Dream kaleidoscope of color demands attention

Works from local artist Annette Coleman, like her "Temptation Redemption," are on display in the UMC Gallery. Image supplied by artist.

At one time or another, almost every little girl has had a mood ring. The colors ranging from deep blue to orange were mesmerizing and a source of constant amusement. One local artist has taken this medium and moved it into her own creative world.

Annette Coleman’s art uses a heat sensitive film that changes color in the same way that mood rings do. Each painting that uses this medium is done on a metal canvas.  Behind the canvas, Teflon-coated wires connect to a heater that cycles through different temperatures, creating a kaleidoscope of colors.

“I wanted to make a new color,” Coleman said. “ I have used every color I could think of, including fluorescents.”

Coleman said the inspiration for her work comes from her dreams, but she doesn’t start with those images. Her pieces use a technique of layered images and colors that form a single coherent piece. A Coleman painting starts with “almost an abstract expressionism,” she said.

First she begins to layer paint until she sees that the canvas is ready for the images. Coleman’s art is a form known as collage, which is where pre-existing images are taken, arranged and melded into a new piece that is unique to the artist. The images that Coleman uses to put her dreams to canvas are taken from a multitude of sources: design books with multi-cultural influences, woodcuts from old books and even simple things like a list of old library-like date stamps.

Images that she takes from these books are stretched, distorted, and changed until they resemble the dream that she is expressing on the canvas. Only when everything is laid out to her satisfaction does Coleman declare a piece done.

If a piece looks as if it needs something, even long after completion, Coleman will change it so her creative idea is correctly expressed.

When a student thinks of a piece of art in a gallery they often think of something static and stuffy that simply hangs on a wall, a piece that only asks for minimum attention. It’s an ADD world where people expect to switch from thing to thing, but Coleman’s work, with its dream-inspired images and dynamic colors, demands attention.

“I want somebody to be engaged longer than three or four seconds,” said Coleman as she showed one of her pieces called “Dream Compilation.”

The painting has a checkerboard pattern, and the film lightens to reveal small images in each square, almost like you’re looking through a window. With so much detail, Coleman achieves her goal with a piece that a viewer can spend hours looking at without losing interest.

When asked if art was important, sophomore English major Jessica Manuszak said, “It’s a luxury rather than a necessity.”

To many students art is something that is out of their grasp; other forms of entertainment and activities take precedence in life. Coleman’s work, an example of which is on display at the UMC art gallery, is accessible to students.

“Art can be something that isn’t precious,” Coleman said.

It’s the little things that inspire, like noticing the color-changing ring on a teenager’s finger. “The way a coffee cup fits in your hand,” Coleman pointed out, is an everyday artistic inspiration.

Coleman urges students to take a moment to be inspired and students agree.

“Art is in [your] everyday life without thinking about it,” said Megan Buckles, a freshman open-option major.

Coleman’s work and the work of other local artists are on display now at the UMC art gallery, located on the second floor near the information desk. For more information and pictures of Annette Coleman’s artwork visit her Web site. For more information on Boulder Open Studios, the collaboration of artists currently exhibiting works in the UMC art gallery, visit their Web site.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ana Faria at [email protected].

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