Everything Nac

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art will present as its first exhibition of the 2016-17 academic year, “Christopher Troutman: Drawing and Narrative,” which runs Aug. 31 through Oct. 14 in Griffith Gallery in the Griffith Fine Arts Building on the SFA campus.

Troutman’s beautifully rendered drawings portray scenes from urban daily life, defining the form and space of figures within their environments, according to John Handley, director of galleries at SFA.

“His work touches on the idea of illustration,” Handley said. “In the artist’s own words, they ‘examine storytelling inspired by personal narrative.’ His images are complex in their narrative and visual representation as well as in their use of unusual perspective.”

Handley describes Troutman as “a master draftsman, able to create visually compelling imagery that touches on the real and the imaginary.”

“Having a command of drawing is a foundation of great art, even if the artist abandons it for abstraction,” he said.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in Peoria, Illinois, Troutman has lived since 2013 in Beaumont, where he teaches all levels of drawing at Lamar University. In his work, Troutman uses drawing to define the form and space of figures and environments, as well as examine storytelling inspired by personal narrative.

He earned a B.F.A. from Bradley University in Peoria. After later moving to Japan, he and his wife opened a conversational English School in Kagoshima City. While living in southern Japan, he was the first foreign resident of Kagoshima to be awarded the Grand Prize at the 52nd Kagoshima Prefectural Art Exhibition in 2005. After completing an M.F.A. in drawing and painting at California State University, Long Beach, Troutman taught in at Eastern Kentucky University, Vincennes University and Eastern Illinois University.

He has had solo exhibitions in Japan and at several locations throughout the U.S. Troutman’s work has appeared in numerous drawing publications and in juried drawing exhibitions. He was recently awarded the Grand Prize (Paris Prize) at the 66th Miyanichi Sougou Art Exhibition in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. He and his family return to Japan annually.

Admission to the exhibition, which is sponsored in part by the Friends of the Visual Arts and Nacogdoches Junior Forum, is free. A reception with the artist will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in Griffith Gallery.

Gallery hours are from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. For more information, call (936) 468-1131. Griffith Fine Arts Building is located at 2222 Alumni Drive.

The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Music will present the Heterodyne Duo in concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29, in Cole Concert Hall in the first recital of the 2016-17 Cole Performing Arts Series.

The Heterodyne Duo features music faculty members Dr. Brad Meyer, director of percussion studies, and Dr. Nathan Nabb, professor of saxophone. They will perform a recital featuring contemporary and ethnic, dance-style music.

Among the works to be performed is “Release” by John Fitz Rogers, who describes the piece as a companion to an earlier one titled “Push.” The previous piece, scored for solo electric guitar, consists of “unrelentingly fast lines and repeated notes played at loud volume and with distortion.” In “Release,” he says he took a similar approach in that there are fast lines as well as repeated notes and chromatic figures articulated by both the saxophone and marimba. Though the form of both works is similar, in “Release,” the music is much quieter and gentler.

The duo will also perform Astor Piazzolla’s “Histoire du Tango” and Miriam Young’s “Snapdragon.” “Histoire du Tango” covers the evolution of the dance through the 20th century. Written in four movements, the piece chronicles the tango from its polite café form through its new nightclub dance form, making it into a new form for concert music.

Political in nature, “Snapdragon” was written just after America’s initial attack on Iraq and features “music that reflects a sense of anger and helplessness in the face of cruel acts imposed by man or nature,” Young said.

“Snow was falling in Princeton, physically trapping me in a tall apartment, while my connection with the outside world – the TV – projected sensational stories and graphic images of a faraway places in turmoil,” Young wrote of composing the piece. “There was a gradual sense of becoming numb, as weather and war preyed on a creeping awareness of my incapacity to act in any tangible way. So, the music that emerged has a poignant physicality: it is music rooted in the body – experiential, dynamic and earthy.”

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.