MEDIA CONTACT: Judy Moore at 847-491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu

May 17, 2005

Dittmar Gallery Art Exhibition to Focus on Spirituality of India

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Three Evanston artists who work with various media and styles have something in common. They all were inspired by the great spirituality they discovered during their separate travels through South Asia.

The artistic results of their journeys will be on view to the public from May 12 to June 19 during the art exhibition “Shrines and Sadhus: Inspiration from Travels in India” at Northwestern University’s Dittmar Memorial Gallery, located on the first floor of Norris University Center, 1999 Campus Drive, Evanston campus. The public also is invited to meet the artists during an opening reception that will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at the gallery.

Their fascination with South Asia will be communicated through the intaglio and aquatint etchings and vibrant watercolors of sadhus (Hindu holy men or mystics) and Buddhist monks by Margaret Roche; the shrines, sculptures and prayer flags of Sue Sommers; and a nearly five-foot tall stupa (a dome-shaped Buddhist shrine inspired by those found in Nepal or Tibet) crafted by Sommers’ husband Tor Faegre, a sculptor and carpenter, that will be centered in the Dittmar Gallery.

Roche has visited India, Tibet, China, Bhutan, Burma and Nepal. Sommers and Faegre have traveled to India and Nepal. During their respective journeys, Roche became interested in the holy men of India while Sommers and Faegre drew inspiration from the many kinds of shrines. All three artists’ work gives visual form to their experiences.

Roche carries a pen and paper when she travels on foot, recording her interactions and observations of the holy men she meets in their daily activities in monasteries and temples and shrines. She refers to her pieces as “narrative drawings,” since she usually writes on the drawing some impression or feeling she has at the time. Back in her studio, Roche transforms some of these impressions into limited edition etchings and books weaving stories from these exotic lands with her own imagery.

The exhibition will include a fabric floor sculpture by Sommers titled “Numberless, Faceless, Nameless,” in remembrance of the Iraqis who have died during the current war. She also has created “Faces in the Wind,” 600 prayer flags of faces of American soldiers recently killed in Iraq that she describes as “a prayerful visual reminder of what is too often hidden.”

Also in the show is an assortment of shrines by Sommers of the Hindu goddess Kali and 15 smaller shrines, each with a different theme ranging from a bird’s nest and dragonflies to the Golden lotus, birth and death.

Faegre’s nearly five-foot tall stupa is made of wood, plaster and paper. Sommers’  “prayer flags” will top her husband’s stupa. One of Faegre’s two smaller stupas is made of reeds, and the other is crafted from dogwood sticks.

“In 1980, we lived near a stupa in Katmandu and watched Tibetan pilgrims circle it with prayer wheels spinning,” said Faegre. “It seemed to me that a shrine show centered on India and Nepal must have a stupa, so I made one.”

The Dittmar Memorial Gallery places emphasis on ethnic cultural art, art by emerging artists, art by or about women, artwork by Northwestern undergraduate and graduate art students and traveling art shows. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Admission to the exhibition and the opening reception is free.

For information, call the Dittmar Gallery at (847) 491-2348 or Norris University Center at (847) 491-2300, or e-mail dittmargallery@northwestern.edu or go to the Norris Center Web site at www.norris.northwestern.edu/nbsm_dittmar.php.