Last Friday night, a small crowd gathered to enjoy the art of student artists Amanda Pulham and William Stryffeler at the “Paintstaking Progress” art exhibit.
What makes this gallery different from others showcased at University of Tampa, is the size.
In the R.K. Bailey Art Gallery, many students can showcase multiple pieces of artwork—sometimes an almost overwhelming amount. At the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement Art Gallery, there is a showcase of one to three select students and their work.
Stryffeler said that both artists chose OSLE to display their work because they wanted to display their most current work at UT. For a fine art major, it’s also great to have a personal showcase on your resume. The art featured by Pulham and
Stryffeler were both very unique to the artists and were made in contrasting mediums.
Stryffeler, a senior fine art major, used a very interesting method for creating his work. With many of his works, he used hand-sewn material on his canvases.
“I try to use found materials for my paintings when I can,” Stryffeler said. “I use cloth materials mostly because I can manipulate it as a surface much easier.”
Mixed media is this artist’s preferred medium, but his focus currently is on painting and ceramics. His works titled Suited Personality, Untitled (clown), and Untitled (heart) display his method. To exemplify his medium, the piece Suited
Personality features a man that has a suit sewn of cloth.
Other little details, like buttons, were added to give a 3D effect. However, his other painting, titled Song Bird leans towards the more traditional style of painting, with cool colors of turquoise with black, white and gold accents.
Most of his pieces have a few different mediums within one work, which Stryffeler believes adds interest to the piece. He also added that, while he uses these materials in his paintings, Stryffeler tries to use recycled materials like old curtains and couch materials.
“Best to recycle something I can find, than buy new and let the old get wasted,” he said.
Not only does it draw attention to the piece, but Stryffeler said this method makes the surface easier to manipulate, than just plain wood.
On the piece Untitled (clown), the use of warm colors touched with accents of black and gold made the piece stunning. A unique touch for the piece was a lot of music notes.
Stryffeler has a background in music, mainly during High School. He said, “I am a big music fan. I used the musical notes on the [clown] paining that was in the gallery show because I thought the song related to the message of the image.”
While Stryffeler used a more modern, mixed-media approach for his art, Pulham took a more traditional, but nonetheless stunning one, painting with oils on canvas.
One of her works was a self–portrait titled Untitled (self–portrait). The detail on this piece was mind-blowing. Oil on canvas is notoriously difficult to master, but to have such intricate detail made this piece amazing.
Another piece that was quite spatially interesting was Pulham’s Untitled 8. This piece was another oil painting, and uses lots of warm colors. What was interesting about this piece was the angle of the model.
Whether the artist creates an oil painting on canvas or mixed media, art comes to life in many forms. Some of the works in the gallery are up for sale.
The OSLE show will be displayed for a while, so go and see the wonderful exhibition there.
Laurel Sanchez can be reached at lsanchez@spartans.ut.edu.