The current Coburn Gallery exhibit features art created by faculty members George Kocar, Priscilla Roggenkamp, Dan McDonald, Cynthia Petry, Charles Caldemeyer, Jessica Maloney, Keith McMahon, Larry Schiemann and Keith Dull.

One of the many individuals whose artwork can be seen in this year’s faculty art exhibition is Jessica Maloney, who has key advice on how to keep the art in artwork.

“Keep yourself inspired,” she said. “Do something that is totally selfish.”

Maloney’s work, titled “Verge: Expanding, Verge: Crossing, Verge: Embarking, Verge: Deciding and Verge: Positioning” includes five individual paintings.

Similar to most artists, Maloney’s work is influenced by life experiences. For this particular work of art, changes in Maloney’s personal life motivated her to create this piece.

“People are always on the verge of something; it started when I was single and now I am engaged. The process is multi-layered so it’s hard to put a time limit on my work,” Maloney said. “For each piece, it could take up to a week, but it depends.”

Before the paintings were hung up in the gallery, Maloney had not envisioned them in a specific order. It was not until Cynthia Petry, director of the Coburn Gallery, arranged the piece to fit her own personal take on Maloney’s message that an order was found.

Priscilla Roggenkamp’s piece complements Maloney’s. Displayed beside each other, both works of art share earth tones that “make you want to touch it,” Maloney said.

Dan McDonald commented on the similarities between some artists’ work.

“I think we all tend to bounce ideas off of other artists, but I don’t think we technically influence each other,” he said.

Roggenkamp used a mixture of earth tones in her first fabric piece in three years. Designed from 1930’s patterns and thrift store clothing, Roggenkamp’s piece, “Today: Theme and Variation” and “Turn, turn, turn” is designed to look as real as normal garments would look.

“The piece has two separate parts, one being the parts of us that stay the same forever, from the time we’re young to the time we’re old. Two being that we have so much baggage and ideas that stay with us and others,” Roggenkamp said.

When the piece was first drawn out in mid October, Roggenkamp originally envisioned the piece to be all one color, but after finding different fabrics, the designs have been coming together since November.

“All fabric that I have done has come from identity; this piece is very different from my other work,” said Roggenkamp as she identified her motivation for the piece.

McDonald’s eclectic piece, “Sons (o) men,” was originally motivated by the off-putting reaction to finding out he and his wife were expecting their second child after six years.

With his Mormon upbringing, the title of the piece was inspired by early Mormon speculations – “speaking in tongues,” as McDonald said.

The sculpture itself stands seven-and-a-half feet tall and each section only weighs about five pounds. In relation to his wife’s pregnancy, McDonald included an ultrasound photograph as well as the original pregnancy test that concluded positive.

The exhibition opened Thursday, Jan. 13, and will run through Friday, Feb. 4. It is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.