Myles Roznowski- Myles in Yellow And Red-Violet, A Self-Portrait

Myles Roznowski

Myles In Yellow And Red-Violet, A Self- Portrait

Intro to Painting

Acrylic on Canvas

Fall, 2013

Current BFA Applicant

 If you’ve met Myles Roznowski then you already know that he is the artist of this portrait. The resemblance is stunning, right down to his signature smile. What initially draws the viewer to this piece is Roznowski’s use of yellow and red violet. The colors together create a feeling of warmth that spreads over the whole canvas. When asked about his work, Roznowski said, “I tried not to use tints or shades of either the yellow or red violet because it would've taken away from the very saturated look I was going for. So instead, I would add more orange to the yellow or more blue to the violet for the shadows and leave the two colors in their natural state for the highlights. I did end up having to use a little white for the extreme highlights though.” This technique is apparent in Roznowski’s piece by the effective shadows and highlights he creates that define the face and neck.

Paying careful attention to human anatomy, Roznowski captures the bone structure of the skeleton underneath the skin. Creating the image of his face and upper body in perfect proportion. For this piece, Roznowski also creates a central composition, with horizontal bands of color as the background. The composition is also weighted more towards the bottom of the canvas, but the eye is drawn upward from the face to the thick red violet horizontal bands near the top. Roznowski’s gaze is direct on the viewer, he smiles slightly, just enough so that the viewer doesn’t look away.

Ellsworth Kelly, LACMA Exhibition, 2012

When asked about his choice of background, Roznowski replied that because there were no requirements for the background, he chose a geometric approach. He continues to say that geometric designs are appealing to him, and it is apparent that he incorporates them into his work. Roznowski also adds interest to the background by using a variety of thickness when creating the bands of color. Creating less negative space between the bands at the bottom and more towards the top. The background also remains somewhat ambiguous, like the works of hard edge painters, there is almost no distinction between foreground and background. The bands of color also meet with sharp, precise lines, much like the works of Ellsworth Kelley and other Hard Edge Painters.  Overall, the painting gives you a feeling for Roznowski, warm, precise, and cheerful, a true self-portrait. 

Alison Bur

Gallery Assistant

University Art Gallery

Saginaw Valley State University

Miles Nitz- The Ascension

Miles Nitz

The Ascension
Wood, fabric, metal brackets, screws and wood glue

Intro to Sculpture

Fall, 2013

Current Bachelor of Art Student

Nitz’s piece The Ascension stands a little over 5ft tall in the lobby of Arbury Fine Arts, clearly visible with its sleek and modern design. Giving the piece stability is its wooden frame that is completely made of stained wood, screws, and metal brackets.

Creating a contrast to the stable looking frame, are the open holes and the holes covered in fabric. Based off the work by Zaha Hadid, Nitz was interested in her angular and sleek architectural designs. Inspired by her conceptual design for the Preforming Arts Center in Abu Dhabi, Nitz abstracted her work into sharp angles and triangles, creating an abstract piece that conveys the initial feeling of Hadid’s designs. 

Zaha Hadid, Abu Dhabi

As part of the project assigned Nitz was instructed to use an element of transparency. By covering some of the holes with fabric Nitz has accomplished a sense of movement that invites the viewer to walk around the piece. Encouraging the viewer to experience each side and move their eyes through the open holes. Overall, Nitz has given his piece a duel sense of stability and transparency with his choice of materials, and a sleek and modern design much like Hadid.

Alison Bur

Gallery Assistant

University Art Gallery

Saginaw Valley State University

Jon Elliott: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting

Left to Right: Pistola, Favorite Things Series, Superior, and Battle Axe, Favorite Things Series by Jon Elliott

While Jon Elliott’s concentration is in painting, his works spans many forms and mediums. His Favorite Things series, featuring fragmented and distorted images of pin-up girls, is created digitally before being printed onto canvas. Using appropriated images, Elliott combines sexually charged images of pin-up girls with masculine weapons such as machine guns or axes. His compositions have an “all-over” sense, which keeps the viewers’ eyes from settling on one focal point. This also creates an intricate sense of depth and layering throughout the surface of the piece.

Also showcasing Elliott’s ability to work in a variety of materials is his mixed media photograph sculpture Superior. Using a large amount of small photographs, about 4 by 6 inches, Elliott recreates a landscape by suspending the photographs from the ceiling via fishing line. Different views of the same location, which has personal significance to the artist, create a single composition by layering the photos at different depths and heights. Hanging beneath the photos to anchor them are rocks and pebbles from the featured location. The hanging rocks echo the closest point to the viewer in the photographs, incorporating function with design and creating a floor to ceiling installation.

B2S2 and Weird Fishes from Back to School Series by Jon Elliott. 

Elliott’s exhibit also features a more traditional concept of painting with his Back to School series, which all share the slightly abstracted form of hammerhead sharks. His oil painting B2S2 features a range of colored squares from bright orange and yellows to deep green and blues as a background for the creatures, while the larger Weird Fishes has the bright orange forms swimming across a blue-green cityscape.

Jon Elliott is graduating at the end of the semester with his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing. His work, along with the other three graduates of the BFA program, will be on display until December 13th, with a reception on December 5th from 4:30 to 7:30 pm.


Amy Gibas
Gallery Assistant
University Art Gallery
Saginaw valley State University

Samuel Dantuma: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting

Left to right: Vertical vs Horizontal, Zig-Zag, and Star
Samuel Dantuma

Stepping far beyond the traditional concepts of painting, Samuel Dantuma’s Bachelor of Fine Arts exhibit features a series of compositions created with cut and reconstructed fragments of wood. By utilizing the condition of the wood as it was found, Dantuma creates a variation of edge relationships using natural tones and textures.

During his collage-like process, Dantuma uses traditional techniques of illusionism, normally used in drawing, to create illusion in his own work. According to Dantuma, techniques like hatching are used to create a “gradual transition between planes by having staggered or broken edges of wood.” This type of edge also allows for his work to become integrated with the wall, by creating the illusion a soft edge and less visual distance between the object and the wall.  This contrast of edges can be seen in the piece Zig-Zag, where Dantuma uses both a staggered and solid edge to create a varied relationship to the wall and an illusion of depth.

Zig-Zag and Composition 3 by Samuel Dantuma

Depth is also created within the images through the use of paraline or isometric perspective. According to the artist, the use of parallel diagonal lines implies depth, but unlike traditional perspective, the lines never converge to a vantage point, leaving ambiguous space. In the piece Star, the parallel diagonals are interrupted and continued by a section of lines in the opposite direction, suggesting a continuation of the same shape and an implied sense of depth.

Incorporating the space surrounding the piece of artwork is an important concept behind Dantuma’s work. While many pieces incorporate the surrounding wall into the composition, like Vertical vs Horizontal, others break away from the wall completely. Composition 3, a tall and slender piece, simply leans against a pillar, while Trip-dik is a freestanding structure.

Also included in Dantuma's exhibit is a self-produced mini documentary featuring the artist discussing his own work. This video has been made available by the artist to view at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9c2HwPk04. 

Samuel Dantuma is graduating at the end of the semester with his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing. His work, along with the three other graduates of the BFA program, will be on display until December 13th, with a reception on December 5th from 4:30 to 7 pm.


 

Amy Gibas
Gallery Assistant
University Art Gallery
Saginaw Valley State University