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<td width="343" valign="bottom"><p class="date"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="date" --><a href="default.html">3/17/04• Vol.
128, No. 23</a><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></p></td>
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<h1><font size="6">Everyday Art</font></h1>
<p class="subhead">Professor turns normal objects into expressive works
of art</p>
<p class="byline">By Danielle MacMurchy</p>
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<p align="justify">Although smaller than some of Reichert's other
pieces, "Moment, the first sculpture patrons will see when they
walk in the door is indicative of the professor's style—using
everyday pieces of material to create expressions of art.</p>
<p class="byline">-Photo by Jeff Criesi</p>
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<p>Worn-out shoes, tattered wood, rusty shovels and an antique lawn mower
are not elements typically associated with art. Yet Fresno State Art
Professor Raphael Reichert uses these mundane objects to create expressive
sculptures. These vintage materials turned brilliant will be featured
in Dust Works, an art exhibit in the Conley Art Gallery, now through
March 28.</p>
<p> As far as the material chosen for Reichert’s works, he said he
creates his art out of anything. Some of the material used relates to
Reichert in some way or another. Several of his sculptures include various
pieces of railroad tracks. This, he says, refers to his childhood memory
of walking the tracks.</p>
<p> While the artist pours his experience and perspective into his art,
the viewer also comes with a perspective. “Everyone brings their own
baggage to every experience,” Reichert said. “To some a work
of art may be ineffective; while to others it could give them a whole
new way of looking at the world.”</p>
<p> Fresno State senior Christopher Lessley identified with the masculinity
and the humor of Reichert’s art. “His art work is humorous
and direct, and very manly,” Lessley said.</p>
<p> Lessley noted how almost every sculpture was formed from heavy objects.
Reichert said that he did not necessarily intend for the exhibit to have
a masculine feel. “It’s an offshoot of me wanting to make
things to last,” he said. “In the exhibit, things are real
durable and nothing is real soft.”</p>
<p> As a person walks through the gallery, even the background music is
heavy. The music heard is by Philip Glass from the film The Hours. “Music
is a very important part of the show,” Reichert said. “I
designed [the music and the art] together.”</p>
<p> Reichert said he hopes his show will express a sense of time. </p>
<p> “
I’ve seen a lot of things come and go here,” said Reichert,
who began teaching at Fresno State in 1971. “I’ve seen the
effects of time.”</p>
<p> Reichert said he hopes viewers of his art will walk away with a sense
of the influence time has on things and people. His sculpture, “When
I was your Age,” does just that. The project began when a friend
of Reichert brought him a rusty, old lawn mower he had found. As Reichert
was rebuilding the lawn mower, he began thinking about how, “every
age has its own ‘generational myth’ about how rough we had
it,” Reichert said. The sculpture illustrates the mower slicing
through a lawn of rocks and steel grass. Anyone with a grandparent can
relate to, “When I was your Age.”</p>
<p> Some students may be drawn to Reichert’s work “Cold Sweat
in 101.” The piece is made up of four, 5-foot tall stacks of picture
slides. “Art History students would know exactly what I was talking
about,” Reichert said. “This piece is dedicated to the over
7,000 students who sat in my art history courses and weathered the seemingly
infinite array of image and fact.”</p>
<p> Reichert has also taught at the University of Wyoming, the University
of British Columbia and the University of Victoria. After 33 years
and more than 7,000 students, Reichert said he plans to retire at the
end
of this semester, but would still like to teach every other semester
and continue to produce his unique sculptures.</p>
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