An exhibition of paintings, drawings, and prints by Walter Hatke, May I. Baker Professor of Fine Arts, is in the Nott Memorial's Mandeville Gallery through March 13.
“Walter Hatke: Recent Work” features works completed by the artist between 2000 and 2005.
Hatke, who has taught at Union since 1986, earned his bachelor's degree from DePauw University, and his master's and MFA degrees from the University of Iowa. His works have appeared recently in the John Pence Gallery, San Francisco; Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe; and at MB Modern Gallery in New York.
The following poem by Jordan Smith, professor of English, was inspired by Hatke's “Open.” It appears in “A Sketchbook for Walter Hatke” that accompanies the show.
The door to the pew is open, as if a congregant had just
Left a moment ago, slipping quietly outside, as if the sermon
Came a little too close to home, or prayer seemed simpler somewhere
Else, a cigarette sheltered in one hand, out there among the trees,
Where smoke might rise in praise of breath's dispersal into
A fine sky, where someone unexpected might be listening. Still,
The door is open, the emptiness welcoming, and the wood's
Grain is another kind of meaning that has lasted a long time
Despite the rectitude of the white paint, this record of what living
Leaves behind: the fine whorls of the world always, almost
Just gone, and so without end, amen.