Have You Seen It?
Check out the talented works of students in the spring Sculpture class, taught by Melissa Newcomb.
Painting with the (Periodic) Elements
Junior Kat Andonucci helped put Keuka on the scientific map last fall after her year-long independent study, a photographic portfolio of various chemical elements and experiments, became an art show in Lightner Gallery, was presented to regional chemists, and landed in a national scientific magazine.
Andonucci paints the symbol for lead.
Now, Andonucci has reteamed with Dr. Andrew Robak, associate professor of chemistry, to conduct a new artistic study of some 11 elements of the Periodic Table, creating the letter code for each scientific element with a paint created from the element itself.
Lead in powder form, which Andonucci used to make the paint for the symbol (Pb).
“The overall image is an abstract kind of 3-D Periodic Table and we want it to serve as a permanent reference source in a classroom or lab—it will be a huge art piece,” said the junior visual and verbal art major from Chestertown (near Lake George).
They symbol for carbon, painted with ... carbon.
Using stand-alone 12×12 canvas squares painted with each element, Andonucci will arrange them to hang so that some of the squares appear to be raised and some depressed, creating a more dynamic artwork.
Carbon in particle form.
While some elements, such as arsenic or mercury, would be dangerous to paint with, others, such as barium sulfate, iron oxide, and cadmium have been created already and painted, she said. For example, titanium has been mixed with linseed oil to create the scientific code letters (Ti) for that element on the table.
According to Robak, all of the pigments Andonucci used to paint the periodic table symbols contain the elements, but are not made from the pure elements. For example, the cadmium pigment utilized a cadmium compound, while the titanium pigment was made from titanium oxide, which is used to make all modern white paints
Egyptian blue in solid form.
Granted, Andonucci has run into a few challenges, such as the three attempts to create the synthetic pigment Egyptian blue, which will be used to represent copper in the table. Historically, pigments were derived from naturally occurring minerals and/or plants. While Egyptian blue was one of the first synthetic pigments made in history, the age of the product and process made it hard to track down anything resembling a specific recipe over the Internet.
“It was on Wikipedia and it wasn’t exact measurements, just percentages, so it was hard to get it exactly right,” she explained. Directions suggested a mixture of sand, natron and copper oxide be baked in an 800 to 900-degree kiln over three to four days. “The first time we [tried,] the oven got above 900 degrees and fried it and it came out black and actually charred. It was a lot of trial and error. We’re up to our third try, but I may try again because it’s not as blue as I wanted it to be.”
Egyptian blue in powder form.
To support her creative work, Andonucci received a $500 Academic Excellence Initiatives grant from the Office of Academic Affairs. Last year, her Art of Chemistry project was also funded $560 from the same competitive grant process.
In September, the Art of Chemistry exhibit was formally presented to members of the Corning Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) by Robak, who commissioned Andonucci for the project. In addition to the American Chemical Society, Andonucci and Robak’s work drew the attention of Chemical & Engineering News in Washington, D.C., which published a story on the exhibit in its Oct. 1 issue and website.
Seniors Showcase Art ‘EXPEERIENCE’
A trio of seniors are presenting their final art projects – a closer look at their personal journeys – in an exhibit on display April 29-May 24 at Keuka College’s Lightner Gallery.
The Senior Art Show showcases the talents of Erik Holmes of Penn Yan, Courtney French (Massena), and Erica Ruscio (Middlesex). An artists’ reception will be held from 4:30-6 p.m. Tuesday, April 30 at the gallery in Lightner Library. Light refreshments will be served and the event is free and open to the public. The exhibit runs through May 24.The gallery is open during Lightner Library hours, whichcan be found online at: http://lightner.keuka.edu.
According to Melissa Newcomb, assistant professor of art and adviser to the student artists, each one had to prepare an artist’s statement, along with a “thesis” of sorts, representing the culmination of work produced over their time as a student. Throughout this semester, they met weekly for senior art seminar, she said, and from those talks, a group consensus emerged: everybody’s grown.
This group has some of the strongest raw talent of students Newcomb has mentored during her four years at Keuka, she said.
According to Ruscio, the trio named the exhibit “EXPEERIENCE” because it’s “all about our experiences and we hope that people can see that by peering a little closer.”
