The Transformers
Seton Hall > News & Events Monday, March 30, 2009
by: Pegeen Hopkins
There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow
spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun. — Pablo Picasso
Some artists have the power to draw an audience into a world of
their own making. They create vivid scenes that invite the viewer to
linger, to soak in the painted environment and study how light plays
off shadow. In their hands, everyday objects take on the aura of
distinctness.
William Hudders and Lauren Schiller are two such
painters.
In the past two years, the works of these artists, both of whom teach
at Seton Hall, have earned high praise. Each has won a prestigious
grant from a well-regarded source and has exhibited work in galleries
throughout the metropolitan area.
We share examples of their work here.
William Hudders, adjunct professor of art, M.F.A., University of
Pennsylvania
Though William Hudders himself is not often in the public eye, his work
appeals to those who are. Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, racecar
driver Mario Andretti and Mrs. Myron Minskoff, the widow of a prominent
New York builder, all own his paintings. Several of his cloud
landscapes appear in the 2005 movie “Bewitched” starring Nicole Kidman
and Will Ferrell, hanging on the walls of Samantha and Darren's Los
Angeles home.
Early in his career, Hudders worked briefly as a painting assistant to
the artist-provocateur Jeff Koons; he also earned an
artist-in-residence spot at Yaddo, the renowned artists colony. In
1996, he was commissioned to create paintings for the Philadelphia
Stock Exchange. Most recently, a grant from the Pollock-Krasner
Foundation for visual artists, started by Jackson Pollock's widow, Lee
Krasner, allowed Hudders to complete the work he showed in the
Beauregard Fine Art Gallery in Rumson last fall.
"Coleman St. Landscape #2," Oil on Canvas
CLOSE-UP | The quality of the light at sundown shining on the trees
next to a neighbor's garage in Eastern Pennsylvania drew Hudders to the
landscape in “Coleman St. Landscape #2.” That his neighbor had left
porch furniture, a canoe and other household items in the driveway only
added to the scene's appeal. “My neighbor always offered to clean up
the area,” Hudders said. “But I told him, `No, no, that's great.' ”
"Urban Landscape #1," Oil on Canvas
The desire for spareness led to “Urban Landscape #1.”
“I wanted to do a simple painting; I didn't want to add any information
to it,” Hudders says. So he painted the view from his studio on New
York's Lower East Side in a style reminiscent of Edward
Hopper.
Lauren Schiller, associate professor of art, M.F.A., University of
Wisconsin-Madison
Food features prominently in Lauren Schiller's work. Images take on
a dreamlike quality: oversized cupcakes hover in midair, a giant Devil
Dog snack teeters against a doorframe, and grains of rice float like
snowflakes over statuettes of a bride and groom. Schiller uses her art,
she says, as a way to explore “relationships between food, family, self
and society” in a style that mixes “subtle humor and social
commentary.”
"Weigh and Measure," Oil/Panel
Both a painter and a printmaker, Schiller was one of 30 artists chosen
in 2008 for a fellowship grant from the New Jersey State Council on the
Arts, and one of three finalists who received perfect scores from the
judges. (A related exhibition will be held April through June at the
Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, located in Summit.) She has shown her
work previously in the Alan Stone, Adam Baumgold and HBO Corporate
Galleries.
"Sloth," Oil/Panel
CLOSE-UP | Schiller's paintings rely heavily on drawing and
image. “I'm not a `painterly painter' whose brushstrokes are apparent,”
she says. The rich scenes she creates are born from dioramas she builds
herself, like tiny movie sets, set to scale. Each one can take weeks to
complete.
Schiller extracts significance from the ordinary. Explaining her choice
of subject matter, she says: “We think of it as fuel, but people have
sacred beliefs about food."
For more information please contact:
Editorial Department
(973) 378-2644
shuwriter@shu.edu
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