This is the eighth year for the Open Walls Staff and Faculty Art Exhibit show, created as part of the Great Places to Work initiative. Thirty-three artists are participating, which is above average compared to recent years. Last year, there were 31 artists and in 2016, there were 30 participants.

Here is a cross section of what you can expect from this year’s show:

Patrick Glisson, from Environmental Health and Safety, is once again showing his knot ties. Glisson has participated in Open Walls every year since its beginning, calling his craft “therapy.” As a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, he is tasked with promoting his trade and his participation is one way to do so. Glisson will also host the North American Knot Tyers Convention downtown in October.

He got involved in the trade as a “survival technique,” he jokes – when he tasked with teaching his son’s Boy Scout troop how to tie knots. His son is now a senior in the Speed School of Engineering and has adopted his own preferred trade as a blade smith. Glisson’s younger son gravitated to origami, his daughter picked up sewing and needlework, and his wife is a prolific tailor.

This year, Glisson took a different approach with his artwork, tying knots around carabiners brought together by a single golden feather. The feather, he says, was inspired by the .��

Judy Hughes, from the Office of Communications and Marketing, jumped into basketry after witnessing a demonstration at a Bardstown Road Aglow event. Intrigued, she signed up for classes and fell in love – with the people, the teachers, the variety of materials. She has since completed hundreds of baskets.

“It’s nice to complete things and to have something to show for your work,” she said.

Andrew Marsh, assistant director of the Conn Center, is displaying a sculpture made of steel and found objects. The piece, titled “Apocalyptic Poppy,” was the first of his works to explore the “emergence from trauma,” he said.

“Over the last three decades of making, I have continued to utilize repurposed and discarded materials to render beauty from agony, and create the art of a survivor,” he said.��

Ann Windchy, associate professor of oral health and rehabilitation, has two paintings in the show – one of which is of The Thinker wearing a bright red tie.

“He belongs behind the desk of a UofL graduate,” she said.

Katy O’Toole, a development associate, has two large paintings, including one titled “Like A Fish Needs A Bicycle And A Hot Air Balloon,” inspired by Irina Dunn’s famous catch phrase popularized by Gloria Steinem.

“Watching Steinem speak at the Women’s March on Washington was one of the many moments of clarity in these past two years and I hope this whimsical tribute resonates with other feminists in turn,” O’Toole said.

CEHD professor Kate Snyder’s tiny cross-stich pieces offer a way to relax from faculty life, she says.

“I found that it was even more fun when I created the designs myself,” she said. “The nicest thing about tiny cross-stitch projects is that they wrap up a lot more quickly than long projects.”

Software developer Mark Strickland’s “Angels of Frankfort” photography piece uses a technique that incorporates a digital light stick.

“The subjects are photographed at night in downtown Frankfort using a digital camera and a flash. The lens of the camera is set at a high F-stop to not let in very much light and taken with a 10-second exposure. The flash illuminates the subject then the photographer steps behind the subject and activites the light stick while moving across the frame behind the subject,” Strickland explains. “Because of the very high F-stop lens setting, the image of the photographer is not captures but the digital image displayed by the light stick becomes the translucent wings.”

Maria Tinnell, a graphic designer in the Office of Communications and Marketing, submitted three coiled linen baskets inspired by spring flowers.

Mary Boyd, from Advancement, has knitted hats out of yak down and nylon, as well as baby alpaca.

Bethany Poston is showing a painting that she learned how to create by watching YouTube. “I just thought I’d try it,” she said.

Ruby Backert’s pinkerton quilt includes a number of hidden symbols, such as a yellow butterfly and a red bird. Hiding these objects was fun, she said.

This is just a small glimpse of the artwork that will be on display beginning June 11 through June 28. The show takes place in the Photographic Archives Gallery, Archives & Special Collections, in the East Wing, Lower Level of Ekstrom Library. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

An artists’ reception will be held June 19 from noon to 2 p.m.

Thirty-one UofL employees are participating in this year’s Open Walls Faculty/Staff Art Exhibit, the seventh year for the event.

One of those artists, Kate Snyder, is participating for the first time with her tiny “Chat Noir.” The acrylic painting is displayed on a 2-inch-by-4-inch canvas complete with a tiny stand.

“I started doing tiny paintings during my dissertation as a way to deal with the stress,” said Snyder, an assistant professor of educational psychology, measurement and evaluation. “I have always been enchanted by tiny things and enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a tiny masterpiece.”

Tiny art, as she calls it, captures “majesty with whimsy” and provides a challenge in presenting the details. Snyder, for example, uses a tiny paintbrush for features such as whiskers and lettering.

Mark Strickland is not a newcomer to Open Walls, but the Medical School programmer has new photos this year, including one titled “Eagle at the Lake.”

“Eagles are making a return to Kentucky. This photo was captured from a yacht as part of the lake tour for sighting eagles in January. The day of the tour the weather was cool but sunny which created lots of thermal updrafts but not much wind. As this fully mature bald eagle glided over the boat, about 200 feet in the air, I was able to capture this image with the bright morning sun shining from above,” he explained.

Victoria Natal Harpe, acting assistant director of support services, is also an Open Walls veteran. She showcases her crochet talents this year on an 11.5-inch doll titled “Princess Diana at the White House – 1985.” She was inspired by Princess Diana’s dance with John Travolta to the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack that night in 1985.

Woody Petry, a professor in Psychological and Brain Sciences, submitted a photo of a bench that sits on a steep grade on a street in Riomaggiore, the southernmost of the five fishing villages that comprise Italy’s Cinque Terre.

“At the base of cliffs, Riomaggiore sits on a steep grade, which contributes to both the beauty, and the challenges, of its architecture. This photograph displays nature’s preset conditions (the steep grade of the street) and the modern expectations of human living (the perfectly horizontal door). But the bench is not a horizontal surface, but neither does it mirror the grade of the street. Rather, to be functional, it must slant at a level somewhere between those extremes. To me the photograph depicts, in a simple way, the accommodations that must be made to coexist with nature,” Petry said.

Mary Boyd, a program coordinator in Advancement Services, works with a type of yarn made of wool and silk. She has two wraps made of the same yard yielding two very different looks. The first pattern is based on a nålbinding fragment from Dura-Europos, Syria, circa 200-256 A.D.�� Twisted stitches give a raised effect and set the pattern off from the background. The other wrap is a “Entrelac technique,” which shows off color variations in alternating stockinette stitch and reverse stockinette stitch and allows the project to lie flat without curling.

Boyd’s mother taught her and her sibling how to stitch when they were young, and she continues.

“She sat us on the couch and we knitted for hours while she disappeared to do whatever mothers of young children do when they need a break.��Today, I have knitting projects stashed for all kinds of circumstances – easy projects for 5-minute waits; small projects for riding in cars or airplanes; large, complicated projects for hours of watching tennis matches or cycling races,” Boyd said.

Associate biology professor Steve Yanoviak’s wood sculpture, titled “Claire’s Monarch,” spans 34-by-25 inches and is handcrafted using Kentucky hardwoods – cherry, walnut, oak and maple – with a polyurethane finish. He created the piece for his daughter, noting that the monarch butterfly will likely be extinct within her lifetime.

“I constructed this piece for her as a memento of, and tribute to, this amazing insect,” he said.

The piece is also a scale model based on a locally collected Monarch specimen obtained from the UofL Entomology teaching collection.

Check out these pieces on display June 12 through June 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the gallery, which is located in the lower level of Ekstrom Library.

An opening reception will be held June 14 from noon to 2 p.m. just outside of the gallery.