Dick Morrill

Hartwick's Foreman Gallery is currently presenting Dick Morrill: A Retrospective. The artist's presentation is very unique in comparison to past artists that have showed their work at Hartwick College. The canvases were extremely powerful. The colors and texture were incredibly vibrant and compelling due to the mixture of acrylic and oil paints. I also loved that the canvases were large-scale. I prefer larger-scaled paintings because they catch your attention easier. As a matter of fact, I feel that the bigger they are, the bigger the statement.

I was not as much of fan for the sculptures as I was for the paintings. The sculptures were interesting, but they just didn’t catch my eye like the paintings did. Although it was cool to see similar three-dimensional figures that looked as if they came from one of Morrill’s paintings.

My favorite piece of artwork was Operation Theater. I saw a lot of irony in this piece and humor. The irony in the piece is that an actual operating theater is an operating room that also holds seating for hospital residents (ex: Grey's Anatomy often shows the actors and actresses in a operation theater scene). The painting portrays an operation theater as a place to operate and act. A woman is undergoing surgery and several other "actors" are around her. As a matter of fact, the painting may be poking fun at shows like Grey’s Anatomy because the drama surrounds the operation theater in that particular show. I feel this art show was a success, and I think the Foreman Galley should host more artists that are similar to that of Dick Morrill.