The Te Paske Gallery is currently showcasing artwork of Amy Foltz, an art professor in Sioux City, Iowa. The exhibit has “a little bit for everyone”, comments Emily Stokes, one of Northwestern’s art professors. Foltz is a diverse artist and uses several mediums such as stained glass, avocado pits, prints, drawings and dyed batiks. These mediums create an organic and natural feel and happen to be what Foltz uses most as an artist.
Foltz was very open when sharing about her artwork and the process of setting up the gallery to display her artwork in the most meaningful way: “The faceted windows was a good opportunity to hang the windows in a window, the way that they are intended to be viewed. Hanging the small prints in frames gives the prints their own space that is different than hanging them on a wire with clips-it changes their importance from laundry to a special, intimate print. I like the avocado faces together, they become a display of wide emotion”.
Although some of Foltz’s pieces were made for artistic expression, some of her pieces have a message. There is a common theme within Foltz’s aquatic series of prints and drawings: pollution awareness. Foltz shares, “Man is messing with the oceans. Our waste is being dumped in the oceans and we are overfishing the seas. For all of the animals in it, this is sad. The plastic island in the northern Pacific Ocean is getting bigger and bigger. It does not affect us land animals, but we do not lead separate lives, we just lead different lives”.
For those interested in an exhibit spanning many mediums or faces imprinted on avocado pits, check out Amy Foltz’s artwork in the Te Paske Gallery. Her pieces will only be displayed until September 16.
