Issue date: 9/3/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Claire Padgett Rebecca Crowther searches a store on Antique Row for handmade pictures and paintings for her installation of found art. [Click to enlarge]

After visiting Sacramento State graduate student Rebecca Crowther's art exhibit, one will never look at their photographs and keepsakes the same again.

"Often times, the best music, stories or films are the ones that hit us in the gut emotionally," Crowther said. "I hope to pull at this emotion some."

Graduating this fall with a special major master's degree in art history and photography, Crowther is bidding a final adieu to the campus with a unique show that will combine her appreciation of art and history in a unique two-part exhibit. Her talents will be on display for the public to see at Sac State's Witt Ridley Gallery in "This Here Love Hey, It's A Gonna Last/ The Backs of Photographs." It is not only a mouthful, but promises to be a mind-full as well.

Chris Prout, senior art history major, said he is planning on attending Crowther's exhibit.

"The exhibit should be very thought-provoking. I'm looking forward to the room with the photographs to see what stories the photos will invoke from my own life," he said.

In her M.A. exhibition, Crowther said she will create an almost romantic appreciation for the mementos we all hang onto: photographs, childrens' drawings and snippets of hair, among other unique pieces.

"Everything in the exhibit is historical as well as sentimental," Crowther explained. "Throughout life, we create things, objects, drawings and photographs in an attempt to document and preserve our lives… in a way we remain alive as long as a trace of us can be found in an image or a drawing."

In the gallery's entry room there will be a collection of items that Crowther said will symbolize life from birth to death, aimed to stir up feelings of nostalgia. Crowther has collected objects that everyone can relate to from various places, such as antique shops and thrift stores.

The second part of the exhibit, located in the main room of the gallery, will feature a series of backwards photographs in cases. The 17 photographs are from different periods in time, from the late 1800s to the late 1950s.

Mirrors placed behind the photos will give the audience a glimpse of the subjects. There will also be hand-written messages by Crowther on the backs of the photos, referencing "immortality, preservation, and things that remain."

Viewers will be given the opportunity to draw from their own feelings and memories while connecting to the subjects of the photos.

The life and death of family she's lost and nostalgia are some of the main themes that Crowther said has influenced her work for the exhibit, but said she draws on many different sources to inspire her art.

"Love inspires me more than anything, and by this I do not mean romantic love. I mean looking at what is ugly in the world and finding the beauty in it and loving it," she said.

While studying art at Sac State, Crowther said one professor has stood out among the rest and inspired her. Crowther said art professor Elaine O'Brien taught her to "trust in the relevance of my own beliefs, and to trust that what I have to say is important."

Crowther said O'Brien has always placed high expectations on her students, but those expectations have given her tremendous respect for her professor and said she has developed a strong work ethic because of it.

O'Brien returns the adoration of Crowther's work.

"Rebecca's master's exhibition comes out of a great deal of reading, looking and thinking about photographs and what they mean to us. She has a unique way of observing the way we perform our lives: comic, ironic and skeptical, but with a lot of warmth and compassion," O'Brien said.

Crowther will continue to exercise this work ethic and her passion for art and history after graduating. In October, she will help to curate an exhibit with the Sacramento Archives about the 1968 presidential election. She is also planning a series of drawings based on records from mental institutions in the 19th century.

"This Here Love Hey, It's A Gonna Last/ The Backs of Photographs" is free to students and the public. Crowther said she hopes that students from outside the art department will visit

The exhibit will run Sept. 8 through Sept. 12.

Casey Kirk can be reached at ckirk@statehornet.com

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