Community Faces: Mounted
On Jan. 9, there was one place to see the faces of CSU football
head coach Sonny Lubick, Mayor Ray Martinez, CSU President Larry
Penley and 9 News’ Mike Nelson alongside those of CSU students and
faculty.
The Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art opened its exhibit
“Faces in the Crowd,” 109 clay masks created by community members
from all walks of life. The masks will be on display and available
for silent auction until Feb. 29, when they will be distributed to
the highest bidder.
“We really asked a lot of non-artists, non-art people,” said
Jeanne Shoaff, executive director of the museum. “The key for us
was to figure out that we could involve art in lot of people’s
lives who may not normally be a part of the art museum.
“They’re all supposedly non-artists, but the quality of the
masks are outstanding.”
The museum took the idea from a similar project Sutter VNA and
Hospice does to raise money. Celebrities paint masks, which are
then auctioned off to support the hospice’s projects. Proceeds from
MOCA’s exhibit will fund the museum.
Artists received their masks at the beginning of November and
had approximately six weeks to complete them.
Among the CSU mask painters were Lubick, an art education class
and some faculty members.
Mark Driscoll, CSU’s athletic director, was concerned about his
own artistic talent. In the end, Driscoll’s youngest son completed
the mask, which slightly resembles a CSU football helmet, or a
fan’s face-painted fa�ade.
“He’s the talent. He can draw a straight line and knows the
difference between green and gold,” Driscoll said.
Patrick Fahey, an associate professor in the art department, was
also asked to make a mask, an honor he passed on to 9-year-old
Diana Davis at Cache La Poudre Elementary.
“(I wanted) to incorporate an idea that reflected what it is
that I do,” Fahey said. “One of the things I do is work with people
who want to be art teachers.”
One of Fahey’s pupils is Stephie Morton, Davis’s art
teacher.
“I knew she was the perfect one,” Morton said. “She was so
thoughtful.”
Davis said her mask was supposed to portray the face of a fairy.
She used pieces from Chinese and Native American faces as well as
purple hair to achieve this.
“I wanted to show people something they wouldn’t see every day,”
Davis said.
That is exactly what Fahey wanted.
“I was trying to empower a child, to give her vision to an
audience,” Fahey said.
This goal that is similar to that of MOCA’s.
“Art really is a part of everyone’s lives and it can enhance
your life so much, taking the time to do it,” Shoaff said. “But
even if you don’t do it on a regular basis you use that creativity
in so many other ways in your life.”
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