Dr. Janice Oliveri is an internal medicine physician and assistant professor of medicine at UConn Health. She began learning about photography while taking an undergraduate course in electron microscopy at Vassar College that required the students to develop their own microscopic prints. This course also opened her eyes to the wonders of nature on a small scale. In 2003, she completed a 2-year course from the New York Institute of Photography. “I have always been surprised and truly awed by the complex patterns, symmetries, colors and beauty that natural phenomena display,” says Oliveri. Capturing the light in just the right way and playing with depth of field adds to the magic and emotive quality of the print. I also enjoy getting lost in the technical aspects of using my camera. Choosing the right settings, approaching the subject in the best position, and reading the light really becomes a meditative process for me. I must completely concentrate and focus on the process and can escape reality in a healthy way!”
John Wheat minored in Studio Art at Wesleyan University. Following graduation, he studied for an MFA in sculpture and was an assistant instructor at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Mr. Wheat has also studied at the Silvermine Guild, San Francisco Art Institute, Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts and West Hartford Art League. “My work tends toward the representational and realistic,” says Wheat. “I use photographs and drawings as points of departure for my imagination. Because even photographs capture only a moment in time and a portion of the visible light spectrum, I seek to capture the ‘truth’ of an image beyond the photographic reality. This truth consists of many things: the light on a scene or object that caught my eye for a brief moment, the emotion evoked by that light or a set of colors, the drama of contrasting light and dark values or a re-composition of elements to tell a story.”
The art exhibits of both Dr. Janice Oliveri and John Wheat will be shown at the Celeste LeWitt Gallery at UConn Health until June 14, 2018.
UConn Health’s collection of fine art serves to enhance the environment and promote the sense of a caring community for patients, visitors, staff and students. Art is selected, acquired and exhibited by the UConn Health Art Advisory Committee. To view a selection of the permanent collection visit: UConn Health Art Collection.
