Art gallery season to open

“You Have Not Seen: Roots and Wings,” an installation of art by Christa Reuel, will open the 2013-14 schedule in Bluffton University’s Grace Albrecht Gallery, located in the Sauder Visual Arts Center.

Opening Aug. 26, the exhibit is free and open to the public through Sept. 22, when a reception will be held for Reuel from 2-4 p.m. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 1-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

A native of New Holland, Pa., Reuel earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2008. Interested in exploring how art and spirituality intersect, the Leicester, N.C., resident is currently working on interactive projects with her husband, singer-songwriter Jonathan Reuel. She is also co-founder of Dandelion Seed Company, an artist network.

“You Have Not Seen,” says Reuel, “draws heavily from incidents in my life that seemed to imply that God either didn’t care or didn’t exist (and we are all alone down here in our suffering).

“In these times, I’ve sensed/seen the cracked, broken mountains being filled in and healed; I’ve tracked a bird soaring on the wind, beautiful in the midst of a dense fog that blocked all vision,” she adds. “I’ve sensed that I don’t know the whole picture and have begun to accept the admonition to not judge too quickly, but to wait and act in the midst of suffering. To hope and not despair.”