Tuesday, May 1, 2007
The Solidarity Center on Massachusettes St. displays artwork by Ailecia Ruscin, Kansas City, Mo. grad student. The photos are part of the exhibit featuring artwork from the queer and transgendered communities in Lawrence.
Photographs, prints and paintings by two students are on display this month at Solidarity! Revolutionary Center and Radical Library.
The artwork, by Jessica Gish, Topeka senior, and Ailecia Ruscin,, Auburn, Ala., graduate student, is part of the Queer and Transgender Art Show at the center, located at 1109 Massachusetts St. The show is free and will run until May 11.
Gish said that people at Solidarity! called her because she was an artist who was active in the gay community. Gish said her sexual orientation influenced her artwork, but it wasn’t the focus of her work.
“Most often I feel as an artist first rather than a gay artist or queer artist,” Gish said. “I draw a lot of inspirations from the people and the world around me.”
Gish is working toward a degree in painting at the University, and she displayed prints along with paintings at the art show. She enjoys utilizing the two mediums for different reasons.
“What I like about painting is that you have such direct control of every color and mark of everything that is on the canvas. It can be really expressive and really individual,” Gish said. “What I like about printmaking is there is a little more room for random chance to happen.”
Gish has five different pieces on display at Solidarity! She described her work as funny, dark and self-examining.
Photographer Ailecia Ruscin has about 40 photographs on display. Her photographs capture political activists, rock concerts and portraits of women. She said she likes her work to be a bit different from the mainstream.
pullquote
What I like about painting is that you have such direct control of every color and mark of everything that is on the canvas, it can be really expressive and really individual.
-senior Jessica Gish
“I like to be a woman taking pictures of women, giving my eye as opposed to a male’s eyes,” Ruscin said. “The women that I took pictures of told me what they wanted to have pictures of, so they were empowered as part of the process.”
Ruscin said she hoped to provide history to younger observers of art, with pictures of activists protesting the conflict in Iraq during the years of the Clinton administration.
“I hope they’ll be inspired to do some of their own art,” Ruscin said. “I hope people leave there thinking, ‘What do I want to do?’ ”
Kansan staff writer Joe Hunt can be contacted at jhunt@kansan.com.
— Edited by Joe Caponio
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