Wayne State College faculty began to display new and past artwork in the Nordstrand Visual Arts Gallery in the Conn Library beginning Oct. 4. Faculty artists featured: Carolyn Albracht, Sarah Lemmon, Francine Fox, Meghan O’Connor and Leroy Von Glan. Gallery Director Andy Haslit curated the exhibit, which will run through Nov. 14.

Fox, assistant professor of art, painting and drawing, uses digital painting processes and traditional mediums to create her influential pieces. Her artwork featured in the display includes a depiction of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire and “Moon Landing,” an illustration of a jumping spider’s view of the moon.

Fox said her inspiration for “Moon Landing” came from an online conversation between astronomers that had a spider problem in their lab. An arachnologist then commented that the spiders were jumping spiders, which have telescopic lens like eyesight. This special ability to see far distances allow the spiders to see the moon in microscopic detail.

Fox included lunaria annua, silver dollars, to the piece because she thought, “Why would a spider look at the moon?” To craft this artwork, she used digital painting and gouache, a painting technique using opaque pigments mixed in water and thickened to a glue-like substance.

Fox utilizes Procreate software on her iPad and uses an Apple pencil to create precise details when producing the digital part of her artwork. She recently got into digital painting and enjoys the control of detail she gets with the Apple pencil because she can zoom in and make infinitesimal lines.

Albracht started in art when her kindergarten teacher thought her depiction of an apple tree was “expletory.” She has regularly exhibited her artwork for the last 20 years, with two to three shows each year. Albracht’s “Oblivion” portrays a little girl with her eyes closed playing in a garden with a full sun centerpiece. Albracht said the little girl is oblivious because her eyes are closed but also the sun is so powerful that it can be oblivion.

To create “Oblivion,” Albracht utilized watercolor and mixed medias with colorful stitching to lighten or darken an area of the painting. She also used Prisma Color Makers and pigment liners to create depth within her work.

Exhibit hours are: Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The display is closed Saturdays and ends at noon on Nov. 14.

To find more information about Fox and view her artwork, visit her website at francinefox.net. For more information contact Dr. Andy Haslit at 402-375-7031 or visit wsc.edu/artgallery for information about this exhibit or upcoming shows.