GREENFIELD — While speaking to the night’s highlighted artist, one art-goer turned to another and pointed to the piece hanging on the brick wall, above a staircase leading down to the heart of the exhibition, “This is the piece everyone is talking about.”
Johanna Hoogendyk blushed. Last summer, the New York-bound artist began painting a portrait of her best friend on a life-size canvas. After months of work on the oil painting and creating a bit of a buzz on campus — it was now prominently displayed at the Greenfield Community College’s annual art exhibition, which can be viewed for the next three weeks.
“I’ve always been assuming that no one is commenting on it and she’s been punching me in the shoulder and saying ‘you idiot, everyone’s been commenting on it,’” Hoogendyk said, in referring to Hannah Chase, her best friend who sat for the painting.
Over the course of the annual art exhibition kickoff event, it would become clear to Hoogendyk how popular her painting was to the public. A couple hundred people walked through the exhibition space that featured the top work from the various art classes the department holds for its marquee event.
People would come up to Hoogendyk to inquire on its price or tell her it deserves to be in a museum. In the fall, Hoogendyk will be heading to New York to pursue a Master’s of Fine Arts in painting.
Others though went up to Chase, explaining their adoration for her self-portrait. Over and over again she’d have to dismiss the praise. “Oh no, I love you. You’re my teacher. But it’s not me,” who painted that work, Chase would say.
Instead Chase was the one who sat for the painting. She sat for over three months and for hours at a time. Painted in a pink dress and white apron upon a stool, Chase would come into the art studio at the college in the winter with her hair up in a bun, sandals on and sit there in the outfit.
“No, I’m never going to wear that dress again,” Chase said.
The painting can seem something like a page out of “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Over time Chase explained the mixed emotions she felt: embarrassment to pride to jealousy and back to pride.
“At first she felt self conscious,” Hoogendyk said. “Then later it was something not of herself.”
The portrait would turn inward: “I see it more that it’s her now. It’s me but it’s more her,” Chase explained. When looking at the painting quickly, one could easily mistake it for a portrait of one over the other, if they were not familiar with either. The painting is also the face of the exhibition’s postcard.
“It’s unique in terms of its scale,” Art Department Chair Paul Lindale said. “There’s a sense of an intimate relationship.”
Lindale also discussed the exhibition’s spotlight of the top works across all of the university’s art classes. He said the age range of the work presented goes from 16 to 80. It also includes Chase’s more abstract work, which uses extra scraps of canvas from Hoogendyk as her own canvas.
The exhibit also includes various forms of realistic and abstract paintings, a collection of photography and an installation of sculpture work, including one set challenging the slave narrative of America.
“This is our major open community event of the year,” Lindale said. “It’s really a way of exposing the art department and what we do to the local community.”
During the exhibition there was also live music headed by department chair Matthew Shippee. It was the opening event of the season for his students, who played an array of light jazz and popular covers.
Every year, the music department helps to set the mood for the art exhibition.
“It’s informal enough to feel fun,” Shippee said. “The audience is here to enjoy the arts. It’s a unique group of people.”
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264