Faculty Show May Inspire At Norman's Firehouse Art Center

NORMAN — Visitors to a faculty exhibition may be inspired by one teacher's admonition to “complete by hand what begins in the mind.” The faculty show is on view through Saturday at Firehouse Art Center, 444 S Flood in Norman. Rich green, loosely applied gestural decorations adorn a deep blue “Salad Bowl” by Florene Welcher, who made the hand-mind suggestion. Red clouds streak a glowing yellow sky over a modest country home in an acrylic by Thomas Stotts, whose title urges us to “Begin Again.” One almost wants to be young again, seeing a boy “Fish the Bank” of a reflecting stream in an oil by painting teacher Carol Armstrong. Armstrong also contributes two handsome matching vertical oils of a buckskin-clad America Indian “Prince” and “Princess.” Birds and wild animals seem to emerge from crumpled paper and a cloud in a superb graphite drawing by Haley Prestifilippo. Adding to its impact is Prestifilippo's enigmatic title, “Where Did They,” which makes us want to add “go” or “come from” to it. Grain suggests clouds over a root system and green horizon line in an evocative work from Douglas Shaw Elder's polychrome plywood “Scape” series. Chris Burnett offers us a view through a multicolored “Sky Lens” of kiln-formed glass, displayed on a dark metal stand. A mystery woman on a curving stretch of beach reaches toward two tiny deer in a starry, yet sunlit, sky in a semi-surreal inkjet print by Sarah Engel-Barnett. Weird but funky and fun are Craig Swan's “Saturn After the Feast” clay figure and a miniature ceramic “Tea Puffy Paddle Pot” by Dan Harris. Elyse Bogart makes good use of precious materials in two exquisite necklaces, and Beverly Herndon deals well with “The Four Scholarly Plants” in an ink-watercolor. The show is highly recommended. — John Brandenburg, for The Oklahoman Read more on NewsOK.com