Gallery 249 examines opposing art

By: Amanda Dee – Staff Writer

Casey Roberts’ and RC Wonderly’s work occupies the walls of CPC’s Gallery 249 until Feb. 13. Roberts’s work explores the lines, the connections, between man and nature; Wonderly’s work explores the line itself.

Roberts, based in Indianapolis, depicts what he considers “fantastic landscapes.” Roberts’s “Difficult or Impossible to Understand or Explain Away” CPC exhibit, as he said on his website, continues his “conversation” with these landscapes — his “long monologues when pine forests make [him] laugh and mountains test [his] patience.”

Wonderly graduated from UD in 2006 with a Bachelor’s degree in fine art. He moved to Las Vegas to handle it, to teach it and to actually do it. He installed works by artists whom he had studied in UD classrooms. He developed a non-profit art program for adults with intellectual disabilities. He discovered his “sensibility as an artist,” Wonderly said. He discovered his artistic voice.

According to Wonderly, the “Considering New Parameters” CPC exhibit is all about process and materials.

“Anyone that has wrapped a present understands how tape works and can see how I have applied [it] in the drawings,” he said. “Not only that, but my lines are physical and you can feel that physicality when you view the work.”

As Wonderly said, he uses tape as tape and graphite as graphite. He is drawn to “straightforward” materials with inherent “straightforward” qualities — a contrast to Roberts’ process.

Roberts first exposes cyanotype, a Civil War era photochemical process, to sunlight, he explains on his website. The cyanotype transforms to bright blue. Then, he incites other chemical reactions with household supplies like bleach and baking soda. He layers and layers and sometimes collages until “nature’s subtle way of dealing with the peculiar aspects in the relationship with mankind” reveals itself.

The exhibits’ reception is Jan. 30 from 3 to 7 p.m. and will remain on display for free until Feb.13.

Each artist examines a different relationship with a different process: Roberts examines the peculiar with chemicals, layers and more layers, and Wonderly examines the straightforward with simple lines and simple materials.
Roberts assured on his website, “It’s not as nerdy as it sounds.”

For more information, contact the Department of Visual Arts at (937) 229-3227.