Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: News

Senior 3D studio major Jeff Conrad learns how to work the Community Machine Gun by Gary Justis after the artist's lecture Tuesday in the Tarble Arts Center.(Breann Pleasant/Daily Eastern News)

As a child, Gary Justis never knew that playing with rubber bands and firecrackers would one day influence his work.

Approximately 100 members of Eastern's community crowded into the Tarble Arts Center Atrium Tuesday to hear Justis speak.

Justis, a kinetic sculptor and professor at Illinois State University, discussed his works and the inspiration behind them.

"Dreams and Reason: Sculpture by Gary Justi" debuted at the Tarble Arts Center on Jan. 11, and concluded today with Justis' lecture.

Justis said the show represented a culmination of two and a half years of collaboration with L.J. Douglas.

He said some of his work was inspired by his childhood.

Justis' father, who was a tradesman and an inventor, would help him and his brother build all sorts of contraptions, such as a repeating rubber band gun, a firecracker gun and a go-cart.

"I used to hang out with him a lot in his shop," he said.

Justis said inspiration can come from a person's personal history, but he cautions being overly sentimental.

"It's OK to look at any part of history," he said. "The danger is it can become sentimental, and you can make things that are over-sentimentalized as a result. I think you kind of have to stay away from that sentimentality when you're looking back."

Justis said he hopes his audience gains a new perspective from his work.

"For my sake, I want them to look at my work and say 'I never thought about the world in that way before,'" he said. "It's a really gratifying feeling when someone says that, because this means that they're having an original experience. Originality in sculpture-or in any art - I think is really important."

Justis also said he hopes his art motivates his audience's youngest members.

"I'd like for kids to look at my work and say, 'well, maybe I can do that,' or 'maybe I can do that someday,' or 'I can do better than that,' that's thrilling," he said.

Justis said he strives for perfection, and that in doing so, constantly improves as an artist.

"I think, if you're striving for something that's flawless in every way… (it) is an impossibility," he said. "But I think if you strive for that (impossibility), you keep getting better and better and better."

Originally from Maize, Kan., a small farming community of approximately 600 people, Justis moved to Chicago in the late 1970's and earned his master of fine arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1979.

"When I first went to Chicago in 1976, I was enamored by the level of technology there," he said.

Justis was invited to Eastern by Chris Kahler, the associate fine arts professor and visiting artist coordinator. Kahler knew Justis when he was a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1995, and admires the elaborate technical aspect of his work.

"His work is not just sculpture, and not just video, but a combination of several different media," Kahler said. "It transcends our experiences associated with each to create something new and interesting."

In light of difficult times, Justis said people should continue to appreciate the arts.

"I think its important for people to understand the importance of art in hard times, and even through tragedy (that creates) life is what fuels culture and encourages people to do the right thing, for each other and for the community."

Jason Hardimon can be reached at 581-7942 or jrhardimon@eiu.edu.

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