Brown’s annual “After Hours” staff exhibition, which displays select artworks by Brown staff members, will be open in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts until Feb. 19.
The exhibition, which is hosted by the Brown Arts Institute, showcases staff members’ creative undertakings outside their full-time positions at Brown, according to BAI Curatorial Coordinator Kate Hao.
Due to limited space, staff artists submit pieces to be evaluated and showcased in the exhibition by the BAI committee, said featured staff artist Corey Fitzgerald, a licensed mental health counselor and outreach coordinator at Counseling and Psychological Services.
The exhibition currently displays a variety of mediums, from photography to still-life paintings to pottery.
Fitzgerald is one of many staff artists whose work highlights their cultural and familial lives. His pottery piece, titled “Echoes of Omashu: Infusing Blackness in ATLA,” includes two bookends covered in a series of etchings — called sgraffito — inspired by the chutes in the Earth Kingdom from the animated show “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
To Fitzgerald, the kingdom of Omashu represents connection.
“I really like the idea of infusing Blackness through an idea of community and connection,” Fitzgerald said. “Being Southern and Black and also being raised by a grandmother (meant) community was huge.”
Fitzgerald, who also displayed a pottery piece in last year’s exhibition, emphasized the importance of balancing work with hobbies and passions.
“I allow myself to be not that great at (pottery),” he said, adding that work is easier “when you have passions and hobbies that you don’t need to make money off of.”
Geeta Jakkaraju, a learning designer at the Sheridan Center for Learning, is another staff artist whose work — “Echoes of Tribal Life - Warli” — is inspired by folk art. Warli painting is a tribal art form from India, famous for its distinct stick-figure patterns.
“What I’m hoping for is when viewers are looking at my art, it evokes a sense of joy and calmness,” Jakkaraju said.
“I also want to have them connect to the stories I’m telling through my artwork,” she added, referring to the three subtitles under her painted vases, titled “Nature,” “Community Connection” and “Everyday Life.”
Jakkaraju, who started painting vases in 2022, conducts painting workshops on the weekends.
Jerrie Lyndon-Sylvia, an ArtsCrew member at BAI, has a piece in the exhibit depicting the vine of a pumpkin.
“I felt that there was so much movement in that moment,” she said. “Almost like a human-like emotion of attachment to something.”
