{"id":25772,"date":"2015-10-27T10:41:58","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T14:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=25772"},"modified":"2015-11-10T08:13:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T13:13:25","slug":"alumnas-creation-series-of-six-vibrant-colorful-paintings-hangs-in-renovated-suter-science-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/alumnas-creation-series-of-six-vibrant-colorful-paintings-hangs-in-renovated-suter-science-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna’s ‘Creation’ series of six vibrant, colorful paintings hangs in renovated Suter Science Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alumna Katherine Burling’s six-piece \u201cCreation\u201d painting series was stashed carefully in storage while Suter Science Center renovations were completed. In the ensuing months, much has changed in Burling\u2019s life. She\u2019s now in her first year in the master of fine arts program at James Madison University.<\/p>\n

But this month, the paintings which began as an undergraduate class assignment, were hung with ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"burling1_web\"<\/a>
Katherine Burling at work earlier this year. (Photo by Randi B. Hagi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Burling thinks it’s fitting to have her painted offspring reside at her alma mater. \u201cI grew up there, in a way \u2026 I could not have found a better home for the paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, the process by which \u201cCreation\u201d came into being was almost tortured: the canvases were ripped off their stretcher bars, thrown away, re-stretched, repainted, displayed in the Margaret Gehman Gallery, and shown at Clementine’s downtown before being purchased by EMU for $3,000 and lovingly cared for since.<\/p>\n

Creation is also a metaphor for the artist Burling has become. The former peacebuilding and development<\/a> major switched to art<\/a> halfway through her junior year, energized by her visual intuition and the hands-on productivity of the art studio. She suddenly switched to 18 credits of art classes, including Professor Barb Fast<\/a>\u2019s papermaking class, which first excited her about the possibilities of making art professionally.<\/p>\n

Her first two painting classes, though, were a struggle. In retrospect, Burling says that she had to learn the medium, making dissatisfying works before developing a \u201ccohesive visual language.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cCreation\u201d series, inspired by Genesis, \u201cwas sort of about mortality, existentialism,\u201d but its first manifestation so displeased Burling that she cut the canvases off their frames just before the class concluded.<\/p>\n

\"clementinesburlingart\"<\/a>
“Creation” was exhibited at Clementine’s in downtown Harrisonburg before being purchased for the Suter Science Center. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After coming back to the canvases later with renewed inspiration, a student loan for art supplies, hours of disciplined work and some Jay-Z tunes, the final form of \u201cCreation\u201d emerged. What began as seven paintings, representing the seven days of creation in Genesis, became six asking \u201cwhat place creation has in our lives,\u201d says Burling.<\/p>\n

At the Margaret Gehman Gallery opening of Burling’s senior show, art professor Cyndi Gusler<\/a> remarked that to chemistry professor Tara Kishbaugh<\/a> that \u201cCreation\u201d would \u201clook knock out\u201d in the new Suter Science Center. \u201cThe artwork is bold, colorful, layered with paint and meaning. It evokes rather than dictates viewer response,\u201d said Gusler.<\/p>\n

Burling’s style, non-objective and playful, is \u201cabout a fusion of opposites.\u201d Its imperfections are intentional \u2013 meaning to convey incompletion, rawness and transparent mark-making (the name of her senior show was \u201cThe Mark-Maker\u2019s Playground”). Burling enjoys getting paint on her fingers, building frames, and scratching texture into the pigments \u2013 sometimes so much so that she rips the canvas.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy aesthetic welcomes mess and madness whether it is on my physical body while working, or on canvas,\u201d said Burling in the artists’ statement for her senior show at EMU. \u201cSo too do I invite the aesthetic of the imperfect, the mark of the human hand; for my hands are the most immediate and intuitive conduit for my ideas, my inner musings\u2014an imperfect vehicle for divine inspiration. I want my aesthetic to honor that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With not even a brush as an intermediary, Burling experiences \u201cCreation\u201d as vibrant and life-giving, a process filled with both joy and anguish\u2014and now visible to those passing by its new home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumna Katherine Burling’s six-piece \u201cCreation\u201d painting series was stashed carefully in storage while Suter Science Center renovations were completed. In the ensuing months, much has changed in Burling\u2019s life. She\u2019s ... read more about Alumna’s ‘Creation’ series of six vibrant, colorful paintings hangs in renovated Suter Science Center<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7931,1,12507],"tags":[5647,16154,10294],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-25772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-uncategorized","category-vaca","tag-cyndi-gusler","tag-katherine-burling","tag-tara-kishbaugh"],"yoast_head":"\nAlumna's 'Creation' series of six vibrant, colorful paintings hangs in renovated Suter Science Center - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/alumnas-creation-series-of-six-vibrant-colorful-paintings-hangs-in-renovated-suter-science-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumna's 'Creation' series of six vibrant, colorful paintings hangs in renovated Suter Science Center - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alumna Katherine Burling’s six-piece \u201cCreation\u201d painting series was stashed carefully in storage while Suter Science Center renovations were completed. 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