Oct. 6, Oct. 15, Nov. 20, Feb. 8).” Archival Pigment Print,(43 x 28)
By E’Yanna Davis
Today is the last day to visit the exhibition, “Inherited Moments” at Louisiana Tech’s F. Jay Visual Arts Center.
“Inherited Moments” highlights works of art and photographs around familial beings showing how family and the ever-changing motion of life helps develop the people who are around.
H. Jennings Sheffield, an artist who specializes in having her day-to-day routine photographed, tells a story with her works of art and how it came to be.
”I was trying to get different perspectives of the scene from that moment in time, but on different days,“ Sheffield said. ”There’s this children’s book called ‘The Gallop Book,’ and when you turn the pages, it looks like the horse is running. I initially built these images like that so I took the book apart, found the mathematical equation that made that work and continued to break down many equations until I could make the images fit into one two-dimensional plane image.”
Having multiple roles to fill in her life is what inspired Sheffield to go forth with this project. Dealing with different schedules each day can show a lot on how all people have a certain role to fill in their daily lives.
”Some days I’m a professor and I teach, some days I am a student, some days I’m with my kid home sick,“ Sheffield said. ”I really wanted to show that overlaying of roles on top of roles on top of roles but yet keeping enough information so you can make it out.“
It takes Sheffield a long time to complete her artistic journey to showcase these perspectives that she portrays in her works of art.
”The idea of this work is that this is a lifetime project,” she said. “I rephotograph it every five years but it takes me two years to make them so it doesn’t really come out until around every seven years.“
Having many changes throughout the years — becoming a mother, being a student and becoming a professor — Sheffield wants the audience to see that every day is different. Everyone is busy in their lives but has different schedules every day. In a sense, everyone is similar in their own ways.
”That’s what I hope the audience gains,“ Sheffield said. ”As you go through the day, you notice there’s a rhythm. Some hours it’s really crazy and chaotic and then other hours are more quiet and subtle. The amount of work thrown on you, your personal life and even loved ones help develop your roles that you play and make you realize the chaos that is there sometimes.”