“There are also a lot of eyes and faces, so we just thought it was a catchy title,” Ruscio added. (more…)
“Almost” is Spring Theatrical Production
Ryan Gillotti and Danica Zielinski in a scene from Almost, Maine
A cold, moonless December sets the tone for romance, heartache and humor in Keuka College’s spring theatrical production of Almost, Maine.
A romantic comedy written by American actor John Cariani and directed by Professor of Theatre Mark Wenderlich, the play opens Thursday, April 18. The show begins at 8 p.m. in the Red Barn Theatre. Additional performances are Friday, April 19 through Saturday, April 20 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 21 at 7 p.m.
The play is composed of nine short plays that explore love and loss in the remote, mythical place called Almost, Maine. As the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky, the residents of Almost find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways.
The New York Times wrote that Almost, Maine is “a comedy comprising almost a dozen two-character vignettes exploring the sudden thunderclap of love and the scorched earth that sometimes follows.”
Logan Ackerley and Caleigh Alterio from a scene in Almost, Maine
Almost, Maine premiered at the Portland (Maine) Stage Company, where it broke box office records and garnered critical acclaim. Almost, Maine is featured in Smith and Kraus’ New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006. The play was selected by The Wall Street Journal and the American National Theatre as one of the most outstanding regional theatre productions of the 2004-05 season.
Members of the cast include Logan Ackerley, a junior political science/history major from Liberty (Peter, Jimmy, Randy, Lendall, and Dave); Caleigh Alterio, a junior occupational science major from Akron (Ginette, Sandrine, Hope); Ryan Gillotti, a sophomore American Sign Language-English major from Cayuga (East, Chad, Man); Danica Zielinski, a junior American Sign Language major from Congers (Glory); Sierra Lynch, a junior psychology major from Watervliet (Marvalyn, Waitress); Joe Micnerski, a freshman English major from Grayslake, Ill. (Steve, Phil); and Sini Ngobese, a sophomore management major from Durban, South Africa (Rhonda, Gayle, Marci).
Members of the crew include Zielinski (stage manager, costume designer, and set designer); Dan Roach (sound designer); Stephen Funk, a senior psychology major from Homer (sound board operator); P. Gibson Ralph (light designer); and Erica Ruscio, a senior English major from Middlesex (light board operator).
Ralph is chair of the Department of Theatre and Music Studies and an associate professor of theatre at SUNY Brockport, while Roach has worked with the Eastman Opera, Geva Theatre and Downstairs Cabaret Theatre, among others.
Tickets for the performances are $5 for Keuka students, faculty, staff, and alumni and $10 for the general public. Tickets are available at the door. Seating is limited.
The Spotlight Shines on Poet Ralph Black
Keuka College’s Spotlight Series will continue Thursday, April 25, with a reading by poet Ralph Black, associate professor of English at SUNY Brockport.
Free and open to the public, the reading begins at 7 p.m. in the Gannett Room of Lightner Library.
Black, who serves as co-director of the Brockport Writers Forum, received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon and his master’s degree and doctorate from New York University.
His poems have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Orion, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, and Chelsea. A recipient of the Chelsea Poetry Award and the Academy of American Poets Prize, Black was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2002. He published a collection of poems, Turning over the Earth, in 2000 and received the Anne Halley Poetry Prize in 2008.
Black has read his poems as part of the University of Rochester’s Plutzik Reading Series, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious literary reading programs. Established to honor the work of Hyam Plutzik, a distinguished poet and Deane Professor of Poetry and Rhetoric at the University, the series has featured more than 175 noted writers, including Pulitzer Prize recipients Anthony Hecht, Elizabeth Bishop, and Galway Kinnell.
Renewable Fuels and Aviation Focus of Next Community Luncheon
The use of renewable fuels and aviation will be the focus of Keuka College’s next Community Luncheon Series presentation Thursday, April 25, at noon in the lower level of Lightner Library.
Suzanne Hunt of Hunt Country Vineyards and founder and president of Hunt Green LLC, is the featured speaker. Hunt Green provides strategic advising for decision-makers in business, government, and not-for-profit arenas on a range of renewable energy, sustainable mobility, agriculture, and green design challenges.
