by Summer Proffer, Art Instructor at Grove Public School
Is that a scene from Stranger Things, Season 4? Nope. It is an example of architecture.
The places you’ve lived, worked, and even shopped are all different buildings and spaces that make up the story of our modern lives. From gas stations to galleries, our life is spent moving from one place to another, but do we ever stop to look at where we are? Do we stop and look at the details - the features that make these places unique?
The new exhibit at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art, From Ancient Ruins to Skyscrapers: Architecture in Art, will challenge you to see what you may not have even known was there. You can take a trip through the architecture-focused artworks and be transported to different places and times all throughout history. Every building, large and small, can impact our lives.
For example, a building is doing its job if it is serving the purpose it was designed for. In the painting, N. Pennsylvania Ave. at Britton Road by James Barnes, I can’t help but enjoy how the artist has not only created a realistic scene, but also given it a twist by allowing the brushstrokes to be visible, giving the painting a dream-like quality.
And just look at those gas prices! Unleaded for only $1.08 or $1.11! That takes me back… to simpler times when the highlight of the day was riding your bike to your friend’s house and jumping on their trampoline with all the neighborhood kids until the streetlights came on. Wow, do I really wish those gas prices would make a comeback!
Let your imagination take you back even further still. What would it be like to sit
underneath the Roman columns in the painting Roman Ruins by Giovanni Panini. Wandering around the ruins of this Greco-Roman structure, you might feel very small sitting below the vast columns while you gaze up at the decorative capital at the top of each one. What are those men doing in that painting?
How can we learn about and appreciate these magnificent works of architectural art? We need to slow down and look. The next time that you are outside, take a few moments and look for the details of a building. Look at the colors. Look at the windows and the shapes around them. Pay attention to any curves or swirls you see in the details of the walls, windows and floors. Notice the materials that structures are made of; craftsmanship can take many different forms. Is the design balanced with symmetry or it is off balance with odd numbers of details instead of even? Many of those details are done by hand, especially if the structure is very old. How long did those elements take to carve or inlay? In some cases, these processes can take weeks, months, or even years.
Let’s have some fun with a classic building idea. Get out your trusty playing cards or Uno! ™ deck and take a few minutes to try your own hand at some architecture, and build a house of cards. Have kids? Show them how to do it. Many children these days spend so much time in front of a screen they don’t know what a house of cards is, so show them. As a helpful hack, get some playdough and make a flat pancake-like foundation on a plate or flat surface and then gently press your playing card walls down into it. With this foundation, you may discover that your house of cards stands even taller and longer. Feel free to sculpt people or details. Maybe throw in a Hot Wheels™ car and see if it will fit, or design your entire structure as a garage for one. Be sure to take a photo of the finished art and the artist to commemorate this magnificent achievement! Perhaps you could divide the deck in half and have a contest to see who can make the tallest house, or the house with the most details, or make their house the fastest. Be creative and enjoy the process.
The new From Ancient Ruins to Skyscrapers: Art in Architecture exhibit, and the whole permanent collection of the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art, is now absolutely free to enjoy in June, July, and August thanks to the Ad Astra Foundation, Avedis Foundation, BancFirst, and St. Gregory’s Abbey. The MGMoA is located on the OBU Green Campus at 1900 West MacArthur, Shawnee, OK 74804. Sometimes the museum can be hard to find on campus, but keep searching. It is worth every minute. If you do get lost, check out the amazing architecture of the buildings that you are passing by. There is some amazing architecture in real life ready to be enjoyed there too!
