By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Kathleen Kuchar knew she wanted to be an artist from the time she was a young child.
The only child in her grade at her small, rural school in Nebraska, Kathleen would be allowed to go outside to draw after she completed her assignments for the day. She still has drawings of her schoolhouse from that time.
Kuchar had no formal art education until she was in college. Her grad school studies led her to Fort Hays State University, where she earned her MFA and later taught color to a generation of art students.
This year’s Fall Art Walk will be anchored by Kuchar’ s “A Journey: A Life Retrospective Through Art,” which takes the viewer through her life from a young girl living on the family farm doing paint by numbers through the many incarnations of her work as a professional artist. The walk will be 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday at various locations in Hays.
Kuchar entered a mail-in artist contest as a girl on the urging of one of her cousins. She won, and her father paid for correspondence art classes on installment.
Kuchar came to Fort Hays State University for grad school where she studied under Skip Harwick. She said Harwick helped her explore color and learn more about edges.
She applied and received a one-year scholarship to the Brooklyn College of Art and Design.
Paintings from her time in the city, which are a part of the show, depict sullen subway travelers.
“They were lonely, and I was too, so that is what I painted.”
After her year’s study in New York was up, she jumped at the chance to come back to Hays and teach at FHSU. She founded the graphic design program at FHSU under John Thorns.
The coming years in Hays were a happy, carefree time and Kuchar’s paintings reflected her attitude. This included what she called her lip paintings, which are large, colorful, abstract works that all include large teethy lips.
In the 1980s, Kuchar’s father became gravely ill and eventually passed away. She expressed her grief through her art, including a painting of two empty chairs, symbolizing the emptiness left by her father’s death.
Kuchar experimented with many other mediums, including collage and photography. She also spent a brief stint in Italy studying monotype printmaking.
Kuchar, although now retired from teaching, still is creating art. She said one of the pieces she hopes to have in the exhibit is still in progress on her easel at home.
Kuchar’s siblings as well as at least of two of her students will be coming to the show opening during the Fall Art Walk on Friday. One of her students told her that he “saved his life” by giving him the confidence to pursue his art.
Kuchar said she thought that was a great legacy to leave, to have taught art and made art and had the ability to pass that knowledge on to others.
“Kathleen emanates joy and goodness and creativity,” said Brenda Meder, Hays Arts Council director, said. “She is just one of those people everybody likes. She radiates good.”
Companion books for the exhibit, including some written commentary from the artist, will be on sale during the show. Cost is $40 for Hays Arts Council members and $45 for non-members.
“Art from the Attic: Eugene ‘Skip’ Harwick and the ’60s and ’70s”
Fifty pieces from art from Kuchar’s mentor and teacher, Eugene “Skip” Harwick will be on exhibit in the Hays Arts Annex, 1010 Main. The exhibit title “Art from the Attic” is selections from Harwick’s work from the ’60s and ’70s.
Most of the art has been rescued from storage in an attic. Many of the pieces need to be cleaned, some have damaged or missing frames. This is the first time the art has been seen in more than a decade. Some of the pieces are on loan from the collection of Michael Michaelis, CEO of Emprise Bank, and will be headed for restoration after the show.
Other pieces are being offered for sale by Harwick’s widow. Several pieces are being attributed to Harwick, but Mick Jilg, who was also Harwick’s student and is curating the show, said unfortunately Harwick never signed the work.
“This is really a restoration sort of project and to get Skip some notoriety that he deserved,” Jilg said. “The fact that Skip did not exhibit very much, and he didn’t have any gallery connections and things, he never really got the notoriety that he deserved. He influenced me, being one, Kathleen being one.”
Harwick came to FHSU in 1965 and died in 1981. He came from Wichita State University where he was part of the Bodega movement.
Jilg said he would not be an artist without him.
“I always tell people I was a swan swimming with ducks in high school—that I didn’t fit, then I moved up here and met Skip Harwick and his wife, Joann, and Frank Nichols and some people who were real swans. I spent the rest of my life trying to catch up, learning what I should have learned before. He was a major influence, and if you see my paintings, you see a little piece of Skip Harwick in them today even.”
Harwick liked to experiment to the point Jilg said there is no recognizable Harwick style.
Some of Harwick’s paintings are figurative and others are abstract. There are traditional landscapes in the exhibit from when Harwick was being treated for cancer.
“That is what he lived for,” Jilg said. “I know he rarely approached a painting with an idea. He would just start it and let it develop, which I still do, and I love that. That philosophy still lives in me.”
Jilg, a retired FHSU professor, said the professor-student relationship is something that just keeps going on and on. He has passed the lessons given to him by Harwick and others to his students, and his students are now teachers and passing that knowledge on to new students.
Hanging the exhibit has been a trip back in time for Jilg. He said Harwick was not much of a formal teacher, but he learned a lot sitting around drinking beer.
Jilg remembered one night he had worked very late a night a painting.
“I thought it was basically just getting started, but I was really excited about it. (Harwick) came in that morning and I was kind of looking at it, deciding what I was going to do. He sat down. That was in the smoking days. He would pull out paper and put some tobacco in it and fool around with it. He never could roll a cigarette, and after five minutes with him messing with it someone would hand him a Marlboro. He said, ‘How does it feel to finish one right away?’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s done.'”
Jilg entered the painting in show at the Omaha Art Museum. It won first prize, and the museum bought it for its collection.
Although the Harwick and Kuchar exhibits were not coordinated with FHSU, the university is sponsoring an art department reunion during homecoming. Both exhibits will still be on display during that time. Jilg said he looked forward to some of Harwick’s former students being able to see this Harwick’s collection for probably the first and last time.
Jilg will also have art on exhibit during the art walk.
Jilg’s and Leon Staab’s “Eufloria” exhibit of floral paintings and photography will be on exhibit at Regeena’s Flowers, 1013 Main St. It is the return of an exhibit that was first shown at the Hays Arts Center several years ago. Norman Keller, co-owner of Regeena’s, is one of Jilg’s former students.
As always, a variety of other visual and musical artists will be featured during the come-and-go free art walk. Meder described the annual walks as an art buffet.
“The caliber on this art walk is really outstanding, and it typically tends to be this way with the fall art walk happening so quickly after school starts. Students are less represented as they are in the winter, spring and even the summer,” Meder said. “I am really pleased with what people will be able to see and enjoy across the board, the visual art, the music, painting, the photography, whatever it might be. I am excited. It is going to be a great night.”
Eight locations also will be open on Saturday, Aug. 25. See the schedule for details.
A complete schedule is listed below.
