Expressing your feelings through art may be a lot easier than doing it with words. At Sacramento State’s exhibit “The Body: Vessel for the Soul,” students, faculty and members of the community were given the opportunity to express their interpretation of the exhibit’s title through different forms of art.

The exhibit was created through collaboration between Kalyn Coppedge, health educator for the Fitness, Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Program called Fit HELP, and Sue Anne Foster, an art department lecturer.

Foster said a lot of times, the exhibits at Sac State showcase work by art students or art faculty. Her purpose for this exhibit was to get the community involved and to display artwork from a variety of people.

“There will be some more naive beginner work and then there’s some very professional work that’s in the show,” Foster said. “I like that continuity of odds and ends coming together around one great form.”

There is a wide variety of artwork displayed at the exhibit, including paintings, sculptures, metal work, drawings and photography.

Jeremiah Jones, senior art studio major, said he liked the different types of media used at the exhibit.

“I definitely like it. There’s a lot of diversity and different artist expressions,” Jones said.

Coppedge said she and Foster wanted to have a gallery that would give artists the opportunity to show beauty in a lot of different ways. They also wanted to give them the ability to showcase the human body.

“So many times in the media we see kind of the same Photoshop image all over the place,” Coppedge said. “It’s nice to let people see a different interpretation of the human body and the different ways that it’s beautiful.”

Maria Winkler, art department professor, has an artist book displayed at the exhibit. An artist book is a non-traditional book that’s like a sculpture.

Winkler said she thinks society is so caught up in the exterior of women that she wanted her artist book to point out the interiors of women, both the good and the bad.

Winkler’s book cover has a secondary cover called, “The Book of Vices and Virtues.”

“The dark pages are the vices and the luminescent or translucent pages are the virtues,” she said. “The inside book cover says, ‘It’s what’s inside that counts.’ The whole book is in a shape of a woman’s torso, so as you open the book, you’re also opening her up and looking inside.”

Ernylla England, one of the artists featured in the show, heard about the exhibit through Foster. England said the idea for her piece, “Turning Inward,” came from a bad time in her life.

“I wanted to show how one turns in on itself. Being by one ‘s self – sort of withdrawn from the world. That was my feeling,” she said.

England said her artwork for the show is an expression of her feelings.

“It was very important at the time, kind of a self-therapy. It helped me get over the bad times,” she said.

Foster has two pieces in the exhibit. One of them is called “Sunbaked Beauty.”

“One is a handmade paper torso with a copper swimsuit on, and the handmade paper is very parched and dry,” Foster said. “I call it ‘Sunbaked Beauty’ because it’s like you’ve been in the sun for too long. We tend to worship the sun and I love the sun too, but too much of it isn’t good, so here’s this body with very tanned and rugged skin and this beautiful bathing suit,” she said.

Foster’s “Sunbaked Beauty” piece can have several messages.

“One is, even though you are not perfect with the skin, you still have a good time donning a wild, fun suit, or it could be the irony of too extreme interest in tanning your body.”

Foster’s other piece, a handmade paper bra with a bird in one of the breasts, is called “Nest in my Breast.” The idea for this piece came from her experience with breast cancer 15 years ago.

“I had breast cancer so I lost a breast, and I had to contend with that,” she said.

During her treatment, Foster raised African Grey Parrots. She said she would carry one of the tiny, baby birds around to keep it warm and to let it have contact with some life.

“I made a little soft thing and put it in my empty breast and carried the bird around in it. It was kind of a way to humor myself. At the same time I was experiencing a loss,” she said. “It’s my symbol of accepting what is and finding humor as you go.”

Rene LaRose, junior art major who works for the gallery, said she really likes Foster’s piece, “Nest in my Breast.”

“I like the idea that you take something that is a terrible experience and turn it into something quite beautiful,” LaRose said. “She got that baby bird next to her and she found a place for it. I think that’s really precious. I think that’s what art is really all about – giving meaning to the difficulties people have.”

Coppedge thinks it’s nice to be able to showcase the human body and to see how our flaws can make us special.

“So many people have different views of what beauty is, and I think it’s really nice to appreciate that and hear from other people about the good stuff, not always the bad stuff,” she said.

Foster and Coppedge chose the pieces for the show according to whether or not they fit with the overall theme.

Foster said the theme deals with inner beauty and knowing who you are and owning what that is. She hopes this exhibit will have something for everyone.

“People look at art once over lightly, and I’m hoping people walk into this and they’ll find at least one thing that just really makes them stop in their tracks and think,” Foster said.

“Body: Vessel for the Soul” will be showcased in Kadema Hall’s Witt Gallery through Friday. The gallery’s hours are from noon to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Christina Li can be contacted at [email protected]