Press Room

"What do we live for, if not to create?"

By: Nikki Vroman, Brookings Arts Council Staff

In creating a picture, Cory Allen Heidelberger says a painter at the very least gives the world something new at which to look. The Brookings Arts Council will host an exhibit featuring his work June 28 through July 27 at the Community Cultural Center, 524 4th St. An artist’s reception and gallery talk will be held July 27th at 5:00 p.m.

An SDSU math graduate and currently a math and English teacher at Montrose High School, his exhibit entitled “Geometry IIA,” reflects his profession. He also coaches oral interpretation, debate and drama.

"The mathematical schemes that determine the size of my canvases and grids are as much a natural extension of the world as the root systems that plunge unto the earth to anchor the cottonwoods around my workshop," he said.

Heidelberger says his work represents the mixture of order and chaos that flood over our lives every day. When he comes to his canvas with a plan in mind, those plans are only a starting point for chaos to take over and manipulate his ideas into the final product.

"It’s always exciting to see what I end up with," he said.

During high school and college, Heidelberger’s paintings leaned toward portrait and still-life. Later, he returned to non-representational art, feeding a desire to create something completely new and unlike anything else. He says that his biggest inspiration is the sheer thrill of creating though learned most of what he knows about art from his high school art teacher, Jill Frederick, who inspired him to "think big."

Some other inspirations include artists Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian and John Singer Sargent.

Despite numerous enjoyable travels and extended stays in places like Boston; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Moscow and Vancouver, Heidelberger remains convinced that Lake Herman, SD, is the best place in the world to live and paint and he resides there with his wife and daughter.

Painting in the summer is a pleasant escape from the classroom for Heidelberger. He generally works outside, where he said he "Doesn’t need to worry about making a mess in the house and shed." He says his best works come out when he is not restricted by walls or by the perimeter of a small canvas.

Whether someone looks at a painting literally or metaphorically doesn’t matter to him as long as they get joy out of what they have seen. "Someone could look at my painting and get it wrong," he says, "but there are many more ways that they can get it right."

Heidelberger says he likes to think of his work as a part of nature, in that if humans arise from nature, then the things that we create are, in turn, also a part of nature. "If we are lucky, each new painting will also create new feelings, new thoughts, new conversations, new understandings, and new questions."

He hopes the viewers of his work can feel the same wonder and excitement as he experiences when creating. “If a painting can provide even a few moments of diverting pleasure for its viewers, then the painting was worth creating."

Heidelberger’s exhibit can be viewed Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. For more information call (605) 692-4177 or log on to www.brookingsartscouncil.org.