Fontbonne University- Courtney Henson

EXHIBITING GALLERY: Fontbonne University Art Gallery

TITLE OF SHOW: Sift, Measure, Cultivate

OPENING DATE AND CLOSING DATE: August 28th, 2009 - September 27th, 2009

Opening Reception: August 28th, 2009 from 6 to 8 pm

Artist Talk: September 26th, 2009 at 4 pm in the gallery

Workshop: October 3rd, 2009 from 9 am to 3 pm

SHORT BYLINE/ DESCRIPTION OF SHOW: three artists: Courtney Henson, Erin Cork and Gina Alvarez, will exhibit a collection of recent work

Fontbonne University Art Gallery
6800 Wydown Bvld.
St. Louis, Missouri 63105
314.889.1431
http://www.fontbonne.edu/academics/undergraduatedegreeprogram/finearts/galleryoffinearts.htm

• Apart from creating things, what do you do?

  I work at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and have interest in being an all around cheerleader for the visual arts in St. Louis.

• What are some of the things you do to keep yourself creative?

I get out to art openings and concerts- both visual and audio stimulations are neccessary for me to formulate new ideas. I require hearing wonderful lyrics to motivate my own poetry and quiet beats to keep my hands in rhythm.

• Please describe your creative process: how you create, when, where, with what materials…

I am drawn to unusual materials to help my creative process. I enjoy things that look very out of control and organic. I also view my creative process as a series of experiments where I create, observe, and re-create in order to improve the original work.

• Name your top five: musicians, books, movies, websites, artists… (provide a link to websites or artists websites if at all possible)

  Currently Andrew Bird’s lyrics are a huge inspiration. I also enjoy reading books that deal with the historical relevance of museums and methods of displaying our visual culture. I have formed a new connection to the work of Marcel Duchamp upon a recent trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I have a love of all the movies created by Darren Aronofsky, most recently The Wrestler.

•   Could you do your art without an audience? How important is feedback?                         

I require the viewer, often the work is participatory in nature. I have created works that needed the viewer’s observations of small growing experiments in order to produce later exhibitions- so on occasion there might be no work if it were not for the viewer and his or her feedback.

- Courtney Henson