Collegiate Times

Artwork is a highly subjective, often overlooked part of a college's cultural offerings. Local artists work countless hours on works that are displayed both on and off campus. Virginia Tech attempts to showcase these pieces in places all over campus.

One such display is the Perspectives Gallery is located on the second floor of the Squires Student Center. The gallery showcases works from particular artists at a monthly rate. This month's featured artist is Jennifer L. Collins. Her works will be on display from July 3 to August 5.

Collins teaches a life drawing class full time at Virginia Tech and runs a commercial gallery, named The Gallery, in downtown Radford.

At her life drawing class, students are taught how to draw the human figure. Collins said that a lot of her inspiration comes from teaching that class and in general from teaching students how to draw.

"Through years of teaching drawing, I have come to love the expressive possibilities of the gestural and contour line,. In these paintings I am using these drawing techniques to explore the interaction between humanity, the rest of the natural world, and the spiritual realm," said Collins.

Collins used to teach part time at both Radford University and Virginia Tech and  occasionally taught private classes.

Collins  has her own studio in the back of the gallery where she works on her oil paintings. She has been painting since 1990.

Collins' father, Charlie Brouwer is one of her biggest sources of inspiratin and has made a large impact on her painting career.

"I have always been interested in art. My father is an artist. He does sculpture. I grew up around art and it was just sort of natural," said Collins

Her father explained that even from a young age, Collins was a part of his art career.

Brouwer said, "When Jennifer was about 6 years old, I was a high school art teacher in Australia. In my first exhibit in a commercial gallery, I showed one of her paintings that she did. Even though we didn't start actually collaborating until she was mature artist, she had artwork in my exhibit in 1977."

Collins' work ranges from small intimate landscape studies, to large-scale oils, to collaborations with her father,. She has been collaborating with her father off and on for about six or seven years.

"We were part of an artist group. For the group exhibit, everybody had to team up to have two people for each exhibit. My daughter and I were both members of that group and that was the first time we decided to exhibit together, which was about 10 years ago," said Brouwer

Collins and Brouwer display their artwork at the Gallery in Radford on 1019 East Main St. and at Pamela Jean Gallery Fine Art and Custom Framing.

"I think that the work we make is representational. We represent places, landscapes, nature, and people. What we are looking for is situations that seems to express something beyond the visible world.," said Brouwer.

The Pamela Jean Gallery began representing Collins and Brouwer in the Roanoke area when it first opened 2 years ago. They are one of the gallery's primary artists on display.

Susan Moore is the manager of Pamela Jean Gallery Fine Art and Custom Framing.

Moore said, "All of the artists were picked prior to the opening of the gallery. They were all hand selected by the owner, Pam Floyd, based on their uniqueness and what they had to offer, " said Moore.

Visit both the Perspective Gallery to see some of Collins' work while it's still on display.