Hunt, who also serves as senior adviser at the Carbon War Room, earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Penn State and a dual master’s degree in international affairs and natural resource management from American University and the UN’s University for Peace in Costa Rica.
The Carbon War Room seeks to accelerate profitable, entrepreneurial solutions which reduce carbon emissions. It focuses on the market barriers that reinforce the status quo and prevent capital from flowing to sustainable solutions with compelling returns.
She has worked with such clients as the U.S. Department of Energy, National Wildlife Federation, Inter-American Development Bank, Natural Resources Defense Council,
Wolfensohn & Co., Global Bio-energy Partnership, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and a number of clean technology companies, among others.
Her most recent initiatives include work on the role of agriculture in climate change, renewable energy, and green building in South America.
At Hunt Country Vineyards, Hunt assists with the ongoing implementation of sustainability practices including biodiesel production and use.
Tickets for the luncheon are $12.75, $2.50 of which goes to the Penn Yan Keuka Club Scholarship Fund. The fund provides an annual scholarship to a local student attending Keuka College. Seating is limited, so reservations are advised.
Make checks payable to Keuka College and mail to: Office of Alumni and Family Relations, Keuka College, Keuka Park, N.Y. 14478. Reservations may also be made online at http://events.keuka.edu.The reservation deadline is Friday, April 19.
For more information, call (315) 279-5238 or e-mail spevents@keuka.edu.
Keuka College Symphonic Band Concert April 14
Works by Aaron Copland, Clause-Michel Schonberg, and Frank Erikson will be among the musical selections performed by the Keuka College Symphonic Band at its annual spring concert Sunday, April 14.
The performance, free and open to the public, begins at 3:30 p.m. in Norton Chapel.
Under the direction of Jeff Stempien, instructor of band, the program includes The Star Spangled Banner, a blend by Mark Williams and the Navy; Fanfare For The Common Man, by Copland, and arranged by Robert Longfield; Spy Chase, by Brant Karrick; Valdres, by Johannes Hanssen and arranged by Robert W. Smith; Les Miserables, by Schonberg and arranged by Johnnie Vinson; The Water Is Wide, by Rick Kirby; Jump Street Boogie, by Steve Hodges; Light a Distant Fire, by Erickson; and Highlights from Grease, by Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs, and arranged by Paul Murtha.
Angela Glover in the Spotlight
Non-fiction author Angela Glover will read from her works Thursday, April 18, as part of Keuka College’s Spotlight Series.
Free and open to the public, the reading begins at 7 p.m. in the Gannett Room in the Lightner Library.
Glover is assistant professor of English at Midland University, where she also serves as director of the writing center and coordinates the creative writing and reading series. A graduate of the University of Nebraska, Glover earned her doctoral degree from the University of Kansas.
Her writing has appeared in The Mochilla Review, the Sequel, Heritage of the Great Plains, and Eureka Studies: Teaching Short Fiction. Her memoir, All Skate, Now Reverse, is about growing up in the Midwest.
“As a collective work, my memoir seeks to convey a greater truth about how family and place inform identity,” said Glover. “The 14 essays focus on the ordinary and attempt to illuminate it with connections and meanings that are morally complicated, and intentionally meant to tap into the reader’s own memories.”
In 2010, Glover was selected by the Willa Cather Foundation to be its writer-in-residence, where she led a series of prairie workshops. She lived in the Harling House, made famous in Cather’s My Antonia.
Glover is penning a collection of personal essays about growing up in a suburb during the ’70s. In these essays, she grapples with going green, living in a split level track home, and her fear of owls.
She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two dogs.
A Mix of Many Talents
Work by Ayuko Sakurai '14
Prismacolor butterflies. Black and white typography. Cupcakes and dandelions, in triplicate. Colored-pencil portraits. A powerful pink-and-orange sunset. A ship sailing off on a sea of cotton.
Cupcake Series by Winsome Zinkievich '14
These are some of the works featured in the Keuka College student art show, running through April 18 in the Lightner Gallery, with additional works on display on the fourth floor of Hegeman Hall.
