At noon on Thursday, Oct. 15, over 50 students stood shoulder-to-shoulder, packed into the SSH Gallery as they viewed vibrant paintings. They came to hear the artist and LBCC instructor, Dori Litzer, talk about her works on display.
The collection, titled “Ourselves, Our Environment and Modernist Attraction,” has no immediate message upon first glance. The message comes in the eye of the beholder, possibly making the abstraction of the art part of its attraction.
Litzer returned to campus this term after her sabbatical, in which she took time to find her nonverbal self, she explained. Much of the emotion in her works depicts her journey addressing the ego and reality, and everything in between.
The theme in the collection is based on her impression, perception and interpretation about things in this life, or things beyond life’s tangible form. She explained her belief that all people are spiritual beings in human form, and her art is a way to express and explore beyond existence.
Modern art can require more personal interpretation than other art. It often uses a mash-up of abstract, strategically placed strokes of color, giving the overall impression of feeling. Sometimes it can even provoke the notion of dreaming. Litzer shared that she starts with one solid base color and then adds layers to create her desired effect.
Each painting hung centered on the stark wall under soft light. The music paired well with the theme of the show—Earth tones, Mother Nature and high emotion. Onlookers wandered between paintings and spoke quietly to each other about what they saw in each painting, often much different from one another.
Litzer explained that she doesn’t paint looking at a photograph or at a particular object, but instead she paints from memory. A time, a place, a moment, a thought—all of which inspire her to translate a particular emotion onto canvas, she said. Relying on her senses, she paints as she sees things in her mind’s eye until she creates “the perfect stroke.”
Sometimes it’s the essence of an experience that she intends on painting, she explained. The final product becomes a blend of color, shapes, swirls, and lines that come together as a congruent image imprinting itself of the onlooker, provoking specific and unique emotion.
She told how her lifelong love of water influenced the collection, referring to a time she fell into water as a child and opened her eyes to an underwater world for the first time. Many paintings in the collection contain vibrant blues, horizons, and whimsical curves creating the feel of water, even if water isn’t actually there. Water, she explained, is changing but permanent making it an intriguing subject in her creations.
A key word she conveyed to the crowd was optimism. She expressed that optimism is the central focus of her paintings, and in most paintings. Even if an image appears dark, she explained, the underlying message is often hope, thus having optimism.
For one painting, titled “Rogue,” Litzer used darker colors than most of the others. Reds, blacks, and greens appear like a mischievous enchanted forest of sorts with blazes of hellfire scattered among the dark and light, as if elements of the world have gone wild in a fanciful illusion. The science of color and its impact on emotion may explain why this particular painting was the center of several audience questions.
She concluded her talk by comparing paintings to music in that they are meant to be enjoyed, and that paintings are often like poems because they suggest but don’t tell what to think. Art is language, she said, communicating with the observer in a personal and sometimes unexpected way.
The collection, titled “Ourselves, Our Environment and Modernist Attraction,” has no immediate message upon first glance. The message comes in the eye of the beholder, possibly making the abstraction of the art part of its attraction.
Litzer returned to campus this term after her sabbatical, in which she took time to find her nonverbal self, she explained. Much of the emotion in her works depicts her journey addressing the ego and reality, and everything in between.
The theme in the collection is based on her impression, perception and interpretation about things in this life, or things beyond life’s tangible form. She explained her belief that all people are spiritual beings in human form, and her art is a way to express and explore beyond existence.
Modern art can require more personal interpretation than other art. It often uses a mash-up of abstract, strategically placed strokes of color, giving the overall impression of feeling. Sometimes it can even provoke the notion of dreaming. Litzer shared that she starts with one solid base color and then adds layers to create her desired effect.
Each painting hung centered on the stark wall under soft light. The music paired well with the theme of the show—Earth tones, Mother Nature and high emotion. Onlookers wandered between paintings and spoke quietly to each other about what they saw in each painting, often much different from one another.
Litzer explained that she doesn’t paint looking at a photograph or at a particular object, but instead she paints from memory. A time, a place, a moment, a thought—all of which inspire her to translate a particular emotion onto canvas, she said. Relying on her senses, she paints as she sees things in her mind’s eye until she creates “the perfect stroke.”
Sometimes it’s the essence of an experience that she intends on painting, she explained. The final product becomes a blend of color, shapes, swirls, and lines that come together as a congruent image imprinting itself of the onlooker, provoking specific and unique emotion.
She told how her lifelong love of water influenced the collection, referring to a time she fell into water as a child and opened her eyes to an underwater world for the first time. Many paintings in the collection contain vibrant blues, horizons, and whimsical curves creating the feel of water, even if water isn’t actually there. Water, she explained, is changing but permanent making it an intriguing subject in her creations.
A key word she conveyed to the crowd was optimism. She expressed that optimism is the central focus of her paintings, and in most paintings. Even if an image appears dark, she explained, the underlying message is often hope, thus having optimism.
For one painting, titled “Rogue,” Litzer used darker colors than most of the others. Reds, blacks, and greens appear like a mischievous enchanted forest of sorts with blazes of hellfire scattered among the dark and light, as if elements of the world have gone wild in a fanciful illusion. The science of color and its impact on emotion may explain why this particular painting was the center of several audience questions.
She concluded her talk by comparing paintings to music in that they are meant to be enjoyed, and that paintings are often like poems because they suggest but don’t tell what to think. Art is language, she said, communicating with the observer in a personal and sometimes unexpected way.
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