JACKSON, Tenn. — Jan. 9, 2018 — Steve Halla, associate professor of art at 51社区, will have his work featured in a gallery exhibition on the Union campus until March 1.
The exhibition is titled 鈥淩ecent Works: The Art of Steve Halla鈥� and will be displayed in Union鈥檚 art gallery in the Penick Academic Complex. It will feature mostly woodcut prints and inked woodblocks and will close March 1 with a lecture at 4:30 p.m. and a reception in the gallery.
Woodblock printing combines drawing, carving and printing, and Halla said he feels a sense joy and personal satisfaction with the process that he rarely feels with anything else.
鈥淚 love the idea of using a piece of wood that at one point was part of a living, growing thing and is now dead,鈥� Halla said. 鈥淚 love taking that and, through artistry, breathing a sense of life back into it. It鈥檚 the idea of redeeming something that was useless, dead and discarded.鈥�
He said all of his woodblock prints are black and white on a single block, and he enjoys the challenge that simplicity presents. All of the works in the exhibition were created in the last year and a half.
鈥淓very woodblock is a brand new experience, and about one in three carvings is a failure,鈥� Halla said. 鈥淚鈥檝e been doing this for 20 years now, and I鈥檓 just scratching the surface.鈥�
Halla studied the art of woodblock printing under sculptor Carl Bindhammer at the Carving Arts Center in Plano, Texas. He earned a doctorate in aesthetic studies from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2006 and joined the faculty at Union in 2009.