Eau Claire Regional Arts Center

Gallery Exhibit

2/13/2005

A dual exhibit that shows artists’ experiments with varied processes and media traces an evolution characterized by ...

Mixing it up

by Ann Barsness
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram Staff  

Swirls resembling stained glass and portraits peeking out from under layers of paint hint at the early work of two artists whose new creations are on view through March 1 at The Eau Claire Regional Arts Center Gallery.

Steve Immerman became interested in stained glass 25 years ago after he repaired the windows he bought at an estate sale. He switched to kiln-formed glass in 1995 because it was easier to fit into his unpredictable schedule — he’s a general surgeon at Evergreen Surgical.

“It’s something that I can do but I can leave anytime if I have to go to work,” Immerman said as he surveyed the newly installed display.

Vivid color is one element that unites “The Mixed Media of Brian Marse & the Kiln-Formed Art Glass of Steve Immerman.”

Marse had concentrated on commercial art, painting lifelike portraits for most of his student assignments at UW-La Crosse. He switched to abstract mixed media shortly before he graduated in 1996.

“Most galleries like to see my abstract art,” Marse said by telephone during a lunch break at Madison’s Hobby Lobby, where he runs the custom frame shop.

Simple vs. complex

The show is Immerman’s first major exhibit in Eau Claire, although his work has appeared in two juried ArtsWest shows at L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library.

In October, he gained a wider audience when his sushi platter “Polaris” was among 35 selected from more than 500 entries to appear in “e-merge,” a juried show at Bullseye Glass Co.’s Resource Center gallery in Portland, Ore.

The piece draws from photographs of polar bears (which are sandblasted onto are sandblasted onto iridescent squares) and reflects the turquoise-blue of Arctic ice and the white-and-vanilla variations of the bears’ fur.

“I enjoyed pieces that combined complicated techniques with a simple solution,” David Cohen wrote in the “e-merge” exhibit catalog.

Cohen, the executive director of Portland’s Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery and one of five “e-merge” jurors, continued, “While it was difficult to single out any one artist, I was most intrigued by Steve Immerman’s clean form and patterning.”

Another piece in the Eau Claire show, “OBX,” was based on a day at North Carolina’s Outer Banks National Seashore.

Small, colorful blocks represent swimsuits and beach umbrellas. Strands of pulled and curved green glass represent grass. Sandblasted seagulls were stenciled from actual photographs.

Those who visit the Eau Claire gallery can trace Immerman’s artistic exploration through the 30 platters, bowls and coaster sets.

“I almost view any one of these as an experiment,” Immerman said.

He has learned, for example, that a chemical reaction between certain types of glass will produce a thin black line. And he has learned to control aperture pours, melting a few colors of glass and then allowing the liquid to swirl through a small opening.

“I started doing these aperture pours because I wanted some randomness in the pieces,” Immerman said.

At first, he used the resulting pieces in their entirety. When one didn’t turn out as planned, he cut it up and used the smaller pieces in a larger work.

A centerpiece of the gallery show, “Khazad-dûm,” named for the precipice from which the wizard Gandalf falls in “The Lord of the Rings,” combines three large aperture pours.

Brock Craig taught Immerman kiln techniques in two Mesa, Ariz., workshops and now considers him a peer.

“One of his strengths is the meticulous construction of his pieces. They are composed of hundreds of components — strip-cut glass, sections of aperture pours, sandblasted inserts,” Craig said via e-mail from his Vancouver, British Columbia, studio.

“In some of his work as recently as a few years ago, he was, in my opinion, combining too many techniques,” Craig said. “He has learned the trick of what to leave out, and his strong geometric designs are becoming very recognizable.”

Real vs. abstract

In his first Eau Claire show, Marse — who has exhibited his abstract works in Madison, Wausau and La Crosse galleries — has introduced a design concept based on graphics representing female forms.

Newer pieces also draw on his background in sculpture.

Marse was marketing his photo-realistic paintings of sports stars such as Michael Jordan and former NBA player Scottie Pippin in Chicago and Minneapolis markets. His work has appeared in the Beckett sports collectibles magazine.

Marse said the same methods used in drawing figures apply to abstract art.

“”I try to play with color and light and shadow,” Marse said.