Aracely Ruiz, a junior from New York City who regularly volunteers in the community, is no stranger to Bethesda House's meal program for Schenectady's needy.
But even she was surprised by the turnout for lunch on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: more than double the usual number of 65.
Ironically, the reason for the crowd at Bethesda House is that some local agencies were closed on the day that honors the civil rights leader, Ruiz explains.
“Every day should be a special day like Martin Luther King Jr. Day,” says Ruiz. “It's a shame that people tend to help others only during the holiday.”
Ruiz and sophomore Emily McKay coordinate UCARE (Union Community Action Reaching Everyone), a clearinghouse for student volunteer initiatives run out of the Kenney Community Center. On Monday, they organized a corps of students from Union and Schenectady High School to volunteer their time at Bethesda House, Hamilton Hill Arts Center, Family and Child Services of Schenectady and the Eddy Senior Center.
Monday afternoon, about 75 faculty, students and staff attended a commemoration in Old Chapel that included music, recitation of poetry and readings from King's speeches. It ended with the singing of “We Shall Overcome” and a candlelight procession on campus.
Through Feb. 2.
Arts Atrium
“Digging Deeper, Woodcut and Linocut Prints by Rosanne Retz and Carol Sanchez.” Retz, a printmaker from Massachusetts, has had her work exhibited internationally, Sanchez, a printmaker from New Mexico, creates her work from ideas or thoughts taken from nature, which become manifested in her own visual language. Arts Atrium hours are Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends noon to 5 p.m. For information call: 388-6714.
Through Mar. 11.
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial
The Mandeville Gallery presents the annual Faculty Exhibition with works by printmaker Sandra S. Wimer. The exhibition will include a survey of 45 works over the last decade.
Friday, Jan. 19, through Monday, Jan. 22, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Campus film: Meet the Parents.
Saturday, Jan. 20, 1 p.m.
Kenney Community Center, Nott Street and Park Place
Scotia-Glenville Children's Museum Pastime Program presents making pictures with clay, a free event for children ages 6 through 12. For more information or to register, call ext. 6609.
Saturday, Jan. 20, 2 p.m.
Alumni Gym
Swimming vs. Middlebury
Saturday, Jan. 20, 7 p.m.
Achilles Rink
Men's hockey vs. University of Connecticut
Sunday, Jan. 21, 3 p.m.
Memorial Chapel
Arnaldo Cohen, pianist, performs Chopin's Four Ballades, Brahms' Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel, Op. 24, and Bach/Busoni's Chaconne in D Minor. Tickets are $15 ($7 for students).
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Thursday, Jan. 25, 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Schaffer Library Atrium
Book sale.
Thursday, Jan. 25, 5 to 7 p.m.
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial
Opening reception for Sandra S. Wimer – Prints. The Mandeville Gallery presents the annual Faculty Exhibition with printmaker Sandra S. Wimer. The exhibition will include a survey of 45 works over the last decade. Exhibition runs through March 11.
Friday, Jan. 26, 6 p.m.
Memorial Field House
Women's basketball vs. Rensselaer
Friday, Jan. 26, 8 p.m.
Memorial Field House
Men's Basketball vs. Rensselaer
Friday, Jan. 26, through Monday, Jan. 29, 8 and 10 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
Campus film: Pay it Forward.
For centuries, maybe longer, printmaking has been a painstaking art.
The stone lithograph, for example, begins with “graining” a heavy piece of Bavarian limestone, a half-day process in which the printmaker applies ever-finer abrasives to create a smooth pallet for the image.
Then comes the image itself, carefully created with materials containing Carnuba wax, lamp black and soap.
Then the stone is dusted with rosin and talc and chemically processed with a solution of gum arabic and nitric acid. The stone requires two of these “etches” with an overnight resting time between the first and the second etch.
Then comes the ink and water. (Fundamental to printmaking is that grease and water repel; the oil-based ink sticks only to the grease.)
Finally the piece goes to press. And if the printer plans to use multiple inks, the process is repeated for each one.
All along the way, of course, an inadvertent fingerprint, the wrong humidity, a slight slip can wipe out days of work and send the printmaker back to the beginning.
“It's no wonder that printmakers can get frustrated,” said Sandy Wimer, artist in residence, whose show “A Passion for Printmaking” opens Jan. 25 in the Nott Memorial's Mandeville Gallery.
A revolution
Despite all the labor – and frustration – the process of printmaking by hand inspires the creative process, Wimer says. “There is a Zen quality when you're graining the stone, a sort of rhythm you get thinking about the image you are going to create.”
But the days of labor-intensive printmaking may be numbered. Enter the color desktop printer, which for only a few hundred dollars can produce images that rival those produced on hand presses costing $15,000 or more.
“It is a revolution,” Wimer says, “but I don't want to say that too loudly.”
