photo by Chrissy Zehrbach
Campus Times
March 4, 2005
Traveling through New Mexico on sabbatical in September inspired Babette Mayor’s art series “Southwest Metaphor,” now on display in the University’s Irene Carlson Gallery on the ground floor of Miller Hall. Mayor attended the reception held last month, answering questions and talking about her work with senior Wendy Schwartz. A professor of art at Cal Poly Pomona, Mayor created her images using color negatives, Adobe Photoshop and an inkjet printer. The exhibit runs through March 18.
As spectators walked down the stairs of Miller Hall, an image of haunting beauty leveled with their gaze. An American flag with a feather’s silhouette underneath it introduced them to a progressing world that contains an unforgettable past.
This illustration was only the first of a series that greeted students, staff and guests at Babette Mayor’s art reception last month in University of La Verne’s Carlson Gallery.
Primitive houses, missions and Native American symbols that are layered with “all American” street signs stretched across the gallery’s hallway in an exhibit titled “Southwest Metaphor.”
Mayor, chair of the art department and professor of art and graphic design at Cal Poly Pomona, portrayed a visual contrast and the ironic dependence between history and commercialism in the American culture.
Inquisitive spectators asked the artist questions and developed their own interpretations of Mayor’s intriguing art work.
“It’s just sort of a splash of so many things coming at you,” said Maria Villalpando, freshman international business and language major.
Kevin Holland, photography department manager, was drawn to the illustration “Trinity Café” that portrayed a simple house-like wooden structure that has a mushroom cloud in the window with a blue background that is embossed with a segment of a dollar bill.
“I like that fact that it’s relatively simple,” Holland said. “The subject is straightforward.”
Another favorite was “The Skull” which showed a bull’s skull mount on a rock with George Washington’s face peering out of the eye socket.
At her exhibit Mayor pointed out that Native Americans have the highest record of military service in the U.S. even though the white man has driven Native Americans from their own villages.
Her sabbatical in September dictated the composition and development of her illustrations that revealed the struggles with power, religion and human rights seen in America.
The white man brought in diseases and alcohol, and as a result,, the Indians continue to suffer from the drinking problems that the white man introduced him to.
“Every place you want to travel to has its own history,” Mayor said.
Yelena Ovcharenko can be reached at lenchik02@aol.com.