Artist focuses on nature's dualities
Celia Fox
Capital Times Staff
They say men don't dream in color,
but through Sept. 27, Brian Hoover's
work in the Gallery Lounge will give
the lie to this old saw.
"The woods used to be full of
magic," Hoover said, "but science has
explained [the magic] away. They're just
trees that can be cut down and animals
that can be killed. Science has explained
away religion, too.”
Using jewel-toned gouaches and gold,
Hoover succeeds in bringing an element
of magic and spirituality back into the
world. Tender-eyed Byzantine saints
Job market bleak for grads and alumni
While most economists now think
the recession has ended, a cursory survey
of college placement offices might tell a
quite different tale. An annual survey by
Michigan State U. of over 500
companies earlier this year found that the
number of openings for college grads is
expected to decrease by about 10 percent
from 1990. That follows a 13 percent
decrease from 1989.
Adding to the woes of the current
batch of college grads are the legions of
aluttiitt who've also fallen victim to the
most recent economic downturn. Many
of those alumni, say campus career
placement officials, are returning to
campus for inexpensive and, in some
cases, quite effective help securing
another position. Alumni association
officials see the services as one more
IN THE GALLERY LOUNGE ...
Paintings, Prints and Drawings by Brian Hoover
Symbolic, mystical images based on nature's qualities
September 30 - November 22
Photographs by Alida Fish
Her own fantastic, preternatural ecosystem
November 25 - January 31
Mixed Media Work by Dan Burns and Milt Friedly
Friedly's exhibit includes ceramic wall pieces and other
mixed mdeia pieces. Bums’ complex multi-layered paintings
reflect his intense interest in art as process.
Mon. - Thurs.
Friday
Sat. & Sun.
Thru September 27
e. Olms
illerv Loi
PSH NEWS
brood over environmental ruin. Fantasy
forests gleam behind a vane of the
falling Skylab. The child of hope rests
in the arms of the angel of death,
holding a seed that may heal the huge
wound in the sky.
The mysterious art draws the connec
tions between past and present, good and
evil, by combining images in seemingly
random manner. Hoover uses what he
calls "the kamikaze approach to design,"
starting with a splash of color. He
experiments, mixing, tilting the canvas,
misting it with water, using fans to vary
the spread of pigment
Yet this is not work of the splatter
and-drip school. Hoover carefully,
realistically overpaints the images that
way to signal the ties that bind alums to
their institution.
But the alum's return means that
competition for the existing number of
openings can intensify, especially if
both groups compete for the same
interview slots. Not surprisingly,
MSU's survey showed that about 65
percent of employers ■ thought recent
grads should be willing to accept entry
level positions for which they were over
qualified.
Placement officials agree that the
days when students could confidently
expect a job offer are long gone.
Maurice Mayberry, director of the U. of
Florida’s Career Resource Center, says
the situation has worsened over the past
year.
"If you talked to students last fall,"
ted Buildin
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he sees in the mists of color. Some
times, the original splash is nearly
covered by the later images, as in the
Samasra, where only a bit of red
background recalls the beginning of the
work. In others, like Johnny Appleseed,
the vivid orange cloud becomes an
important element in the overall
composition.
Samsara focuses on a spiny sunburst
of gold, cradling a larvae or worm in its
heart. The Madonna-faced woman
calmly cups her hands around it as Death
leans in from the shadows. But does the
worm infest the light or does the light
emanate from the worm? Hoover leaves
the decision to us.
The Flight from Sunbury series of
says Mayberry, "they were running
scared. And if you talk to them now
they're in a panic." And, Mayberry adds,
it's not just students who are concerned.
"It's on the minds of the students, the
administrators, and the, mothers and
fathers," he says. "It's a serious
business."
Carolyn Hennings, career services
director at Santa Clara U., says her office
charges alums $lOO for access to
resources, including unlimited personal
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etchings and gouache features a spotted
horse that Hoover has come to feel as a
symbolic self-portrait. It flees the ordi
nary world, wolves nipping at its heels,
heading for mystical golden woods in the
background.
Animals throng his paintings, as
symbols and as players in the mini
dramas he reveals to us.
"I never want to tell the full story,"
he said. Viewers have to complete the
narrative in their own way."
And we do, moving from discomfort
through confusion to grace, matching
our own stories with his pictures along
the way.
counseling and testing, and $4O if
counseling isn't required.
Those charges haven't deterred alums
from using her office, Hennings says.
"Only a small percentage of alums have
used opr office," she says, "but it’s been
growing lately as the economy
worsens."
Georgia Institute of Technology
offers specific services for its alums.
Tech's Alumni Placement Service
sponsors an annual job fair for alumni.