of different technologies in the art world, artists have interesting new ways of creating art, and the artists were very excited to show off the work they created using these new medias.

One piece of work by Courtney was made with cutting-edge Rhino 3-D software, which allows the artist to design a sculpture digitally by adding and subtracting pieces from shapes developed in complex perspective windows.

This marriage of new technologies with old traditions allows artists new and precise ways of expressing their concepts.

Other new media art forms were also shown, such as Ross Haggerty’s 2-D self-portrait which was made using a video camera and computer as alternatives to the standard canvas.

“I take video and make it a painting,” Haggerty said. “I like early 20th century paintings but revamp the idea in a new media art form, I want my work to be a moving painting.”

Together the works gave a new perspective and different type of art show, uniting both the artist and the larger city of Bloomington to new ideas and modes of expression.

“It’s interesting seeing all these different works together,” graduate student Erin Robinson said. “It creates new connections to the work and is refreshing in a way.”