But is this revolution really printmaking?
“Printmaking is all about ideas,” says Wimer. “The computer is like a pencil, an easel, another tool … that's all it is. How you put ideas together is what is most important.”
Wimer emphasizes the importance of students learning the fundamentals of printmaking by hand: “People may challenge me on this, but I think you've got to go through all the practical aspects of printmaking to appreciate the art.”
The formula
“I wished I could just let it go, but it kept tapping me on the shoulder,” Wimer says.
“It” was a formula for photolithography (making prints by exposing photographic images directly to the printing plate). Wimer's mentor, Thom O'Connor, a renowned printmaker and professor emeritus at the University at Albany, had seen the process only twice in his career and urged Wimer to give it a try. His urging launched Wimer on a research odyssey.
The formula called for Ivory Snow flakes. After some fruitless trials, Wimer began to suspect that the soap formula had been changed, a suspicion she confirmed with a call to Proctor and Gamble. So, she found success by putting Ivory bar soap and water through a food processor. Later, she read about a “Marseilles Soap” from France that had been used in 19th-century printmaking. She searched the Internet and found it. Still, the results were not consistent.
The eeriest coincidence took place on a visit to the Smithsonian at a time when Wimer had grown frustrated and decided to forget about the formula for a while. Her nephew, looking at a photolithograph, asked, “Sandy, is this the kind of print your students make?” It was then that Wimer discovered the formula was patented in 1858 by a Boston printmaker and lithographer. When she got home, she looked up the patent, the exact formula her mentor had given her, unchanged after a century and a half.
“I have never experienced anything like this before,” she says. “I am just a person who makes pictures, not a person who does research. To this day, I have not really perfected it,” she adds.
“Sometimes it works. Most of the time, it's not quite right. And I am haunted by it.”
Wimer's “crazy experience” with the formula inspired a series of photolithographs and computer-generated prints that combine images of clouds overlaid with text from the 1858 patent. She calls the series “Out of the Blue.”
The sky
Many of Wimer's prints emphasize the sky, not surprising in that she grew up in Oklahoma where, she says, “the horizon is very low.
“The Gulf Stream produced some very cinematic skies,” she recalls. “The sky seems clearer and deeper, and you grow up always looking at the sky.
“Now in the Northeast, the light is muted and more angular, and the topography narrows the field of vision of the sky,” she says. “I pine away for that sky.”
The women's hockey team hosted “Hockey Night with the Brownies” on January 18 when Brownie Troop 227 from Glenville came to Achilles Rink to skate with the Dutchwomen. This marked the third consecutive year that the seven-year olds have spent an evening with the skating Dutchwomen. The event began when the 18 girls were in Daisy Troop 227.
Players worked with the girls for about an hour and a half, demonstrating the various skills of the game. Activities included tag, shooting, passing, races and skating instruction. Afterwards, the Skating Dutchwomen presented the Brownies with t-shirts, pucks, sticks, programs, bumper stickers and autographs.
This is one of several community outreach activities that the Skating Dutchwomen take part in during the course of their season. The event draws a good number of parents who are thrilled to see how much progress and confidence their daughters develop in one evening of skating with Union's players As for the Brownies, this is the “highlight of the winter,” according to one parent, whose daughter was one of many who planned to wear their t-shirt to school the next day.
Before leaving the Brownies presented head coach Fred Quistgard with a box of
biscuits for his dog, Lexus, explaining that this year's supply of Girl Scout Cookies had not yet arrived.
Union's teams were well represented among this week's UCAA and ECAC awards. Katie Smith was named the UCAA's “Guard of the Week”after averaging 17.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in last weekend's conference split with Hamilton and Hobart. It is the fourth time in as many weeks that a Dutchwoman has been named for a weekly honor (please see the women's statistics page on their web site…C.J. Rodgers was named the conference's “Forward of the Week” as he shot better than 55% from the floor and averaged a double digits in both points (21.0) and rebounds (11.7) as the Dutchmen won two of three games last week. This is the second time in four weeks that a Union player has been named. Rodgers also became the first Union player in quite a while to be named the ECAC Upstate New York “Player of the Week”…Senior forward Jason Ralph (Carp,ONT./W. Carleton Secondary) was selected to the ECAC “Honor Roll” after scoring two goals in the Skating Dutchmen's 5-1 non-league victory over UConn. The win broke an 11-game winless slide, in with the team was 0-9-2, and was Union's first victory since November 25 when it beat Lowell, 5-3.
The men's basketball team will host its annual Alumni Game on Saturday, February 3 at 11 a.m. Those former players who haven't contacted head coach Bob Montana and still wish to play should call him at 518-388-6595 or e-mail him at montanar@union.edu The women's swim team will host the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association championship on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 15, 16 and 17 at Alumni Pool in Alumni Gym.
