Endeavors magazine: Image/imagined

Image/imagined

by Colie Hoffman

Three Carolina artists show their work.

This summer the Ackland Art Museum presented Practicing Contemporaries, an exhibit featuring the drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture of UNC’s studio art faculty. Each of the three pieces shown here is part of a larger series of the artist’s work. All three artists are members of the Department of Art.

Susan Harbage Page

To create these photographs, Susan Harbage Page started at the North Carolina Museum of History, where the staff let her handle original Ku Klux Klan uniforms and taught her how to make patterns.

We often try to historicize racism by saying we’re past it, she says. “But this is what it would look like today. Racism, stereotypes, hatred—they don’t always come in the package you’d expect.” One of Page’s favorite things about these photographs is the black background. “Because when you stand in front of it, you’re reflected in the background,” she says. “You see yourself in that image, and you’re forced to say, ‘Is this me?’” Page is a studio art instructor and director of the John and June Alcott Gallery. Photo by Susan Harbage Page.

Mario Marzan

Mario Marzan focuses on climate and memory—in this installation, his childhood experience of hurricane season in Puerto Rico. This piece and its series were also influenced by ukiyo-e, a genre of Japanese woodblock prints that dates back to the seventeenth century. The term literally means “paintings of the floating world.” Marzan is an assistant professor of studio art. Painting by Mario Marzan.

Dennis Zaborowski

In this series, Dennis Zaborowski’s scenes were inspired by his Polish-Catholic upbringing in Cleveland. In “Dance Hall Reception,” as in many of his works, Zaborowski paints purely from memory and imagination, without photographic references. He also likes to leave vestiges of his creative process in the painting—here, a shadow of a second dog appears next to the fully drawn dog, and to the right of the child, we can see the legs of an undrawn man. Zaborowski is a professor and directs the undergraduate program in studio art.

features:

back from the stone age: after the tsunami.
plus: back in business; and:
small loans, big results. [business]
just say NO: nitric oxide was the molecule of the year, but can medical science tame its wild ways? [chemistry]
encoding reality: a compound in magic mint could help new antipsychotic drugs hit their targets. [pharmacology]
the paper docs: the past is in their hands. [arts & humanities]
from page to stage: a novice playwright tackles a modern classic. [drama]
the flow below: going deep with underwater waves. [marine sciences]
land for those who work it: for Brazil’s farmers, the world isn’t flat. [geography]
darwin’s dissenters: why does the evolution debate rage on? [political science]
under the volcano: rock-solid results rewrite the geology texts. [geology]
running on fumes: is hydrogen good for the long haul? [physics]
fixing the news: philip meyer wrote the book on reporting by the numbers. [journalism]
image / imagined: three Carolina artists show their work. [visual arts]

welcome:

from the editor.

overview:

in print:

endview:

art for adoption.

fine print:

Endeavors is the magazine of research and creative activity at UNC-Chapel Hill. Endeavors is a member of the University Research Magazine Association and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

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