The Collegian

Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: Arts

Louis Marinaro is a sculptor and professor of art at the University of Michigan's School of Art & Design; his wife Margaret Davis is a painter and professor of art at Eastern Michigan University.

Together this artist couple is exhibiting their work in Hillsdale College's Daughtrey Gallery this Sunday.

When the college invited them to exhibit their work here together, the couple said the decision was easy.

For Davis, the exhibit is a sort of homecoming, because she was an adjunct professor at the college more than a decade ago.

Marinaro said he still has friends among the art professors here.

Marinaro and Davis do not think they are an anomaly, because they said they know many other art couples.

"It makes everything easier," Marinaro said of being married to another artist.

For one thing, it means they can put on exhibits together. They have now held joint exhibits on three occasions, Marinaro said.

Sophomore Mallory Root's graphic design class was asked to design a brochure for the exhibit, she said.

"It's supposed to be a really great show," Root said. "I think it's really interesting that they're married and both well known artists, and they're able to do this together."

Root said she is particularly excited about seeing the sculptures.

"I haven't had a lot of exposure to a variety of sculptures and artists in the past," she said.

The couple said they have never felt pressure to compete against one another, but instead find inspiration in each other's work.

"Of course we influence each other, because we discuss what we are doing and we always look at each other's work," Marinaro said.

Art Department Chairman Sam Knecht said he has known about Marinaro's work for more than 15 years.

"I admire his authority with the human figure and the depth of symbolism in his work,"Knecht said. "He doesn't just present a figure and let it go at that."

Knecht also said he senses a compatibility in the couple's vision.

He said Marinaro's work suspends figures in a dimension that is separate from reality, a sense he also get from Davis' work, which he called "contemplative, thoughtful and aware of something."

According to their respective artist statements, Marinaro and Davis are both heavily influenced to produce the content in their art.

"Ideas behind the work are inspired by many sources," Davis wrote in her artist statement published by the River Gallery in Chelsea, Mich. last year. "I am continually intrigued by evolution, be it human beings, a family, or an individual, so many of the codes draw from this subject."

In the same statement, Davis said her recent interest has been in "Migration or the impetus to move/change after a disaster."

Both Marinaro and Davis were in high school when they decided they wanted to become artists.

Marinaro's artist statement, published by the School of Art & Design, also said his driving force is content, of both the imagination and of perception.

"My intention is to tell the viewer about particular things that I hope they can imagine in a new way," he wrote. "I try to offer a perception of the world in which we live that embodies the complexity of life experiences."

The Marinaro and Davis art exhibit opens Sunday at 2 p.m. with an artists' reception. The exhibit is open to the public and admission is free.

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