For years, Mary Tobola has followed her muse on a journey of inspiration as an artist, a student and an educator. This autumn, Ms. Tobola - a lecturer in the State University of New York at Fredonia Department of Visual Arts and New Media and a resident of Leon - will sample the path of the performer.
 
Ms. Tobola will begin work on her latest abstract creation during the opening reception for the SUNY Fredonia Invitational Alumni Art Exhibit on Friday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Rockefeller Arts Center Art Gallery. Thirty-two SUNY Fredonia alumni artists will have a total of 55 pieces on display in media ranging from photography, painting, drawing, and illustration to conceptual art, pastels, graphic design and sculpture. The exhibition will remain in the Rockefeller Arts Center Art Gallery through Friday, Oct. 15. Admission to the opening reception is free and open to the public.
 
Four years ago, Ms. Tobola returned to SUNY Fredonia as an adjunct professor after graduating with the Class of 1997and subsequently earning her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University at Buffalo. Despite the familiar setting at SUNY Fredonia, she was not the same artist as the student who had previously walked the halls of Rockefeller Arts Center. In 1999, Ms. Tobola had an opportunity to spend six weeks in Germany as part of an independent, on-site sculpture project, and the European experience dramatically changed her approach to her work.
 
"When I came back, I felt this energy," she said, "and I was able to grab my canvas and say, 'I don't want this on a stretcher (anymore).' Next thing you know, I was walking across the canvas, sprinkling charcoal as I went, or I was on the floor, spinning (the canvas), making marks and always looking for the human figure to appear. It became kind of a search for the human form."
 
This technique, she explained, is not radical simply for the sake of being different. During her creative bursts, Ms. Tobola will practice breathing meditation and reflection techniques to stir her imagination. The process involves a level of self-awareness and concentration through which she seeks to find a personal connection with a higher level of understanding.
 
"It's a ritual, a spiritual end," she said. "For me, every painting is a prayer…the concept is not just to produce a work. It is part of a journey to slip into the gap between the subconscious and the conscious. I know as I work that I'm spinning, and I'm painting, and I'm drawing, but the meditation aspect of this process keeps me in the gap, in that meditative space."
 
Ms. Tobola will attempt to reach this level of artistic enlightenment in public for the first time at the opening reception for the SUNY Fredonia Invitational Alumni Art Exhibit. She will set up a canvas in the lobby and settle in to work on a project, allowing guests at the exhibition to see firsthand how abstract art is created.
 
"At some point, right in the beginning of the reception, I have to separate myself from everything," Ms. Tobola said. "I kind of excited about it, because it will put (the technique) to the test. I mean, I love everybody here - it will be a friendly audience, so I'm OK with this."
 
Although she has come a long way from her days as a teenage artist, begging her father for studio space in the basement of their South Buffalo home and painting self-portraits on sheets of waxed paper, Ms. Tobola remains smitten with the unconventional ways in which color and shape can move the heart and mind.
 
"I can't fight it," she said. "I can paint and draw very real (images), but I choose to do this more fascinating work. It's that line, it's that negative and positive energy, that just plays with my eyes and drives me crazy. I can't help it."
 
The Rockefeller Arts Center Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free. For more information about Art Gallery events, please call June Miller-Spann at (716) 673-4897 or email spannjm@fredonia.edu. The Department of Visual Arts and New Media is online at www.fredonia.edu/department/art/index.htm.