WAUKESHA – Waukesha South High School art teacher Michael Foster is exhibiting his “Figurative Discourse” at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha in the Fine Arts Center Gallery through February 26.
Gallery hours are 10:00-11:00 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and noon-2:00 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. It also is open during special events and for private viewing. To arrange a viewing, contact the University Relations department at (262) 521-5445.
On Friday, January 27, there will be an artist’s reception in the lobby of the Fine Arts Center from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
In his oil paintings, Foster depicts expressive, sometimes dramatic poses of former students. “My life experiences have taught me to read body language and facial gestures,” he states, and he finds the figure work of John Singer Sargent, Robert Henri, Thomas Hart Benton, Malcolm Liepke, and Mary Cassatt inspiring. They bring to the surface the soul of the individual, “making each brush mark cascade into another.”
He invests in learning the secrets of the human spirit of his subjects and then depicts them with as much simplicity as possible in order to reveal them. “The work in this show is about being true to ourselves as we audition for acceptance and validation,” he states, and then explains, not merely to play the roles cast upon us but to meet the interior characters we are.
A Waukesha County resident for most of his life, Foster graduated from Muskego High School and earned a BA in 1982 from Carroll College. In 2005 he completed a Master’s of Arts in Visual Studies Degree at Cardinal Stritch University. His wife, Suzanne, is the daughter of retired UW-Waukesha music professor Don Stimpert, who was known for staging elaborate Madrigal productions.
UW-Waukesha has the largest enrollment among the 13 freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses. For information about programs, admission, or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at (262) 521-5200 or visit the Web at waukesha.uwc.edu.
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