WT professor creates art inspired by the Panhandle plains
New West Texas A&M University art professor Anna K. Lemnitzer plans an exhibition based on her adjustment to the Panhandle plains.
Lemnitzer began with the university in fall 2021 as an assistant professor of art and design. She moved to the area from the Allegheny region of Pennsylvania but has lived all over the nation, being originally from Arizona.
The artist said that it was her move to the area that most influenced this collection, everything from the vast lands and colorful sky to unyielding winds and a brown recluse spider infestation in her new home.
“It's another world. Before I moved here, I said I want to live in a place where the desert, the mountains and the sea exist all at once and I don’t want it to be California,” Lemnitzer said.
“Coming here, I really feel like I'm living in the sea, almost a desert sea and with Palo Duro and Buffalo Lake so close, it gives me the feel of the mountains. It’s a new magical place I have never experienced before,” she said.
Lemnitzer began by creating a sculpture of a tumbleweed, representing the wind, and twine representing the spiders' web to signify her appreciation for her new home.
“My inspiration came, literally, the first day I moved here," Lemnitzer said. "I moved into a place with a brown recluse infestation and, I usually try to turn anything I'm afraid of into a growth opportunity. So, I started researching the spiders and looking at how they formed their webs... at the same time, I was hit by how much wind there is here, so I thought OK, 'how can I learn to live with these two things — this wind and these spiders that have taken over?'"
Lemnitzer said she was also heavily influenced by the colors and vastness of the plains and the sky that led to the creation of pieces like “Serenity”.
According to Lemnitzer, the piece was an oddity for her due to the fact that most of her previous work involved people and very rarely landscapes, but after utilizing several mediums to create the piece, she said it brought her a strong sense of peace, hence the name.
"What I enjoy is how her work is a hybrid of mediums. She digitally paints her drawings then hand paints over the print, it’s nothing like anyone has seen before,” said Jon Revett, the Doris Alexander Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts and art program director.
This exhibit will be Lemnitzer’s first with the university and will begin with an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 27. Afterward, the exhibit will be open for viewing through Feb. 19 in the Dord Fitz Formal Gallery in Mary Moody Northen Hall on the WT campus.
The Fitz Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Appointments can be made for Fridays and Saturdays by emailing jrevett@wtamu.edu.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: WT art professor hosts first solo gallery inspired by the panhandle plains
