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Steve Konopacki
The exhibit, Inner Space – large scale paintings by Steve Konopacki, runs through October 7 at the Jan and Gary Dario Gallery, HU Bldg., Palm Beach State College, Lake Worth campus.
Steve Konopacki teaches college composition at Palm Beach State College, where his classes integrate the techniques of the formal writer with those of the word-painter.
His abstracts are hard to categorize, since he aims for his viewers to go beyond their rational search for meaning and explore the place within themselves that is without language, where color and relationships work together.
"The River:Images of Florida impinge while contemplating Manhattan from Edgewater, New Jersey.” 2004 Giclee print, 8 by 9 ft. (original piece, oil on canvas).
“I invite the viewer into the world where thought has passed from thinking, by capturing the latent silence found in the space between hard edged shapes, size provides various access points,” he said. “The interpreting mind passes from language-based semantic identification (what does it mean?) towards a stillness…towards still ‘life.’
"Onward Christian Soldiers on Jupiter: Opposing ideas meet where worlds collide.” 2009 giclee print, 8' x 9' (original piece, oil on canvas).
“In the movement from recognizable shapes into the surrounding silence, the constantly churning mind —the mind that demands meaning from all things — calms down and accepts the shape as a shape, not what it should become.”
Palm Beach State College is at 4200 S. Congress Avenue, Lake Worth. Gallery Hours are 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For information, contact Kristin Miller Hopkins at (561) 868-3909.
Opening night
I have known Dr. Konopacki for three years, first as as student, and later as a friend. His talent and resourcefullness are a challange and an inspiration. His is mutitalented and a great human being. My respect is very great for him.
Dr. “K” is a brilliant teacher. I was lucky to have him as a foreign language teacher in high school, and he always found a little time in the morning before school to read the articles I’d write in the local paper. The fact he showed interest in my writing really meant a lot at the time, especially because I was in the process of forming an identity for myself as a writer and as a young person entering into adulthood. He encouraged me to pursue a career writing, and I actually worked in journalism for quite some time. What he never expected, though, is that he really ended up inspiring me to become a teacher! In my early years in the classroom I often thought about him wondered what kind of sage advice he would offer a rookie teacher lacking much-needed confidence had I the luxury of speaking with him before class in the morning as I once did.
I always wanted to tell him what a huge effect he had on me despite the fact I wasn’t a particularly ambitious student at the time he had known me. Perhaps he will read this or at least some of his current students will and (if they don’t aleady know it) realize they have a gem of a professor. The fact that he is still instructing makes me happy, and it’s really cool to see his art will be displayed at Palm Beach State. I will certainly go and see it!