behind the scenes #1----- video interview!

Here's me being vulnerable and showing you a little video interview of Marisa and me for our shows. Marisa's paintings were in the gallery beside mine. The vulnerable part comes in because of course, its weird to see myself on video, I feel like I rambled way too much, I blanked on simple phrases like "cardboard packaging", and I wish I talked more about Madeleine L'Engle than what was going to be in each day! anyway---it will give you a look at what day 1 looked like in person. Marisa's interview is first, and mine starts about halfway through. enjoy :)

Biola Art Gallery from Zach King on Vimeo.


and then here's my part of the article that went with it. I think Colleen did an amazing job:

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Explorations of Art and Life

By Colleen Van Houwe

March 25, 2009

After two years of preparation, Shannon Leith and Marisa Rountree kicked off the first week of this semester’s senior art shows, installing their culminations of hard work, planning and art making.

Both artists demonstrate how two different art forms, photography and painting, can explore beauty and life. While Leith takes Biola through her journey of the exploration of life, Rountree invites us to join her in the exploration of paint, pattern, and design.

Leith’s “Today” show consists of photos from 100 different days and life and practice into the gallery. Her original intentions were to go out on walks and capture the beauty and rarities of life. However, as she engaged in this project, over 75 percent of her photos stayed confined to her apartment.

“It wasn’t this big adventurous thing,” she said. “It’s looking at the things we see every day and the artist being the one to find something new in it … being able to explore it in a different way and discover something completely different about something so familiar.”

She began to explore the meaning of words like habit, rhythm, space, and liturgy and their role in everyday life. This long, detailed process led her to a very simple way of understanding her project. It is the exploration and life of today. She quoted Eva Hesse as her inspiration, who said, “My art and my life are not separate; they’re together.”

Leith described the process as “peeling up little layers of life” and catching a glimpse of what is there. “This process has helped me see things that I might not have noticed before,” she said.

The goal for her work is to be more attuned to what she encounters in daily life and move those who view her art to achieve the same thing. Therefore, different photos will be displayed each day giving the viewers the same experience of “newness” that Leith encountered during the shooting process.

“I want people to walk away with a sense of delight and excitement – doing life, whatever that means for each person,” Leith said.

“Each person’s daily life can be a place for them to find newness, excitement, a place to explore rather than a place that’s mundane and boring. God gave us seven days to live. What’s here for me today? … there is something there.”

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and to end with, the awkward, stiff photo of me, sitting in a dress on the gallery floor! woo!