inside - University of Central Oklahoma

art
By shalena eaton
ctive
At first glance, art and teaching
seem to be at odds with each other:
artists need freedom, individuality
and plenty of time and space for
creating, while teachers need
structure, a plan and a schedule.
But in the UCO art department,
faculty members are active
exhibitors who find balance in
teaching art and creating art.
ARTISTS
“If you’re not simultaneously practicing
and presenting, students know it. They
admire you for participating in the
community and are fascinated by watching
you work. They really want to see if you
practice what you preach,” said UCO Art
Department Chair, Charleen Weidell.
Weidell achieves this balance skillfully,
having recently concluded, together with
Central Associate Professor, Elizabeth
Brown, the wide-ranging exhibit “Form and
Substance” at the JRB Gallery in Oklahoma
City’s Paseo Arts district. The two have
wanted to have a show together for the last
six years.
“While our works are completely
different, our forms are similar in their
sensuality,” said Weidell.
Both faculty members are collectors
of their inspirations, whether it is rocks,
botanicals, sticks, seeds or leaves. As
colleagues, they tend to “gift” one another
if they find something they think would
inspire the other; and it’s this gifting, this
affinity for forms and substances that led
them to think that having a show together
would make for an interesting artistic
collaboration.
“When we first met, we realized we
collected the same type of things; and we
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