Opening First Friday November 1, 2024 5:00pm - 8:00pm

Multivalent Moments

It’s through experiences that we begin to understand ourselves and the roles we have to play in this theater of life, right? That’s the perspective in which these pieces began to emerge and develop. The process required looking back and unraveling those twists and knots of individual strings that began at some event, with some person, or during some memory that then bundled itself together into the human beings that declared themselves as artists and decided to do something to recognize their significance.

These are the results of those moments.

Those beautiful, heart-pounding/heartbreaking experiences that defined us, molded us, shaped us, and forced us into this existence. They make up the mantle we carry without burden. They are the fabric of the capes of our heroism, or the fabric of our blankies we pull over ourselves for comfort and to hide from leering eyes.

They become the visual representation of the soundtracks of our life cinema.

They are the memorable scenes, with unexpected responses, surprising actions, and faltered and fumbled lines of endearment that were misunderstood yet perfectly timed...they are what they need to be.

They present themselves as an opportunity to reflect, wonder, ponder, remember, and realize.

They are exactly what they need to be, just as they were for us. Enjoy these moments.

Artists’ Statements

SAMSON HUNCKLER:

It all began when his sister colored his favorite pages in his favorite coloring book. She didn’t even give him a chance to find his crayons. Avoiding violence, he resorted to redrawing the coloring pages to color them the way he wanted to. Thus the art career of Samson Hunckler began at the young age of five.

The fascination of making marks on the page will continue to consume him throughout his lifetime.

Currently, Samson is in his 21st year of teaching high school art, constantly discovering the magic and secrets of mark-making on so many surfaces and pages. Persistently pursuing different avenues and approaches to art, he pushes himself and his students through the world of style development and identity, engaging fiercely with the process of art making.

He graduated from Ball State University in 2004 with a BS in Visual Arts with a concentration in Drawing. Being a former member of the Pendleton Artists Society, teaching and working with the Anderson Museum of Art continuously, and exploring numerous community art adventures in and around Pendleton he remains passionate about the lifelong education art provides.

The history, the process, and the overall experience related to art has become his career, his identity, and the only constant in his ever-expanding imagining of what his world has been, is, and will be.

GEORGE HARRIS:

From multi-cellular blastocyst to 66 year old father who constantly embarrasses his children, George Harris has been trying to push his own art boundaries his entire life. Some hits and a gaggle of objective misses later, he is still trying to produce art that makes the observer think. Having trained in traditional and representational art, he discovered it wasn't enough, so after four years of studying fine art in college, he went into. . .ADVERTISING?! Yes, after several years wandering the desert of ad agencies in Indianapolis, he realized that his true love was creating art that makes people smile, angry, perplexed, cheerful, indifferent and stand as extensions of ordinary life. Finding art in the mundane to sublime is the most powerful weapon an artist can wield, and ample supplies of ammunition are all around us.

George has a love for new music and though having lived through many eras, does NOT like classic rock. Of course, and as with any art student, he played in a band long enough to do some recording, and if you ask him nicely to hear his band, he will still tell you, "OK, but you won't like it." He has restored a craftsman style house with his wife Jo, and because of this, his children can only fall asleep to the sound of power tools and shouted expletives. George lives in Pendleton, and has a gorgeous Pomsky named Zelda, a fat but adorable black cat Leonard, and a lovable, but lousy mouser named Bones. Oh, and three children who he constantly reminds them that they are here to entertain him, and he is the president of their fanclub.