Mount Vernon alum and now national artist Christine Rebhuhn held a gallery opening at Abbe Creek Gallery Thursday, July 9, and an artist talk Saturday, July 11.
The artist talk was led by Laurie Zaiger, Rebhuhn’s art teacher at Mount Vernon High School.
Rebhuhn’s gallery was called “Beasts of Burden.”
Zaiger started the conversation asking about Rebhuhn’s education journey.
Rebhuhn outlined that she had really connected with her professors in her ceramics post baccalaureate in 2013 from Colorado State University on how to approach art and the medium. She noted her earlier experiences at Kalamazoo College, a small liberal arts college, opened her to a lot of different learning skills that helped on top of her art education.
Zaiger asked about how she developed some of the pieces in the exhibit, which Zaiger called playful.
Some of that was opportunities that Rebhuhn had learned working with other artists in her studio.
“One of the wood pieces came about because I learned how to do some handcarving of wood with chisels to help them on a piece they needed help with,” Rebhuhn said. “They were in an emergency, and they needed artists willing to help and gave me a chisel and said go for it.”
She said some of the pieces in this collection were chiseled out of balsa wood, a soft wood.
“It’s really easy to work with in chiseling, and then through the painting and staining process,” Rebhuhn said.
Zaiger asked about why there is such a playfulness of animals and music in some of Rebhuhn’s pieces, noting the whale and piano statue that hangs at the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center and a few pieces from Beasts of Burden.
Rebhuhn explained in one of the pieces, she was enamored with the duality of a violin bow and an archery bow.
“A lot of my art is seeing life in one form and seeing what play comes from looking at it in another form,” Rebhuhn said.
Zaiger asked about how many projects Rebhuhn is working on at the moment.
Rebhuhn said that she had just finished a lot of projects at once ahead of this exhibit opening.
Zaiger asked about the photo in the center of one of her pieces. Rebhuhn said many of the photos themselves are found art, not necessarily photos she has taken.
“They’re sourced, sometimes in vintage photography, given new life in these projects,” Rebhuhn said.
Zaiger touched on a motif of Rebhuhn’s work, especially animals in the work.
Rebhuhn said one of the photos she has a lot of are dogs with birds in their mouth.
“That has actually come up at some shows where people see some of those images of working hunting dogs and someone says ‘you’re from Middle America, aren’t you?’” Rebhuhn said. “It’s just one of those moments that it’s nice to know you carry things you didn’t realize that connect with others.”
Zaiger asked about some of the aggressive animals paired with musical inspiration that comes from some of Rebhuhn’s pieces.
Rebhuhn said that comes naturally for her in many pieces.
Zaiger asked if that gets to be too off putting in some pieces.
Rebhuhn said she has had people tell her while they’ve loved pieces she has made, but unable to buy them because they had kids or while they loved it, didn’t necessarily want it in their homes.
Zaiger asked about the differences in exhibiting in larger cities compared to someplace like the hometown of Mount Vernon.
“At those larger communities and exhibits, they sometimes have people focused solely on helping set up a new exhibit on staff,” Rebhuhn said. “In Mount Vernon, it’s more the artist doing that themselves.”
Rebhuhn said a week before the gallery opening, she was talking with her dad about what help she needed for the show. By the end of that conversation, her dad had put out a call for the people they were looking for.
“Within a day, I had two people who were there and willing to help, one to help unload, one to help with the install,” Rebhuhn said. “It was so great to connect with these people in my past in a different way.”
Rebhuhn said it’s easier to have more anonymity in shows in larger locations, that she may not know as many people as she does at those openings like one at her hometown.
“But there’s such a great personal quality of showing off what you’ve done at your hometown as well,” Rebhuhn said.