The Grace College School of Arts and Humanities is pleased to announce the new installation, “Restructuring Blue,” by Professor of Visual Arts and Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, Dr. Kim M. Reiff. Presented by the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, the installation will feature Cyanotypes, an 1842 photographic printing process that turns fabric deep blue, with the imagery appearing as white negative space. The show will be on display Monday, Oct. 19 through Friday, Dec. 11, in the Art Gallery on the garden level of Mount Memorial Hall, 1 Lancer Way, Winona Lake. Reiff will give an artist talk in the Mount Memorial Art Gallery on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. The community is invited to attend the free reception from 7-9 p.m.
As a designer and mixed media artist, Reiff holds a Ph.D. from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Art and an MFA from Azusa Pacific University.
In this body of work, Reiff shares a personal journey of navigating within the blue of grief. After her husband, Dennis, passed in May of this year, she stated, “I am in a fog without a compass.” While she knew how to create art through the foundation of aesthetic theory, she didn’t know how to create through the structure of sorrow when she began this body of work.
Although the artwork explores the navigation of grief, it also captures the creative process that leads to unexpected discoveries of joy and the realization that her compass was never missing.
With limited prior knowledge in using the Cyanotype process, all artworks for this series are considered experimental. Select works feature her husband’s carpenter tools, while others utilize photographs, assorted household objects and organic and natural forms gathered from Winona Lake and the beaches of the Pacific Ocean.
“Dr. Reiff continues to display the courage it takes for one to walk the journey of grief, and she does so with dignity and grace,” said Dr. Kevin Roberts, Provost of Grace College. “We are privileged to learn from her profound example of love and perseverance.”
This will be the second of seven art exhibits hosted in Grace’s Art Gallery space on the Garden Level of Mount Memorial. Art Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 10-4 p.m. For more information, call the Grace College Department of Visual and Performing Arts at 574-372-5100 ext. 6258 or email artgallery@grace.edu. The exhibit is ADA-accessible.
