The opening night reception for the “Living the Dream” art exhibition in the Quad Art Gallery had a display of various sculptures on March 5.
Debbie Korbel was invited to the RCC campus to display her artwork in the gallery. Each of her sculptures consisted of many different mixed-media materials. Korbel’s use of mixed media is her creative language of expression, offering different perspectives for the viewer to consider.
Korbel’s artwork relates to the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” and she embodies this message when she constructs her sculptures from many different materials she finds.
“It’s interesting to use something in a new way,” Korbel said. “They might only assume that it’s a piece of trash or junk, so they can see it in a new way.”
Her use of color, different materials, and sculpture concepts is all created in a way that can create an illusion for the viewer, according to Korbel.
Her sculpture piece called “Forsaken” is a combination of Christ and Frankenstein’s monster.
Korbel’s reasoning for the piece is to create a scene when two people in history are forsaken by their creators. She felt that her art piece would resonate with audiences by combining the two figures.
Another sculpture that uses color symbolism is the sculpture “Night Dreaming.” The piece is made with cardboard and has a heavy use of blue in it. According to Korbel, the cool-toned blue is associated with certain emotions such as sadness, calmness and seriousness.
“By using the blue and the midnight blue, I wanted it to be evocative of something you might see in your dreams at night,” Korbel said. “If you notice the deer, there is this kind of nighttime sky landscape that’s integrated into the piece.”
The pink flowers in the deer’s antlers add softness and delicacy to the piece, complementing the blue sculpture, making the message more effective.
Art instructors Deborah Karotick and Brian Kohl attended the gallery to observe Korbel’s work.
Instructor Kohl had said he was familiar with her art.
“A lot of planning goes into those shows and this specific show with Debbie Korbel was a show that’s tied to our visiting artists that we have for this semester. Because of that, I had already seen the work that was gonna be in that show,” he said.
One thing instructor Kohl found interesting about the show was the scale of the work. His example of this was the sculptures “The Call” and “Smalltalk” that were at the gallery.
“Being there in person with it, the sense of scaling comes into play, feeling like you’re actually standing next to a horse versus a sculpture of a horse.”
Instructor Karotick reportedly loved the whole idea of them being tied together through a whimsical kind of energy. She said, “Each one of them has a story that whisks you away. I love the idea of something that could have had a whirlwind spin around and kind of become some kind of magical assemblage.”
“Korbel’s themes are really strong and her pieces are so well put together that you can really believe it,” Karotick states.
To view the exhibit and learn more about the gallery, located in the Quadrangle, Room 140 on the RCC campus.
