UAB Students Subject Public Figures to Artistic Analysis
By Shannon Thomason|
|
Anna Nicole Smith, by Gary Chapman (click on image to see full-size version) |
When you sign up for Gary Chapman’s intermediate/advanced painting class, you can expect a unique creative challenge.
Last year, Chapman, professor of painting and drawing in the Department of Art & Art History, challenged students to “recycle” art by scouring thrift stores for cast-off paintings, then reworking them into new pieces. The results were interesting, intense, and instantly attention-grabbing: flesh-eating zombies invading a peaceful valley scene, 1950s ballerinas morphed into snake-handling devil women, and a fox hunt turned into a fiery apocalypse of horsemen.
This year, Chapman charged his students to select a person or character of notoriety: actors, politicians, musicians, athletes, comedians—even cartoon figures. Students then had to choose an archetypal image of that person or character and translate it onto canvas as a response to the image, as well as the phenomenon of the person’s life, career, reputation, and persona. Chapman says he asked the students to select someone who intrigued them out of idolization, indifference, hatred, mockery, or sheer kitsch appeal.
Students responded with thoughtful analyses—and tongue-in-cheek riffs—on icons ranging from Timothy Leary to Twiggy to Saturday-morning cartoon smash Pikachu. “The results are funny, irreverent, beautiful, somber, poignant—and even tacky,” Chapman says.
Here, four students explain their creations:
 |
Minnie Pearl, by Jessica Patmon (click on image to see full-size version) |
“My grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease, and she tends to forget what she is talking about or doing. Since she was diagnosed, when she gets confused or forgets where she is, she starts quoting Minnie Pearl. It’s amazing how much Pearl has influenced her, and therefore influenced me, since I am so close to her. She would quote Pearl all the time, and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I knew of her, but it wasn’t until this happened with my grandmother that I learned how much Pearl had influenced her and others in her generation.”
 |
Audrey Hepburn, by Lanette Parker (click on image to see full-size version) |
Lanette Parker, 23, an art studio major, chose Audrey Hepburn.
“I can remember when I was younger, wondering what a woman should be. One of the films I saw Hepburn in was My Fair Lady, and I guess I kind of saw myself in her in a way. In that film, she went from being in a crappy situation to becoming a beautiful person. It’s not just that film I find interesting, but her life, that she grew up in wartime. She said that one of the worst experiences of her life was when her father left the family to go support the Nazis. She rationed her food in wartime and was very thin. Because of this, in her films, she looked a certain part. It was something she did without knowing that women wanted to be like that. There are people who strive to be like that, and I find it sad that we can’t accept ourselves for who we are—that we can’t just try to be healthy instead of worrying how we look every day.”
 |
Ralph Kramden, by Josh Hepworth (click on image to see full-size version) |
Josh Hepworth, 27, an art studio major, painted an invasion of killer zombies into a pastoral scene for Chapman’s spring class. This time around, his inspiration was Jackie Gleason in the role of Ralph Kramden from the TV show The Honeymooners.
“Basically what the whole piece is about is the endless comedy of Kramden wanting to hit his wife and how it was widely accepted in the 1950s—he was almost praised for it. He didn’t actually hit her, but he was always threatening that one day he was going to. I put the moon landing in the back because of his phrase, ‘to the moon!’” Hepworth researched images of abused women from the Internet to add to the piece. “I found a lot of images actually. It was not a fun search.”
 |
Pikachu, by Alexandra Jo Hancock (click on image to see full-size version) |
Alexandra Jo Hancock, 21, an art studio major with a concentration in sculpture, studied abroad in Tokyo this summer and became interested in the kawaii, or “cute,” culture of Japan.
“It’s the deformity of the anime characters, harajuku girls, those sorts of aspects of Japanese youth culture. I read a bunch of different takes on it, and I came up with my own theory that cuteness is inspired by the grotesque. So I coupled images of stereotypically cute figures and drawings with images of butoh dancers; butoh is a type of modern dance inspired by World War II. I put those images behind Pikachu, from the Pokemon series. He’s this adorable character that people know and love, but at heart he’s a little monster.”
Bring Shame Upon Yourself
Paintings from Gary Chapman’s class will be featured in a one-night-only exhibition titled Fame and Shame, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, at Matthew’s Bar & Grill, 2209 First Ave. North. The exhibition includes a reception, and admission is free. For details, call (205) 934-4941.