The gallery, located in Lightner Library, is open during regular library hours, which vary during the academic semester, but can be found online at: http://library.keuka.edu
The exhibit will featured drawings, paintings, sculpture, mixed media, and photography from the hands of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, as well as a few seniors who are non-art majors.
Senior Ashley Larimore and others enrolled in the new graphic design course offered this spring have debuted typography collections in the show. Larimore said that although she does not major in art, she loves drawing and painting, and “couldn’t wait” to add the new course to her schedule so that she could build more design skills working with Adobe software.
“The experience I gained working in Adobe Illustrator after the first project is incredible. I’ve really enjoyed overcoming the challenge of creating art through a screen using a mouse, rather than my hands,” Larimore said. “Every time I see my finished product, I have to remind myself it’s my work.”
According to Melissa Newcomb, assistant professor of art, the submissions for this student show are “the best yet” in her four years teaching at Keuka.
“I say every time, ‘It’s the best show yet,’ and it seems to get better every year,” Newcomb said. “The quality is just great.”
Work by Ayuko Sakurai '14
The majority of pieces surround drawing and photography works from the Drawing I & II and digital photography courses held in the fall. In addition, works from last spring’s Painting I course, and mixed media pieces from a general-education course, Foundations of Art and Design, as well as Sculpture I & II, which were both offered this spring, appear in the show.
Junior Stephanie Collins, an occupational therapy major, said she could relate a lot of the material she learned in art education class to art therapy. The show features a series of colorful butterflies Collins created using colored pencils.
“I’ve never really used them for a project before so it was really cool to see how bright I could get the colors,” Collins said. “This class lets me explore different materials like crayons and colored pencils that I wouldn’t be able to use on other projects. It teaches me how to incorporate art into things I never would have thought of before.”
According to Collins, the student works in the show tell her a key point about Keuka: “I am impressed with all of the talent at the school!”
"Rural Twilight" by Kristin Galens '13, taken at the corner of Voak and Ferguson Corners Roads, near Gorham, N.Y.
The student show will be followed by Keuka’s senior show, which will feature capstone works from six seniors majoring in visual and verbal arts.
Unusually Different Music Group to Perform Feb. 23
The musical ensemble Unusually Different will perform at Keuka College Saturday, Feb. 23.
Open to the public, the concert begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Geiser Refectory in Dahlstrom Student Center. Brunch is $11.45 per person; members of the College community may use their meal plans.
Unusually Different will present music of African American composers including Sun Ra Arkestra, Florence Price, and Unusually Different’s leader Rey Scott, among others.
The band’s six musicians—Scott, Ken Foster, Steve Baczkowski, Dave DeWitt, Michael Colquhoun, and Ellen Barnum—combine improvisation, chamber music, roots music, and theatrics in their performance. The members of the band play a variety of instruments, including acoustic bass, drums, flute, oboe, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet and clarinet.
Scott is a veteran jazz saxophonist who has played extensively with artists such as Sun Ra Arkestra, Tito Puente, Lionel Hampton, the New Brass Connection, Mack Rucks Ensemble, and the Gospel Jubilee.
Foster is music teacher at Waterloo Central School and a member of the Mainstream Band and Greater Rochester Jazz Orchestra.
In addition to organizing the Buffalo Improvisers Orchestra, Baczkowski performs with such musicians as Ravi Padmanabha, Bill Sack, and Nola Ranallo and with such groups as Genkin Philharmonic and William Parker Trance Quartet, among others.
A lifelong resident of the Rochester area, trombonist DeWitt is chair of the music department, high school band director and brass instructor at Buffalo Academy for the Performing Arts. He is a member of the Legendary Dukes, an eight-piece R&B and soul band.
Compositions by Calhoun, an adjunct professor at Hilbert and Canisius Colleges, have been performed across the U.S. and Canada and he has garnered glowing reviews from New Music Connoisseur, Village Voice, Emerson Flute Forum, British Flute Society and the Buffalo News.
Barnum is a founding member of Vento Chiaro, a Boston-based woodwind quintet, and performs in ensembles including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Buffalo Chamber Players. She has received several awards as a member of Vento Chiaro, including the Saunderson Award and the silver medal at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
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