Fabric and photography form a cool collaboration

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Fabric and photography form a cool collaboration

 

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Bushey and Coon will showcase their work at the Daughtrey Gallery this month | Courtesy, Bushey

There is nothing cold about their collaboration: Coon shoots photographs, Bushey makes quilts in their likeness, and beautiful art is displayed in their exhibit “Winter is Coming.”

Hillsdale College’s art department is providing students the opportunity to view their own professors’ artwork in the “Winter is Coming” exhibit in the Daughtrey Gallery from Oct. 17 to Nov. 19. Art faculty members Barbara Bushey and Doug Coon are displaying their own art through a distinctive array of wintry works.

The pieces on display showcase the stunning beauty of winter in Michigan. While Coon took most photographs in Michigan, the exhibit also presents some of his photos taken at the Grand Canyon, in Zion National Park, Wisconsin, and even in the state of Washington. The majority of the exhibit’s photographs were captured during the winters of 2013 and 2014.

According to Coon, the two collaborated after they both realized how similar their work was. They decided to do an exhibit together when Bushey was working on a couple of quilts which she had been crafting to match some of Coon’s photographs. Art faculty members are required to show their art about every four years, so Coon and Bushey decided to show theirs together.

Bushey emphasized the distinctiveness of their art in the exhibit, with winter’s more muted color schemes and subtle beauty.

“Winter is really compelling in that everything gets simplified,” Coon said. “You don’t have a lot of color fighting, so you can concentrate on structural foundations of any piece, like form or texture, because everything else just fades away, and that’s what you’re left with,” Coon said.

Both Coon and Bushey share an appreciation for winter’s charm, which comes out in their work.

Bushey said she is fond of winter landscapes, recalling often having her husband pull over to the side of the road while driving so she could snap an impromptu photo or two. She described the winter scene which has always inspired her: glimpsing cornstalks coming through the snow.

Coon described being inspired by the winters of 2013 and 2014, which he said were like the winters of his childhood.

“There was a lot of snow, it stayed cold, and the thing about it is, you do get a lot of sunny days,” Coon said.

The art department will host an open house and official reception in the Daughtrey Gallery in the Sage Center for the Arts on Oct. 20 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“It’s an opportunity to ask a question or give a comment to the person who made the thing that you’re staring at,” Coon said.

Junior Elsa Lagerquist, a art and English double major, plans to visit the exhibit and encouraged students to make their way to the gallery as well.

“These are legitimately amazing artists, and we always think of them as professors, but now we get to see that artist side of them, and that’s really special and really cool,” Lagerquist said. “It’s just such a happy thing to see beautiful things.”