A Visit to Ashby-Hodge Gallery on the campus of Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri

On February 16, 2014 at two-o-clock in the afternoon, I visited The Ashby-Hodge Gallery in Classic Hall, located on the Central Methodist University campus in Fayette, Missouri. The gallery has hours of 1:30-4:30 PM on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. A person can call to schedule a private tour of the gallery. This is good for teachers that want to take children on a local and educational field trip.
The gallery is sectioned off into three different open rooms. The first room that I went into was all paintings by Rodney Burlingame. I enjoyed many of his paintings that were on display. Some of the pieces that I enjoyed were “Last Day of Vacation”, “Alone on the Beach”, “Tipping the Fiddler”, “Follow Your Dreams”, and “Amish Kids”. I liked these pieces because they were either really detailed or just simple. For example, “Tipping the Fiddler”, Burlingame uses many details, but little use of color. He makes sure that people can see every single detail of the painting. The setting of the painting is a worn out downtown that has graffiti on the buildings. There is a boy that is seen tipping the fiddler as a woman is walking on by. This painting is really detailed unlike “Follow Your Dreams”. In the painting “Follow Your Dreams” there is a woman walking her dog past a building with the words, “Follow Your Dreams”, graffiti on the building. There is not much of anything else in the painting except for a payphone and part of another building with some more graffiti on it. Clearly these two paintings were meant to be settled in an old-worn out downtown to show that some places are not being taken care of and that it is okay to follow your dreams. I noticed as I walked around in this room that Burlingame must like to use ac...

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Visiting the gallery made me think that art comes in many different shape, color, and views. Everyone is an artist in their own special way. There may have been several pieces that I did not like in the gallery, but the artist and other people have liked it and that is why it is a piece of art. I remembered in class we talked about how pictures can usually tell more than someone’s words. I believe that everyone that has looked at the pieces that I looked at today most likely all had different views on what the artist was trying to convey. There is a reason why artists do not always include words in their art because it is up to the viewers to think about the meaning behind the works.
Everyone should visit the Ashby-Hodge Gallery on the campus of Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri. There are truly several different and fascinating pieces.