Exhibition Showcases Artist's View on the Nature of Domestic Life

Douglas Boultinghouse
Arts & Entertainment Editor

Courtesy of Jackie Skrzynski

"Tongue" - New York artist Skrzynski depicts road kill in her paintings. She compared the dead deer to people killed in roadside bombings.

   The University of Arkansas at Monticello’s Art Gallery features an exhibition by New York artist Jackie Skrzynski. Skrzynski’s exhibit in the Fred J. Tayor Library and Technology Center showcases original drawings and paintings.

   The ten pieces included in the showing describe Skrzynski’s view of the feral nature of domestic life. The work ranges in size from letter-sized to wall-sized.

   Some of the pieces depict humans, such as the drawings “Black Eyed Susan (I’m so Happy)” and “Winter Ivy” or the painting “Boy Kills Snake.” Each contains vibrant colors in certain places to add a desired appeal.

   Professor of Art Tom Richard released an e-mail advertising the exhibition. He described the pieces as, “Depicting the human figure within mythological allusions, landscape elements, and organic forms while showing the artist’s interest in complicating notions of domestic roles of humans.”

    In Skrzynski’s release statement, she defines “Boy Kills Snake” as a parallel between simple experiences of a child and grand mythological events.

   “Here a boy holds a garden hose, but it actually turns into a snake,” she said. “To me, his act references the myth of Cronus castrating Uranus, but it could be more broadly interpreted.”

   A larger portion of the exhibition makes up a section titled “Road Kill.”

   Six pieces feature deer killed along the road. The section includes “Small Red Eyes,” “Warm Milk,” “Tongue,” “Swollen,” “Frozen” and “Flies.”

   Skrzynski’s methods of painting or sketching the deer seem unique, but she held a message behind the images.

    “As I would listen to the news while driving, I would hear about roadside bombs, people mourning loved ones killed in war who were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said in her statement. “I would pass the deer on the road and see the comparison. I simply felt compelled to draw them.”

   She stopped, stood over the deer, sketched it and took a photograph for later reference.

   “Each deer has a presence,” she said. “I smell them, hear the insects, feel the danger of the traffic rushing by.”

   In her artist statement, she described the deer road kill as an act of both homage and exploitation that underscores the nature of violence.

   She defined her work as being engaged with the physical qualities of the materials used with intentions to entice the viewer with visually compelling work.

   “Ultimately, I am engaged in the act of mark-making,” she said. “Both process and imagery come together to describe the tension between two psychological places, one of control and one of instinct.”

   Skrzynski’s exhibition remains on display through Feb. 27; open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

  For more information, contact Tom Richard at richardt@uamont.edu or visit Skrzynski’s Web site.

Have a comment? Please e-mail us.

©The Voice 2008