MONMOUTH, Ill. — “Rock, Pixel, Scissors,” an exhibition of sculptures, digital images and collages by Galesburg artists Rob and Lori Reed, will be on display Feb. 20 through March 24 in Monmouth College’s Len G. Everett Gallery in the Hewes Library.

A reception for the artists will be held on Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. in the gallery. Both the exhibit and the reception are free and open to the public.

The diverse exhibit will include nine sculpture pieces by Rob, crafted from stone and all done by hand using no power tools. Lori will display a number of collage pieces in fabric and ceramic. Two large digital pieces, six feet wide by two feet high, as well as five smaller pieces will be displayed, accompanied by a computer running a slide show of their digital imagery. Reed Studios, a full-service graphic design and marketing agency, was founded by Lori in 1985.

Lori received a B.F.A. degree from the University of Illinois in 1981 and has served as an adjunct faculty member in the art and journalism departments at Knox College. She is the author of “Technical editing of QuarkXPress 6: Creating Digital Documents,” the official book for Quark-endorsed training programs. It was published in 2003 by Against the Clock, Inc.

Rob joined the business in 1996, and Reed Studios was incorporated that year. He received a B.F.A. degree in studio art from Bradley University in 1966, and an M.F.A. degree in sculpture from Oklahoma University in 1968.

For more than two decades, Rob served as a vice president for advertising for the Dick Blick Co. in Galesburg. He has also served as an adjunct faculty member in graphic design and ceramics in the art and journalism departments at Knox.

Since receiving her degree in graphic design, Lori says she has been working with the design and communication of ideas. “As I’ve moved into creating art for self – rather than for clients – I’m still using those ideas of design and communication, but in ways that are more veiled, loose and playful.”

She recounts that her paternal grandmother was a quilter, so fabric and quilts have been a part of her life and her art. As the daughter of a stamp collector, she became attuned to stamp design at an early age and thus has used stamps of her mother’s in her collages.

Says Rob of his stone carvings, “I like to think of my method of stone carving as a sort of slow-motion version of the Surrealists’ Automatic Writing. In pursuit of a kind of conduit to the subconscious, the surrealist writer would attempt to write down (quickly) whatever presented itself. In trying to analyze what was actually taking place during my stone carving, it seemed that the process was similar to that described above – not in the sense of doing it quickly, but in the sense of trying to tap into a source below (or perhaps outside of) the conscious waking state.”

He added, “The goal is to ‘not over-think’ the process, perhaps even to not ‘think’ at all. It involves releasing control and focusing on process instead of outcome which, it seems, is a good way to conduct one’s life as well.”

The Everett Gallery is open during regular library hours: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to midnight; Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to midnight.

Released by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330