Tina Mullen’s solo exhibit comes to Sellars Gallery this fall

Tina Mullen’s solo exhibit, Be the Hollow Bone: Birds as Signals of Human Well-Being, will be on display this fall at Sellars Gallery at Brenau University.

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This exhibit features drawings and paintings of birds, many of which are declining in number worldwide. Mullens paints many of these birds in a way that represents the estimated number of birds remaining in the ecosystem. 

An opening reception will be held on Sept. 3 from 5-7 p.m. in the gallery. An artist talk and educational panel with Mullen and Sea Bird Biologist George Divoky, who influenced Mullen’s work, will take place on Oct. 1 from 5-7 p.m. in the Simmons Visual Arts building at Brenau. 

“Birds have fascinated so many artists over time with their beauty and wildness, but also because they represent a type of freedom that escapes humanity through the gift of flight,” Galleries Director Lybi Cucurullo said. “Having included birds in my own work, I am thrilled to see Tina’s representation and awareness of these populations that are losing their freedom as time goes on, and I hope her work will inspire others to think about how birds and humans interact every day.”

The exhibit will also feature bird illustrations from the Arader Collection, part of Brenau’s permanent collection, and will showcase the same bird species that Mullens painted when J.J. Audubon illustrated them more than a century ago.

“The juxtaposition of these two artists seeing the same birds in their separate lifetimes and timelines makes the dwindling numbers of these birds very real,” Cucurullo said. “We also will showcase some of the Arader works that feature bird species that have gone extinct since they were illustrated in the 1800s.”

The exhibit, opening reception, and artist talk and educational panel are free and open to the public.