The traditional mingles with the unconventional in a fascinating new exhibit of original and contemporary art that opens today at the Nicolet College Art Gallery. Three Wisconsin based artists will be displaying art in three distinct mediums: photography, textiles and painting.

The works are divided into two exhibits. One features the photojournalistic work of Emmy award-winning filmmaker Chip Duncan. The other is a collaboration between artist Debra Ehmann and her husband, painter Martin Rowe.

Katy Ralph, art director for the art gallery, says, “I like that there are three specific types of work in the show. I’m interested in how each of the artists uses color, and the similarities that can be found throughout the whole gallery in that way. Color, form and gesture; how emotion is conveyed in many different ways. There’s vivaciousness and emotion in all three artists’ work.”

Brave move leads to bold art

Although both Rowe and Ehmann have been creating art throughout their lives, they’ve only recently made the move to become full-time artists. When they decided to make the career change and to move to Rhinelander in spring 2008, both were professors of graphic design, having taught for the better part of two decades at universities in England and Australia. Rowe says of the decision, “My passion has always been to paint. But it’s not the easiest thing to do as we’re finding out. We’ve given up all the security of tenured lecturing jobs.”

Given the evidence of the looming recession a year ago, this may seem like the worst time to have given up that kind of job security. But as they see it, it is exactly because of the tough times and disappearing pensions that this is the perfect time to begin their art careers.

Ehmann says, “The practical reason we made this decision, was we realized we live in a world now where we won’t get to retire. We thought, ‘what can we do for the rest of our lives?’ So it’s a big plan that we’re imagining with our lives.” (For more about Rowe's and Ehmann's move to the Northwoods, see previous NNN article.)

Northern exposure

Both Ehmann and Rowe say that living in the Northwoods has had a profound effect on their artwork. Their portion of the exhibit will feature work inspired by landscapes. Ehmann’s chosen medium is currently textiles. She explains, “For some bizarre reason textiles just kept calling to me. Rugs just kept calling to me.”

Ehmann uses the traditional spiral rag rug technique for her work, but in an unusual way. “One of the reasons I’ve done these types of rugs is because I’m in the Northwoods, and it’s what every grandmother made," she says, with a hint of the Australian and British in her accent. "But what I’ve tried to do is make them in a way that nobody has seen or expected. Usually with those types of rugs it’s the standard spiral that you see. And it’ll be a different amount of tone or color, so I’ve tried to break from that.”

Rowe’s current work has also been greatly influenced by the Rhinelander’s winter landscape. “Where I paint, I look out the window, and you get these shadows across the snow which are blue, with these black trees," he says. "It creates an interesting visual contrast. A lot of my paintings are based on just looking out the window. Hours and hours of glances, it all comes in subconsciously.”

Understanding the abstract process

Rowe’s work has also become progressively more abstract since he moved to the area. He notes that “up here it’s all woods. So it’s all vertical lines and horizontal lines. So it’s an interesting landscape.”

To the uninitiated, it may be difficult to see how the bold lines and curves of Rowe’s art reflect local landscapes. Rowe explains that “they’re regurgitated, redeveloped versions of the landscape; they’re simplified. They play with light, form and texture, just as landscape does, but in a much simpler form. Hopefully, whoever’s viewing it will get the tone, mood, voice of the landscape coming through.”

Surprisingly, while the viewer may see very little in common between Rowe’s more expressionist work and his stark abstract work, for Rowe the process of creating figurative and abstract paintings is exactly the same. "There’s no difference in painting an abstract painting and a figurative painting," he emphasizes. "It’s about making the elements work within the frame. It’s a balancing act. You still play with color the concept of light, tone, texture. It’s just that the elements aren’t specific and you don’t make those same attachments to them. But for me they are specific.”

Although Rowe’s abstract work may seem simple at first glance, they are the result of an enigmatic process requiring an enormous amount of time and contemplation.

Rowe elaborates. “Sometimes I spend hours just sitting there looking at a painting without actually making a mark on it. Or I may put it away and come back days later. It’s processing somewhere in your brain. ‘What’s the next stage? How do I develop it?’ Sometimes I just start painting and you don’t know why you’ve done something you just know that something needs to be done and you can’t always be that specific.”

The new avant-garde: craft art

Debra Ehmann’s rug work is perhaps the perfect counterpoint for Rowe’s paintings. Ehmann says, “My work in some ways is almost the opposite. The preparation process is almost as long as the making process. I cannot layer on. I can respond to the moment in it by changing that there, or moving that there, but I can’t work on top. So my thinking is a very different kind of thinking.”

In contrast to Rowe’s simple, but challenging abstract work, Ehmann’s rug work is immediately approachable, and its form evokes familiar, homey associations.

However, just as the meanings in Rowe’s paintings develops as the viewer gets to know the work, the subtlety and complexity of her rugs develops the longer the viewer spends with them. One of their goals, as Ehmann says, is to convince people that “there’s a lot more going on here than [they] think. To get them to engage a little bit more. It’s very easy to look at something and just done. We are definitely in a culture that does that very easily. It’s harder to get people to look at things longer.”

United by difference

Chip Duncan’s photographic work will be displayed concurrently with that of Ehmann and Rowe. His work consists of photographs taken on humanitarian missions to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Darfur, Sudan.

In a lecture given on Feb. 6 at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Duncan said, “I tend to concentrate on portraits of people in the developing world. The process involves some kind of meaningful interaction with people living under difficult circumstances.

"My hope is to shed light on our similarities and our hopes and to break down stereotypes based on fear," he continued. "In places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Darfur, I've witnessed extraordinary grace among the people I've encountered. I hope the images and stories help to encourage justice and human rights in places where greed, tyranny and lack of opportunity have ruled far too long.”

Although the stark realism of Duncan’s photographs may seem to be in conflict with Rowe and Ehmann’s abstract work, Ehmann’s graphic design background allows her to see a lot of connections between the different types of work.

Ehmann characterizes their connections in terms of “strong graphic shapes, whether it’s long lines, or leaves, or rectangles that I’ve done, or the strong features of faces that Chip has done. He’s got very graphic shapes. His face will be a very strong structure against a stark  background for example.”

She also points out that the contrasts in the work may enhance the way the viewers experience the pieces. “To me there’s such a great contrast in what’s going on [in the exhibit]," she says. "That contrast makes you think about each person’s work a little bit more. By not having it all be the same, you separate things out, and start to think about it all in a different way.”

Gallery reception for the artists

The artists and gallery director Ralph are hoping local residents will take advantage of the opportunity to talk with the artists at the Art Gallery reception on Saturday, March 21, at 7 p.m.

The reception will feature a discussion with Chip Duncan about his film and photographic work, and an opportunity to talk with all the artists about their work. Refreshments will be served.

Ralph hopes that it will be an evening of unique art and stimulating conversations. She says, “It’s really exciting to have an exhibit like this that is so different from what people normally gravitate toward.”

The exhibit runs from March 6 - 27. Gallery hours are: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday; and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; and during evening events at Nicolet Theatre.