Ohio native Debra Priestly makes her way back to Columbus to reveal her most recent cultural creations in a solo exhibition, “Preserves,” through Dec. 6 at the Hopkins Hall Gallery.
Priestly is the featured artist of the Ohio State Department of Art’s 6th Biennial Alumni Exhibition. Her contemporary artwork uses photography as the most important standard of remembrance or things past.
“My art can be interpreted many ways, and that’s the best thing about it,” Priestly said. “I learn more about my work from those that view it because they might see something there I never did before.”
The 41-year-old Priestly’s techniques have evolved from painting to photography to digital imagery as technology has improved over the years. She uses computers to replicate images and places photographs upon paintings to create her original collages.
“Priestly’s works combine fact and fiction to establish new dimensions in old stories,” said art essayist Franklin Sirmans in the introductory essay to Priestly’s exhibition. “See, sense, feel the mysteries of life within her work.”
Her signature pieces use Mason jars collected by her grandmother as a key component to her artistic expression. Different meaningful objects, people and places are enclosed within the confines of the jars to represent the preservation of their memories.
“The jars represent an enclosure for the stories that live within them – within each image,” Priestly said. “The art reminds them of someone, something else. It’s personal for me, yet imaginative at the same time for them.”
After graduating as a fine arts student, Priestly left OSU in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree and traveled to the Pratt Institute in New York City for her master’s. As a professor at Queens College, Priestly hopes to remain in New York to continue her art.
“New York just has that atmosphere, landscape and cultural feeling everywhere you go,” Priestly said.
A resident of New York City’s East Village, Priestly’s strong memories of the Sept. 11 tragedies are evident within her piece, “Strange Fruit #18.” Numerous colored photographs of the aftermath are sealed within Mason jars that remind viewers of the sadness of the events and the strength to carry on.
“Most of my photographs are black and white, memoir of the past,” Priestly said. “But I wanted this particular piece to remain colored because it is still alive, and shallow in our minds.”
One work in the exhibit will catch the eyes of viewers. “Looking Glass #8” takes nearly 100 antique tea cups and puts them in a circular pattern that seems to float in the air.
Debra Priestly’s artwork will be on exhibit at Hopkins Hall Gallery, 128 N. Oval Mall, through Dec. 6. She will also be presenting a lecture at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Wexner Center Film and Video Theater, with a reception following. For more information, call 292-5072.
