Author: Teresa Eilers
At Occidental we are fortunate to have access to a liberal arts education, as well as to masterminds in all areas of academia. One such expert is Professor Linda Lyke of the Art History and the Visual Arts department (AHVA). In addition to producing her own vibrant pieces, Lyke teaches sculpture, printmaking and color composition to Oxy’s students. Her work explores various mediums, including printmaking, multicolored abstract monotype and mixed media.
Lyke’s “The New Ruins” series graced the walls of the Eagle Rock Center of the Arts during the Eagle Rock Music Festival. Her exhibited pieces epitomize Lyke’s style. In them, she experimented with vibrant colors and bold lines while examining “the perilous relationship between nature and civilization.” One of Lyke’s boldest pieces is entitled “Macondo Rig,” which depicts the devastation that the oil spill caused on the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, “The New Ruins” show is no longer on display, but you can explore Lyke’s other pieces on the AHVA department’s website.
For those most familiar with the more traditional mediums of art like painting and drawing, the processes of printmaking and monotyping can seem unconventional and even confusing. Printmaking is as it sounds: An artist creates prints by using materials like a block of wood or a silkscreen stencil to create images on mediums such as paper or T-shirts. Monotypes are essentially printed paintings. They are created using similar techniques to printmaking, and the resulting images vary when replicated. Each print is unique, giving pieces organic trademarks.
Lyke expresses a particular affinity for printmaking. “Printmaking, in particular, is a process-oriented medium that allows me to respond to the materiality of the ink on paper and work in the moment of discovery, yet explore a direction or topic that I feel is relevant to my life,” Lyke said. Lyke succinctly summarized the printmaking experience by calling it magic.
Throughout her life, Lyke has always had a deeply rooted connection to the arts. “When I am working, I feel totally engaged; I am in the present and lose all sense of time,” she said in an e-mail interview. As an artist, Lyke is driven by a personal relationship to her work. Her driving force as an artist is extremely internal. “Spending time in the studio either drawing, painting or printmaking keeps me sane. It is central to my sense of being,” she said.
Despite misconceptions that a studio art professor would look down upon today’s modern art movements, Lyke seems excited about the direction art is heading. She’s intrigued by a new generation that strives to forget the technicalities of their predecessors.
“I think current art [is going in] multiple directions and is more engaged in commenting on cultural, social and political conditions of race, gender and the dystopia of contemporary life. Many young artists are using non-art materials to make work that comments on American consumer culture,” Lyke said.
Lady Gaga’s celebrity falls in line with Lyke’s ideology that art’s power stems from people’s interactions with the pieces.
“I think everything about Lady Gaga, her image, her voice and her music is exceptional. Gaga, oooh la la,” Lyke said.
Excitement for future generations of artistic ingenuity extends further than Lyke’s love of Gaga. She is optimistic about the AHVA department, despite the fact that there are currently only two senior Studio Art majors.
The department is undergoing changes to facilitate students’ needs. The first step: combining the Art History and Studio Art majors and reconfiguring the Studio Art major requirements so that students can study abroad.
Lyke is not afraid to be bold with her use of color and line styles, resulting in a profound effect on her art’s viewers. She definitely excites her viewers’ image of the art itself, exposing them to the possibilities of the printmaking process.
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