Chronicles of a Summer Intern 2: The Big Slideshow

Hello again everyone! Welcome to the second installment of “Chronicles of a Summer Intern!” Today I am going to tell y’all (yes, I wrote “y’all” because we’re in Texas and that’s what we do apparently…) about another annual event held at Lawndale called The Big Slideshow, which took place on Wednesday, July 20 and Thursday, July 21, 2011.

This two-night event gives artists that were accepted into The Big Show a chance to talk about their work in more detail. By utilizing a combination of images of earlier as well as current pieces in their presentation, the audience is allowed to enter the mind of the artist for a brief five minutes in time and gain insight into his/her various motivations, influences and artistic processes. And boy, were they varied! The artists who participated in The Big Slideshow displayed an exploration of a range of themes including, but not limited to: nature, mortality, violence, politics, biology, space and feminism. Also, it was interesting for me to finally be able to connect an artist’s face with a particular work of art because for the past few weeks I had no idea what any of the artists looked like in person.

Each evening the talks started around 6pm, and although PowerPoint was involved, it was an informal and casual set of presentations, which kept the night very fluid and upbeat. I think the allotted five-minute time slot pushed some of the artists into either condensing their oeuvre or letting the images speak for themselves. All in all, it was up to the artists in deciding how they wanted to present their work to the audience though.

I liked hearing about the artist Clare Hulfish’s work (see first image below) and was fascinated to find out that she also makes stop animation films in addition to her animal portraits, which you can view at her Vimeo site. Michele A. Zacks work also intrigued me because of its small scale and historical connections. She makes tiny oil jugs that she sometimes places in specific settings, like a treasure chest for example (see second image below).


Clare Hulfish
Year of the Tiger, 2010, Oil on canvas, 10" x 8"
Year of the Rabbit, 2010, Oil on canvas, 10" x 8"
Year of the Dragon, 2010, Oil on canvas, 10" x 8"



Michele A. Zacks
Treasure Chest #6, 2010, Clay, wooden box and sand, 4" x 10" x 6"

It was exciting to hear all the different artists talk about their educational background, and discuss their other work and artistic philosophy because during jurying this kind of information is left out. Thus, the piece has to be strong enough to convey to the juror what the artist is all about and what they are trying to achieve on its own. Now whenever I walk through the Lawndale galleries, I can put almost all of the pieces in The Big Show in a more specific context. I think having this context adds another layer to each work, as well as another dimension to the show itself. I thoroughly enjoyed The Big Slideshow and am looking forward to the artist talks next year!

- Stacy Kirages (summer intern)