ISU Oboler Library Features Art by Helen Farrell and Stacy Beazer-Rogers

The Idaho State University Eli M. Oboler Library will present the art exhibit “The Snow Apple Collection” by Helen Farrell and Stacy Beazer-Rogers May 4-July 31 in the art exhibit area on the Library’s first floor.

The Library will host a reception for the artists and their work on Tuesday, May 5, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Participants can meet the artists and enjoy some light refreshment during ISU finals week.

Both Beazer-Rogers and Farrell said they are enjoying the exploration of various nooks and crannies at the edge of the frontier of the visual arts at the beginning of the 21st century. Though both work independently and often come at problems from different directions, they have often been surprised and pleased to find that they are working on similar problems or issues, according to the artists. Based on these similarities and differences, they have developed “The Snow Apple Collection.”

Beazer-Rogers grew up in the ranching community of Jordan Valley, Oregon, along the Owyhee Mountain Range, and in Idaho Falls. She spent most of her high school years in multiple art classes, extensively developing her drawing skills during that time. Her love of movement and the body won out over art as a career path as she graduated in 1996 with a physical therapy master’s degree from ISU. She continues to thoroughly enjoy her profession and approaches it with vast creativity and dedication.

Beazer-Rogers re-entered the art scene in November 2009, and describes herself as an artist in the making; studying, practicing, drawing, painting, working, but, most of all, enthusiastically enjoying the experience of art. She currently lives with her family in Idaho Falls. She is the co-leader, with Kathleen Burggraf, of the Museum Artists and is on the Board of Directors at The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho. This is where Beazer-Rogers and Farrell met in an art class in February 2010. They have been on an art journey together since that time.

Farrell is also a recent returnee to the field of art. She was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and studied art for several years in high school. However, she took a 50-year-plus detour through science before returning to art. Farrell studied physics and chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, and earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from University of California, Berkeley.

She spent almost 50 years in fundamental research experience in the fields of materials science, physics and chemistry and published widely, with more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in major scientific journals.

Farrell has extensive experience in fields as diverse as surface science, superconductivity and semiconductor and worked in industry at the National Laboratories and in academia. She also served as a program manager in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy. Farrell recently retired from Idaho National Laboratory as a Directorate Fellow, though she still keeps her scientific hand in via quantum mechanical nanoparticle calculations at State University of New York, Buffalo.

Over the last three years, her lifelong love of art has led her to become active again, largely through class at The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho where she currently volunteers.

The art exhibit may be viewed at any time the library is open; see the library’s webpage at www.isu.edu/library for the library’s hours.

For more information please contact Kristi Austin at the Oboler Library austkris@isu.edu (208) 282-4073.

The Oboler Library is located on the corner of 9th and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, at 850 S. 9th Avenue in Pocatello.