ALTOONA – Exhibitions of works by Craig Blietz  will be on display in the McLanahan and Sheetz Galleries of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts at Penn State University through March 2, 2014.

Blietz lives and works in Wisconsin. He received a BS from The University of Denver, then continued his art and design studies at The Harrington College of Design. He finished his formal studies with four years of academic training at The School of Representational Art. Blietz studied privately with master draftsman and recognized Chicago figurative artist Fred Berger. He also studied with renowned Chicago portrait artist Richard Halstead and with painter, printmaker, and illustrator John Rush. Blietz’s work has been exhibited in venues such as The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, The Charles Allis Art Museum, The Rahr-West Art Museum, The Wright Museum, and The Elmhurst Art Museum. Blietz is represented by Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Button-Petter Gallery in Douglas, Michigan. He is best known for his rural and agrarian-inspired imagery, primarily featuring domestic farm animals. Blietz’s work presents a surreal interpretation of animals in the ‘pastoral scene’ suggesting much about the relationship of the animals to one another and the resulting parallel to human behavior.

On his art, Blietz states, “ Painting allows me to translate my visual experiences – the things I observe directly, those residing in my memory, and even those which spring from my imagination. I paint to give these visual experiences a tangible form. Embedded in my work are recognizable, form-rendered animals set in a context that is both abstract and formalist. Animals are the perfect non-verbal messenger of a painting's symbolism. They serve as the surrogate for an open narrative, and their mere presence and form plays out a human drama. As a painting's subject, animals make it possible to manage the abstract and visceral response of the viewer. Their behavior can be interpreted in the viewer's own terms. To me, a "painting" is much like a "yard." Both are areas arranged and subdivided to provide purpose, and to contain. As a yard becomes defined by the combination of things that reside within its boundaries, it evolves -- from a tangible and measured space to a mosaic of form, function and open narrative with infinite interpretations.”