Within the Ruth Foster Art Gallery at UW-Eau Claire a colorful exhibition can be found. The paintings, sketches and sculptures are all inspired by one retired art professor: Anders C. Shafer.
According to the short publication (freely available at the gallery and containing a multitude of information about Shafer and other examples of his craft), Shafer served as an art professor at UW-Eau Claire from 1968 to 2001 and from 2003 to 2011. Even after retirement, Shafer plays an important role in the arts community of the Chippewa Valley.
Anna Zook, the curator of “Meter & Medium: A Visual Festschrift of Anders C. Shafer,” said that Shafer and his wife, Barbara Shafer are both still active in creating art. They go to their studio in Eau Claire each week and love to see visiting students.
Shafer’s paintings, graphite art and sketches make up a large portion of the exhibit. In addition to his work, pieces by his students also shape the collection.
“A festschrift often gathers writings in the form of a book to celebrate a scholar during their lifetime,” Zook said in her curatorial statement. “It seems a proper word choice for an exhibition that celebrates not only the work of an artist, but his influence on students throughout his storied career as a professor at UW-Eau Claire.”
The other artists featured are Cameron Anderson, Rebecca Crowell, David Knowlton, Barry Krammes, Mary O’Leary, Andrew Ritchie, Tim Seeley, Marc Zapchenk, Franklin Zetzman and Lynn Zetzman. In this group of diverse artists, Shafer’s legacy grows.
“It seemed like the right time, to me, to tell the story, when so much art is becoming very fast,” Zook said. “I wanted students to see a slower, methodical process, which I think all of the artists in this exhibit learned from Andy.”
Zook said that each time she spoke with the other artists whose work is featured in the exhibit, they emphasized Shafer’s work ethic. The stories of Shafer’s dedication to his work and students are shared in panels around the exhibit, demonstrating the impact that one person can have on countless other lives.
“You can see the echoes of his influence in everything from Tim Seeley’s comics and graphics to the giant ship and the train in David Nowlton’s piece and Mary’s self-portrait,” Zook said.
Shafer’s influence and artistry also venture beyond the visual arts.
“The ‘Meter and Medium’ title — I chose that as a title because I wanted to express that it was not only the art … the meter refers to Andy as a poet,” Zook said.
Shafer has published several books, including a collaboration with his daughter, Ariel Shafer, and “The Fantastic Journey of Peter Bruegel,” a picture book on display at “Meter & Medium.”
To further celebrate this book and the journey Shafer took to create it, Zook made a curatorial choice. Near the entrance to the exhibit, visitors will find several of Shafer’s sketches, which capture Bruegel’s extraordinary life and time even in the earliest stages of refinement.
“I want people to continue making things with their own hands, because art, our ideas, are important,” Zook said. “How we see the world is important. I think Andy really embodies that.”
At the end of the discussion of Shafer and his mentees, Zook said that Barry Krammes created two multimedia pieces especially for “Meter and Medium.”
In her musings on Krammes’ artistic choices, the curator reached the emotional center of the festschrift.
“I love that he used this Tarkovsky quote: ‘The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plow and harrow his soul, to render it capable of turning to good.’ Which I think is an important message,” Zook said.
This quote is found in Krammes’ artist statement, and is attributed to Andrei Tarkovsky, a Russian filmmaker who lived from 1932 to 1986.
“I think it’s one that really comes out in this exhibit because I think it does challenge us, and hopefully makes us better people, because I think that engaging with art makes us better people,” Zook said. “And we could use some better people.”
Crist can be reached at [email protected].
