| Gretchen Burns reporter |

The room was filled past capacity during visiting artist Teresa Harris’ discussion on her exhibit, currently on display in the Harry Krug gallery of Porter Hall.
Harris has appeared in more than 40 national shows and has pieces residing in corporate collections across the country.

Yiping Chen, senior in management, Evelyn Shih, senior in marketing, and Sulgi Seo, senior in English, view at the paintings in Faculty Art Exhibition in Porter Hall on Thursday, Jan. 22.

As she began to describe her pieces during her lecture on Friday, Jan. 23, Harris said all of her pieces have three things in common.
““I always have language in my pieces, whether it’s text, transferred letters or written, there is always some sort of type,” she said. “My pieces are containers: books, reliquaries, houses with windows or envelopes, and all of my pieces are portraits or objects that are biographical or autobiographical.”
Harris added much of her inspiration comes from the Middle Ages, such as illuminated manuscripts and reliquaries from church altars.
After working with handmade paper during her senior year of undergraduate work, Harris began using the medium to put more expression in her work.
“My first sculptures were very sculptural,” she said. “I tried to show paper, all about the form of paper.”
Harris produced series of paper sculptures and then began to add words to her works. She continued to add three-dimensional elements and metal and beeswax after completing her master’s at Fort Hays State University.
Many of Harris’ pieces in the Harry Krug gallery feature images of hands.
“The hand brings an idea of humanity to the forefront,” Harris said. “I work with design and end up missing a lot of the handwork. It’s nice to get back to the studio process once in a while.”
Harris said that after attending a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and seeing the “Collection of St. Francis of Assisi,” she wanted to create a visual effect in her pieces that gives the inclination of sliding and movement.
To better explain her influences, Harris showed the audience several artworks from her series, including one series that focused on censorship.
“I found an image of a very stern-looking figure and thought, ‘That’s my censor,’” she said. “When I put the wax on top, there was a painting of nudes on the back that came through and you could see the outline of them on the figure’s face. I thought to myself, ‘Oh, this is perfect.’”
Catherine Jepson, senior in 3-D art, says she enjoyed the lecture and the exhibit because she could see many parallels between Harris and herself, parallels that might indulge the art she intends to make in the future.
“She grew up on a farm and so did I with a bigger family and my siblings are all creative, too,” Jepson said. “Her work with the paper and the printmaking and stories, it’s like what I’ve been working on recently.”
Jared Jenkins, senior in commercial art, also enjoyed the lecture. He says attending the discussion with the artist enabled him to learn more than he thought possible about the works before him.
“I thought her work was really interesting,” he said. “It was more in depth than what I thought it was. I’m going to have to look at it some more before it’s over.”