BLINN INSTRUCTOR’S ART DISPLAYED AT HOUSTON GALLERY
A Blinn College instructor has blurred the line between historical truth and fiction in his latest gallery exhibition.
A Visual & Performing Arts instructor at the College since 2011, Douglas Cason has created an artistic vision that blends biblical battles with those of the Civil War to highlight similar ideas and problems today. Those works will be on display during his show “Terminal Inexactitudes in Circumlocution” at the Avis Frank Gallery in Houston, which will host an opening reception from 6-8 p.m. Feb. 7. The show runs through March 2.
“I lie about history,” Cason said. “In this particular show, I’m taking ancient battles and overlap them with Civil War battles and presenting them to you as if it’s fact. But I never give you enough information to be certain what I’m putting forth to you is factual.”
Cason applies that concept through various media, including paintings, photographs and book manipulation, in which he blocks out the text of the book and creates an image on the cover to illustrate what he depicts to be the book’s central theme.
“I’ve always been interested in history,” Cason said. “As a kid I had two sets of encyclopedias. In one you’d find information that the other left out, or slightly different information in each one and I never understood that. So if there’s something I took interest in, I studied it quite extensively and it started to roll over into my artwork.”
Cason has held shows across the United States, and some of his work is held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The Visual Arts Program is part of Blinn’s Division of Visual and Performing Arts, which also includes architecture, communication studies, theatre and music. For more information on the Visual Arts Program, visit: www.blinn.edu/finearts/art_dept/index.html.
Image and story courtesy of Blinn College.