The Idea: New York Exhibition by Gina Hief

Ever popular student advisor Gina Hief left Sessions College in the fall of 2011 to travel the country and pursue her artistic vision. As Gina puts it, she had an impossible idea: Sell all of her possessions and live on the road while traveling the country. This idea “should have wilted when placed in the brutal climate of reality, instead it flourished and took root.”

This week, from January 20-26th, Gina’s artwork can be experienced in her debut New York exhibition on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side. Entitled “The Idea,” the exhibition explores organic growth as a metaphor for ideas. A narrative series of mixed media drawings showcases a progression of ideas from seedlings to entangled overgrown vines to towering trees.

The notes for the exhibition challenge the visitor to consider his or her own creative life: How many times have you planted the seed of a wild dream that was quickly dismissed as impractical?

“The Idea” tells a visual story of Gina’s experience of cultivating her own ideas and turning dreams into reality. The pieces are whimsical illustrations created using pen, paper, and found material. As befits Gina’s background, the works combine a graphic designer’s sense of form and color with a sculptor’s sense of detail and construction. The artwork draws you in with its fine attention to detail as feathers, stitches, and finely cut paper is woven together.

At a thematic level, the works explore both the risks and rewards of creative ventures. Ideas are represented as bulbs taking root in soil, gaining nourishment from (and simultaneously draining) their author. An idea is in your head then you are engulfed in it. Ideas can take you over, wrapping you like vines and making you a prisoner.

At other times ideas are represented as source of hope and renewal. In this beautiful piece the artist looks skyward and creative energy bursts in all directions.

If any Sessions College students or faculty are in New York this week, we highly recommend you check out Gina’s exhibition.

The Idea: An Art Exhibition by Gina Hief
Orchard Windows Gallery
January 20-26 2012

Judging from her debut show, Gina’s coast-to-coast creative trip is just the start of an interesting career for the talented mixed media illustrator.