John Waters
FLORENCE– University of North Alabama visiting associate professor of art, John Waters, will soon display his personal works in a new art exhibit.
Beyond the Garden Gate will feature recent works by Waters and will run Sept. 15-Oct. 15, 2016, at the Court Street Market in Florence. An opening reception will take place Sept. 15, from 6 – 8 p.m., at the same location.
According to Waters, the exhibit reflects his long fascination with the dichotomy between images and words. “Between what we see in this world and what we say, and between our markings and our meanings,” he said.
Waters had originally planned to call the exhibit Alabama Influences, because all of the pieces in the exhibit were completed during his past two years in the Yellowhammer state. Instead, he titled it Beyond the Garden Gate, an homage to his Aunt Bet who owned a farm in eastern North Carolina and used to tell him and his brother to “Go outside and play. Just remember; don’t go beyond the garden gate,” Waters said.
“I was never sure what she meant,” he said, “because we went everywhere. Memories of those trips have since come back to me after being in Alabama.”
Waters said the thing he likes the most about this exhibit is that all the pieces were completed by hand.
“I teach classes in digital media and worked commercially in New York for many years as a graphic designer,” Waters said. “It’s very relaxing to use glue and paint and varnish, instead of a keyboard. I’ve done this kind of work for myself for years, but being at UNA has allowed me to focus and to accumulate what you’ll see in this show,” he said.
Waters said that the structure of our word-built world is now giving way to a new configuration of symbols composed of fragments from math, music, words and pictures. Or “syncopated phrases that alter our tongue as we use new dialect,” as Waters puts it.
“These are the thoughts I play with as I composed each piece of my work,” Waters said. “And ‘play’ is the critical word here. Having fun, letting accidents happen, finding new relationships, discovering possible new meanings I find very exciting and I hope the public will too.”
For more information: jwaters@una.edu
Media Release/UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ALABAMA/Bryan Rachal, University Communications
