Great Hall features digital art exhibit

The first solo art exhibition at Springfield’s brand new art gallery is now open to the public.
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Published May 25, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Great Hall features digital art exhibit By Christian Avard Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — The first solo art exhibition at Springfield’s brand new art gallery is now open to the public. Gloria Merritt’s “Changing Gears” premiered last week at The Great Hall gallery located inside the former Fellows Gear Shapers Building. The exhibit features 15 digital art pieces made from electronic images, a virtual brush and paint, and then laminated on canvas. Merritt’s works show intricate patterns and drawings commemorating local culture, science and modern art. Merritt, an accomplished painter from the Woodstock area, was trained in traditional art techniques and materials, but unexpected events in her life led her in a different direction. Merritt injured a tendon in her hand that required occupational therapy. With her limited abilities, she bought a Tablet Stylus and a laptop and experimented with digital art. Merritt continued her digital art work and her talents led her to a solo art exhibition. “Without that accident, I might not have expressed myself through digital art as much as I have,” Merritt said. “Every generation invents a new artistic technique. They use different mediums that express a new concept or the feelings of that particular time. I think digital art is the most contemporary of contemporary art. This is what everyone’s doing now.” According to Merritt, digital art is expressed on paper, canvas or video. Most of her works are on Giclee prints, which are prints made from a pigment as opposed to ink. “It’s like a monitor or a television set will pick up electronic impulses and make a picture on the screen,” Merritt said. “The pigment is archival quality. It doesn’t fade with the light. It stays attached to the medium and my works were done on canvas except one which is water-colored paper.” Merritt’s primary work is “Changing Gears,” a triptych portrait of a model designed by Henry Swierczynski of Springfield. Swierczynski’s model is a series of gears that were made in the former Gear Shapers Building. Merritt photographed the gears and transplanted the images on a computer screen. The end result was repeating patterns of gears, rolled around in a pigment and applied to the canvas. Another piece “The Butterfly Effect” is an homage to Massachusetts Institute of Technology meteorologist Edward Lorenz. According to Merritt, Lorenz recognized chaotic behaviors of weather systems, where small differences in a dynamic system trigger vast and unsuspected results. Lorenz called it the “The Butterfly Effect” and Merritt applied the phenomenon to her piece. In her painting, Merritt shows vibrations in the butterfly’s wings that appear symmetrical but in reality they are not. “If you examine chaos closely, you see patterns that form and reform in the painting,” Merritt said. “I think it’s a marvelous medium. People should understand, you don’t just go on a computer. It takes a long time to learn how to do it.” The “Changing Gears” exhibit is on display at The Great Hall until Aug. 23. For more information, call 258-3992 or visit www.gloriakingmerritt.wordpress.com. The Great Hall is in Gear Shapers Building at 100 River St. in Springfield.