The Edges of What I Feel, an exhibition by the Healing Artist Collective curated by recently retired George Mason University professor Peter Winant, features the artwork of an eclectic group of Mason School of Art students, staff, and alumni. The diverse group of artists participated in the exhibition with the common goal of healing.
One of the featured artists, Mason alum Michelle A. Smith, is a surviving military spouse, and she said the exhibition allows her to express the pain of losing her husband.
"I'm confronting and expanding on the emotions of grief and loss with this exhibition. It's a difficult question without a definitive answer," said Smith, who graduated from Mason in 2021 and recently received a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) Fellowship.
“Through art, through the healing, it is cathartic for me to deal with these processes,” said Smith, who draws inspiration from nature. “I feel like the people who see what I'm doing might not know the whole backstory, but they don't have to in order to make a connection, feel something, to be able to put themselves in that space.
Smith is particularly fascinated by seeds and their processes and potential. Seeds are both creative and destructive, just like people, said Smith, whose work makes that connection between nature and humans, and seeds and souls.
“Michelle has an experience that is beyond imagination for somebody like me,” said Winant, who retired from Mason on June 1. “Much of her work has been autobiographical; exploring herself and areas within that were brought about through traumatic experience. In the making of that work, there's always something that requires a huge amount of personal courage and I really admire her for that.”
Featured artist and alum Steven Luu served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years as a combat medic. Using materials such as concrete and epoxy resin, Luu addresses the concept of death in his work.
“In the war zone, [there are] dropping bombs and debris flying everywhere. So, I had a horrible experience with concrete, and now I really don't like concrete. But this project is how I make peace with the concrete. I'm actually OK. I'm revisiting it. I transformed my past into this material that [traumatized me], and now I’ve become a viewer. So, I'm no longer carrying it with me,” he explained.
Luu and Smith are pioneers in many ways, said Winant.
Luu wrote to Winant in 2016 asking to be an art student at Mason. “I wasn't an artist at the time, I was a medic, but Peter said that I have the attitude [of an artist] and that changed my life forever. So, I'm very grateful for that,” said Luu, adding, about Winant: “He’s not just a professor, but a friend and mentor.”
“It's been such a privilege to work at George Mason; for me to grow as the university has grown, and to be a part of something that's just an amazing story,” said Winant.
Other artists featured in the exhibition include CJ Davis, Moe Lewis, Liz Louise, Abdulrahman Naanseh, Alanna Rivera, Adrian Scalzo, and Tessie Van Dyke.
The Healing Artist Collective exhibition, The Edges of What I Feel, will be featured through August 26. To see more School of Art events, visit their page.