The Spencer Museum of Art has selected a painting as the KU Common Work of Art to accompany this year’s KU Reads title, “Orbital,” by Samantha Harvey.
Each year, the Commons picks a new title to spark cross-campus conversations and host community events, and the Spencer picks an artwork to match.
“Orbital” explores human nature and relationships to and on planet Earth from the view of a space station. Staff at the Spencer selected “Winter Flight” by Kay WalkingStick, a two-panel landscape painting, to accompany the book.
WalkingStick painted “Winter Flight” following her first husband’s sudden death, according to a KU news release.
“The churning of grief felt in WalkingStick’s thick application of paint and representation of the powerful force of a waterfall evoke the awe, uncertainty and fragility of life, themes ever-present in life aboard the space station,” said Celka Straughn, the Spencer Museum’s director of academic programs.
KU faculty and instructors can request a copy of “Orbital” at this link.
People can see “Winter Flight” in the Spencer’s Michaelis Gallery as part of the “Empowerment” exhibition.
The Spencer is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 1301 Mississippi St.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.
If you have news tips, questions, comments, concerns, compliments or corrections for our team, please reach out and let us know what’s on your mind. Email us at [email protected] (don’t forget the KS!), or find more contact info and a quick contact form at LawrenceKSTimes.com/contact.
Follow us so you won’t miss the local news that matters most to you:
Latest Lawrence news:
Jacob Rice / Lawrence Times
Logan Pierson / Lawrence Times
