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February Issue 2003
Columbia College in Columbia, SC, Feature Works by Mark Flowers and Kristy Higby
The Columbia College Department of Art will present an exhibit, Related Separates: Mark Flowers and Kristy Higby, Feb. 11 through Mar. 20, 2003, in Goodall Gallery of Spears Music/Art Center in Columbia, SC.
Mark Flowers and his wife, Kristy Higby, make
and teach art in Mercersburg, PA. Flowers was born in Iowa, but
lived in SC most of his life. He is the son of SC artist Tom Flowers.
Born in Endicott, NY, Higby received her bachelor's degree in
Studio Art/Fibers from the University of South Carolina and has
taught art, both formally and informally, since 1977.
Higby has presented and participated in numerous visual arts workshops,
including workshops taken with prominent Book & Paper Artists,
Susan Share, Nance O'Banion, Chris Rolik, Bonnie Stahlecker, and
Jim Croft. Awards include Individual Artists Fellowship Award,
SC Arts Commission; SC Arts Commission Small Grant Award; Zearn
Award for Outstanding Teaching, Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg,
PA; and most recently, Judges' Commendation for Excellence
in Structure, Imagery & Content, Book Explorations
2001, The New Art Forum; Honorable Mention, Steamboat
Springs Arts Council's Winter Works 2002 Exhibition; and
Judges' Commendation for Excellence in Structure, Imagery &
Content, Book Explorations.
Higby's work was recently included in Art of the Book 2002, University of Indianapolis, Christel Dehaan Fine Arts Gallery; Post This; Critic's Choice, Studio Gallery, Washington, DC; and the Elizabethtown College September 11th Memorial Exhibition.
Higby says of her work, "Uncertain Relations, partly created in collaboration with Joel Chace, Poet in Residence at Mercersburg Academy, is a series that explores the connections between poem and reader, art and viewer, poem and sculptural form. Poems that involve me the most are ones that reveal themselves to the reader in a measured way. That is also what attracts me to book arts as an art form. Like a well-told story it can make the viewer curious about what's next as well as engage them physically. When a particular poem on a page in a printed book makes you stop, draw in a breath, and not want to turn the next page it deserves to stand alone. The artist book form allows for that and adds a physical and tactile dimension to the poem's voice. An important personal aspect of this series is (finally) a very comfortable connection for me between my interest in art and technology (specifically digital imaging) and my aesthetic preference to work with certain physical materials and processes."
Mark Flowers says, "Throughout my life, I have made use of images to clarify my relationship with the world. The repeated symbols I use are a 'visual vocabulary' that creates an on-going dialogue with myself and anyone willing to participate. Images such as the rock, reflecting to childhood memories, the tornado that becomes the bowl that becomes the circle symbolize growing older. As anyone does in seeking what the world means to them, I am seeking the same and sharing it with the viewer visually."
Flowers continues, "In recent years, I have been concerned with the shape of the work as well as the image itself. My interests have always cycled from the purely sculptural back to the traditional illusionary formats. The latest works seek a balance between the two by painting on manipulated surfaces and attaching ready-made objects."
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the college at 803/786-3084 or on the web at (www.columbiacollegesc.edu).
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