Brett was the perfect first artist featured at our new and tenderly formed gallery The Bakery. He hails from Grand Rapids Michigan where he is a tenured professor at Grand Valley State University teaching drawing and printmaking. Joseph (my lover and co-conspirator) has been enamored with Brett ever since he took his class at Ox-Bow and was super excited to have the opportunity to invite Brett as a visiting artist to St.Ambrose. His art is politically inspired covering contemporary topics from 9/11 and the Bush administration, to clear cutting forests, and the industrialization of the meat industry. He is a super cool guy, sweet, thoughtful, and though he is passionate about his political views, he is also totally down to earth, approachable and easy to talk to, definitely admirable qualities.
One of my favorite parts of the evening was an interactive money stamping station. Colley has created a series of stamps with images of bulldozers, tree stumps, & oil rigs as well as one stamp stating "we vote with our money". He spreads them all out on table with a big juicy red ink pad for gallery visitors to use to brand their dollar bills. Everyone seemed to love it, whipping out their cash and stamping away with conviction. The activity generated lots of conversations and allowed people to interact with and ask questions about the politics and ideas at the heart of Colley's work.
