Graduation
A couple of days ago, I drove down to Salem for Professor Roger Hull’s retirement festivities. During my four years at Willamette University, I was lucky enough to have Hull as my academic advisor even though I was a studio major and he was an art history professor. He is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had, so it was important to me to see him graduate after forty years of giving very fine and very funny lectures.
As part of the celebrations, the curator of the school’s museum Jonathan Bucci and the professor’s wife Bonnie put together a show of portraits of Hull for the art building’s gallery.
Bonnie Hull’s Magic (Portrait of Roger) 2002
I think the portraits are visually appealing even if a viewer doesn’t know the subject, but then again it is my current obsession to see the same person represented by different hands!
Gwenn Seemel
Roger Hull
2003
acrylic on canvas
48 x 34 inches
(detail below)
In any case, I was delighted to have my work included in the show. I created this portrait of Hull for my senior project seven years ago, and I am honored that the professor and his wife recently donated the painting to the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.
I was also happy to see the portraits of Hull continued into the hall and lobby of the building with the help of current Willamette students.
L’s Roger Hull 2010
Of the many faces of Hull, this one stands out to me, both for the portrait itself and for the artist. L’s piece is a gentle commentary on the professor’s long attachement to slides. When I was at Willamette, Hull was adamant about using them, and, at the time, he was in good company. At the beginning of the millenium, the majority of venues and granting bodies also rejected digital images, favoring the expensive and bulky slides well into 2004. That said, every time a fading slide popped up on the screen, Hull would have to explain that the pink tone came from the aging film and that the corner dots did not actually represent a choice made by the artist. By the time L came to the university a few years later, the professor was still using those relics, and, though Professor Hull has since embraced the digital age, I love that L’s portrait celebrates his fondness for the analog world.
L is a new friend. She is graduating this week and she intends to make art for life. She found me through our school’s Alumni Relations, and I am so glad that she did.
After I graduated in 2003, I remember feeling lost. I struggled to find an academic advisor for the real world, someone to replace what Hull had been to me at Willamette. I even asked a number of artists outright if they would be willing to help me figure out post-school life. While most were flattered to be asked, none were inspired to find the time to meet regularly or to take an interest in my work. It could be that the art world suffers from a particularly noxious strain of neophobia (the fear that a newcomer will steal one’s slice of the pie), but I think it had as much to do with me trying to force a thing that can’t be forced. I see now that a mentor-mentee relationship has to develop more organically.
Nevertheless, I was disappointed that I was never able to find someone to give me guidance about the art world. I promised myself that if I was ever approached by a young artist I would try to be the resource I never had. When L and I met last week, I don’t know if she realized how happy she’d be making me, but I do know that it surprised me how satisfying I found it to share some of my experiences with her and answer her questions. A few days later, we attended some of Hull’s retirement festivities together, and doing so somehow brought me full circle. While I won’t ever give up being a student, I am excited to start being a teacher.
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CATEGORIES: - Philosophy - On portraiture - Featuring artists - Events -
