Art by Roy Johnson

Nude images of men in the Gilson Memorial Gallery in King Hall have a greater purpose than just being works of art. Senior Art Major Roy Michael Johnson said that the message is to take male physique, which is usually ripped, and put it in what is traditionally thought of as feminine poses.

“Tracing back to Greek mythology, male statures through artists’ work emphasize masculinity and this kind of dominance,” Johnson said.

Johnson is one of the artists participating in the Mass Senior Art Exhibit, with his work on display until Sept. 3. Every senior is required to sign up for a time slot during the year to display their work and the art is judged or critiqued by professors of the Art Department.

“Usually before the show, an instructor will go through the show to give feedback before the show opens,” Johnson said.

The exhibit is a way to show off the work that Johnson said took about a year and a half of dedication. He created his works by a mix of oil on canvas paintings and intimate photography.

Johnson said he started painting in high school, but it wasn’t until he was a freshman that he decided for sure that he wanted to be a painter. When not busy with schoolwork, Johnson said he works at Applebee’s as a server. Among the spectators, he said, were some of his regular guests at Applebee’s that were used to seeing him at work. He said that serving was a great marketing tool to get the word out about the show.

“For anybody that has waited tables before, my artwork is a great tool to fall back on after dealing with the stress of work,” Johnson said.

Junior art major Daniel Swendson saw the show for the first time on Tuesday afternoon. In one section, Johnson uses a single color for an entire pose which Swendson said reminded him of looking through a colored lens.

“It was interesting to see the male form portrayed in such a way,” Swendson said.

Freshman art major Devin Parkman viewed the show this past week as well. Parkman said that he has known Johnson for about a year and a half now and believes that Johnson is much more defined as an artist.

“He projects his messages much more clearly and it’s easy to see how he has grown from where he used to be,” Parkman said.

Parkman said he wasn’t surprised at all by what he saw in Johnson’s display.

“Once you get past the nudity, it seemed to fit his personality and expressed originality. Roy is comfortable with who is. What you see is what you get,” Parkman said

Information on this artist’s and upcoming artists’ work can be obtained at the Art Department Office. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some of the work on display is also for sale.

Chris Hopkins/The Bulletin

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Alum Kayla Erickson, Mike Tuttle and Emporia resident Taumi Feil look at the detailed work on a sculpture by Grant Charpentier during the opening of his senior show, “Under My Skin,” Friday night in the Gilson Gallery in King Hall. The show will be on display until Jan. 27. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

The hairy, spiny forms that make up Grant Charpentier’s senior show “Under My Skin” are what he calls “scary, but original.” The Gilson Gallery in King Hall will be full of these animal-inspired figures until Jan. 27.

“This is something that I’ve never seen before, something I can call my own,” said Charpentier, senior glass forming major. “I was thinking about doing a sea theme but there are hundreds of artists out there who can do a sea theme and do it two times better than I could. This is something I’m willing to bet isn’t out there.”

Charpentier took inspiration from animal forms.

“I first came across this form looking at different skeletal forms in various reptiles,” he said. “I wanted to use glass in a minimalist way to embrace the form instead of dominating it.”

While some of the pieces are hard and uninviting, they didn’t start out that way.

“They started off pretty fluffy and nice,” Charpentier said. “Centipedeish – and then as time went on, the process got really monotonous and my emotions began to come out, even though they may have been negative. They started becoming more aggressive and agitated so my emotions started to transcribe through the work.”

Many people attended the opening of “Under My Skin” last Friday, including Charpentier’s girlfriend’s parents, who drove 7 hours to be there.

“Grant is like a sponge,” said Tracy Webber, Newman, Colo., resident and mother of Charpentier’s girlfriend. “He collects everything and sees everything from different sides.”

Charpentier wanted the viewers of his show to feel some of the angry emotions he put into each piece.

“I wanted to create a push/pull relationship with the viewer,” he said. “I wanted the viewer to be interested in them but at the same time be pushed away because they’re dangerous.”

And they really are dangerous. The spines sticking out of the pieces are chunks of pointed glass that Charpentier referred to as “teeth” and bent pieces of thick metal.

“What I like about the art is how alive they look and ferocious in manner,” said Collin Haire, junior art major. “They just pop out at you. They’re almost moving.”

Haire understood the message Charpentier was trying to get across.

“In his artist statement, he mentioned that he used the skeletal structure of snakes,” Haire said. “I definitely see that. They are like mutant centipedes.”

Charpentier did not want to just show glass pieces.

“I feel different about them all,” Charpentier said when trying to describe his favorite. “I’m a glass major but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to stray away from just showing glass and showing other types of medias.”

For Charpentier, the work of putting together one piece was painstaking and took several hours.

“I don’t consider myself and OCD artist,” he said. “But this is really repetitious with little variation.”

The use of metal in his pieces is what Charpentier thought was original about them.

“Obviously there is a lot of metal work in here,” Charpentier said. “What I like about metal work is that it goes hand in hand with glass. It’s hard work. It’s about problem solving. Things don’t always work out like you want to but you work through it and you come  out on top sometimes and sometimes you don’t.”

Even after spending a lot of time working on the pieces, Charpentier was not sure what to call his collection.

“I was telling my friend about how these were driving me nuts and she said why don’t you just name it under your skin,” Charpentier said.

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