Lee professor displays artwork in Squires Library gallery
All photos by Taylor Baker.
Professor John Simmons was honored on Thursday night at a reception for his art exhibition “Through These Years” on display in the Squires Library on campus.
Simmons greeted guests, co-workers and students who congratulated him on his accomplishments and thanked Simmons for allowing people to view his art.
“How could I refuse?” Simmons said.
The gallery was curated by students in the art department’s new course Gallery Management Practicum, taught by Bradley Wilson, former manager of the Creative Arts Guild in Dalton, GA.
Wilson said he was grateful his class had the opportunity to practice running an art gallery because it is an extremely marketable skill.
Senior studio art major Ashley Chambers was one of Wilson’s students present at the reception; she said there are a lot of details in designing the presentation of a gallery.
“We set up the pieces, choose where they go, provide food for the reception and take it all down at the end [of the show’s run],” Chambers said. “The art has to be even, spaced out correctly and typically at eye-level, and sometimes there are sets of paintings that have to be grouped together.”
Chambers said that this exhibition is a way to honor the semi-retired professor for his integral part in launching the art program at Lee and to celebrate his life’s work.
The first painting displayed at the entrance of the gallery is a self-portrait he painted when he was a 20-year-old college student in Kentucky, and the gallery progresses to display some works he created since returning to Lee in 1997.
Simmons said that he paints at home and works on ceramics in the Mayfield Annex studio, where he teaches ceramics classes—he calls this “the best of both worlds.”
He paints everything, from abstract to realistic pieces, and does not favor one style or medium over another. This broad range of interests made it difficult for Simmons to choose a favorite piece he has created.
“It’s like if you have five kids,” Simmons said. “You may love them differently, but you still love them equally.”
Simmons said that if he had to choose one display to showcase, he would choose his vibrant series of fall leaves.
One fall, he was picking leaves from a Bradford pear tree near the School of Religion and found a beautifully arranged assortment of leaves with a myriad of colors. He took a photograph of the scene and painted a set of pieces that takes up its own wall in the gallery.
“God has created an abundance of beauty on our Earth, and my art is a response to His bountiful and complex visual world around us,” Simmons wrote in his artist’s statement.
“Through the Years” will be on display until Oct. 3 in the Squires Library during normal operating hours. There will be three more art galleries throughout the fall 2019 semester, and all are free and open to the public.
