ODU Art Faculty in Message in a Bottle: Picturing Maritime Culture in Hampton Roads meet at the Barry Art Museum for a discussion of their works and inspiration.
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Brendan Baylor is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans printmaking, installation, and digital media. Brendan explores the politics of space, uncovering hidden histories and the systems shaping our landscapes. His practice makes visible the unseen costs of economic and political systems, challenging us to rethink our relationship with the world around us.
Brendan uses materials like coal dust and laser engraving to connect his art to the systems he critiques. His work balances information and emotion, addressing urgent environmental and social issues in ways that inspire and provoke.
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Peter Eudenbach uses sculpture, video, installations, and curatorial projects to explore the relationship between function and absurdity while challenging our expectations of the commonplace.
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Melissa Hill’s interdisciplinary work serves as both a mirror and a guide to her own self-discovery and exploration of the human condition. Beginning with themes of family, loss, and memory, Melissa’s artistic journey has evolved into a broader inquiry into the constants-and the changes-that shape our existence. Her work reflects a fascination with both the intimate and the vast, from the smallest atoms to the boundless cosmos. She examines how shifts in perspective transform our understanding of reality and our place within it.
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John Roth is a sculptor whose work distills the essence of his life experience into tangible forms. Drawing inspiration from life’s many facets-travel, relationships, politics, and dreams-John weaves these elements into his art with a passion for object-making that began in his youth. His fascination with scale models of railroads, cars, ships, and planes informs much of his work, giving it a unique sense of precision and nostalgia.
John’s sculptures often explore hybridization and polymorphism, blending elements of reality and imagination to create works that are as thought-provoking as they are visually striking.