Most of the time, Darryl Audia of Greensburg is encouraging his art students at Greensburg Salem High School to follow their creativity and see where it takes them.
This month, Audia’s own creativity will be on display at an exhibit of his artwork, “Pieces of a Whole,” at DV8 Espresso Bar & Gallery in downtown Greensburg.
The pieces in the exhibit are what Audia called “non-objective,” and will be up through the end of July at DV8, which is at 208 S. Pennsylvania Ave. in Greensburg.
Audia, a Franklin Regional graduate who has earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art education spoke with the Tribune-Review about his work.
This interview has been edited for length.
Q: What first got you interested in art as a hobby, and then as a career?
A: I’ve enjoyed drawing as far back as I can remember. My parents always encouraged it and were very supportive. My notebooks for all my other subjects in school would have sketches and doodles running down the margins of them. Luckily, I had some good art teachers along the way that fed my creative drive.
I wanted to be an artist and art teacher all throughout elementary and middle school but had some doubts when it came time to go to college. I started at IUP as a hotel restaurant management major, then thankfully found my way to the art department by the end of my freshman year.
Following my passion and choosing to do what I loved, over what felt safe, proved to be a great decision. It also helps that my amazing wife Kelley is a talented artist and art teacher too.
Q: You refer to the pieces in this exhibit as “non-objective abstract” paintings — what does that mean?
A: Non-objective art simply means that it does not intend to represent anything recognizable from the natural world. The way I explain it to my students is like this, to use a math concept most of us understand: “All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.” The same is true with abstract art. All non-objective art is abstract, but not all abstract art is non-objective.
Everything an artist makes is abstracted to some degree, even the most realistic painting or photograph, simply because it is not actually reality. Going to the extreme side of the abstract spectrum (non-objective art), we intentionally show pure design or pure form devoid of intentional references to reality. That doesn’t mean, however, that it can’t express or symbolize something real like a feeling, emotion, memory or even remind us of something visually familiar.
Not all of my artwork is non-objective. I do make a lot of portraits too, but all of the work in this show is purely abstract.
Q: What is the “whole” that the pieces of this collection are representing?
A: I often work in layers, trying to find a balance between opposing forces or visual tensions. I try to simultaneously convey depth and flatness, observe and break boundaries, and aim to make my paintings both familiar and foreign to the viewer. Although the main goal for me is to create an intense visual experience for an audience that can be enjoyed without explanation, these paintings have additional meaning for me.
In my view, this series of works are really about the relationship we as humans have to one another and our creator. They are about passing moments and intersecting human experiences that seem meaningless and unrelated to one another but are actually part of a larger plan. These relationships and moments are the “pieces” I am referring to in this series.
In my view, our existence in truly a communal one, despite our best efforts to see it as an individual endeavor. We are all a part of something much bigger, the “whole.” The stories we try to write for ourselves influence and affect the stories of others. I see the arrangements of shapes, marks, and layered pigment on my canvases as a cross-section of this ephemeral and eternal spiritual exchange.
