Students and local residents walked through the second floor hall of the Cornerstone Center for the Arts building Thursday night, eating cheese and crackers and analyzing paintings and photographs on the walls.
The reception for Mary Barczak's first solo art show, "Periodically, Nothing Happens," took place at the center from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday night.
The exhibit features a series of paintings titled "Nones" which Barczak said was influenced by her frustration of seeing people every day she would never know.
"There's so many people around you and being a people person it's kind of frustrating because I'd like to get to know everyone but I can't," Barczak said.
Each of the paintings in the series features one of the "nones" who have blank identical faces and solid black abstracted bodies.
"When you look at people, you usually take into account their face first," Barczak said. "The faces in the paintings are so blank you have to look at their bodies to tell their emotions."
Barczak said her influences include Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Yves Tanguy and classical art.
The exhibit also features a series of photographs titled "Elements" in which several elements are given a human face.
"Elements are the most basic thing on the planet," Barczak said. "I'm really into breaking things down to their core parts."
Barczak had been talking with the center since early November to get her own solo show. She had been featured in a group show at the center before and several of her pieces can be found at Ball State along with another piece at The Artist Within.
Chris Eldridge, an architecture graduate student, said he thought the show was really cool.
"I'm glad to see that there is an art community in Muncie that gets to display their work in a public venue," Eldridge said.
Barczak is working on getting an internship and commissions.
After graduation, Barczak said she is taking whatever comes her way.
"I'm just taking it as it comes," she said.
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