Volume 59, Issue 9  - October 16, 2006

Wissinger’s works explore nature
By Marie Melendez
Staff Writer

Marie Melendez/Collegian

This is one of seven porcelain pieces from the Jingdezhen, China, exploration series by Charles Wissinger. It features a representation of the artist’s head.

Many students and members of the community made their way to Charles Wissinger’s opening reception Tuesday in the Richardson Art Gallery.

Wissinger is a professor and art department chair at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Asked to describe his work, he merely replied, “schizophrenic.”

Wissinger’s pieces range from 6-meter-high installations to pieces up to 22 feet wide, with a theme of nature.

“Decline and Resurrection” (stoneware ceramic), is supposed to show the viewer a part of Wissinger’s travels. “There was a huge badland that was so eroded you could actually see dinosaur bones,” Wissinger said about a place in Canada, where he once lived. The badland is depicted toward the top of the piece; the bottom has skeletons, which appear to be dancing, celebrating the Day of the Dead.

Seven pieces from the Jingdezhen, China, exploration series (porcelain) have no particular meaning, but rather are a collection of Wissinger’s works when he was in China. The porcelain used to make the pieces is cone twelve. Wissinger said this type of porcelain is harder and in order to use it, it must be heated at a very high degree.

“I am intrigued by North American cultures’ interaction with nature,” according to the artist’s statement.

His style is spiritual.

“I don’t think artists should be bound by a way of work,” said Wissinger, who doesn’t like to travel to places with any preconceived notions of what to expect in the new land. “I just work with what I got.”

Wissinger said he would like to put a show together with his students at Texas A&M-Kingsville and students at UTB/TSC.

The exhibit runs through Nov. 2. Gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday. Admission is $3.