Artist inspired by junkyard 'edge'

"It's the people living on the edge, day after day, that fascinated me as I went to the junkyard every day to paint," John Hull says of his series of paintings, "Pictures from Sonny's Place."

The works were inspired by a junkyard at a desolate crossroads outside a small Wyoming town.

Hull will display his artwork with award-winning College of Charleston faculty member Barbara Duval in "John Hull & Barbara Duval: Works" at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art on campus.

How did he become intrigued by a junkyard?

"I had my work in a show in Clearmont, Wyo., in a gallery right around the corner from this incredible junkyard," explains Hull, the new chairman of the College of Charleston's studio art department. "And I became so interested in the kind of people who came there, and the stuff left there, that I applied to be an artist-in-residence to stay a month in Clearmont and paint scenes at the junkyard."

He adds, "Most fascinating was Sonny, who ran the place and would watch me paint while he drank beer and smoked Marlboros. Lots of people would drop by, and business was very casual; it seemed Sonny was never really that worried about selling anything."

Ten of the 14 paintings in the series will be included in the exhibit. A newcomer to Charleston, Hull moved here in June.

He was born in New Haven, Conn., and received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1977, then earned his master's in fine arts from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign in 1981.

After teaching painting at Yale for nine years, he taught for 10 years at the University of Colorado-Denver. He has been exhibiting nationally since 1981, and his work is in public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Israel Museum, Yale University Art Gallery and many others. He has won numerous grants and awards, including four National Endowment for the Arts visual artists fellowships.

In 2005, Hull illustrated a book written by his father, Dr. McAllister Hull, a physicist who helped build the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. The book is titled "Rider of the Pale Horse: A Memoir of Los Alamos and Beyond."

Barbara Duval, a professor of printmaking, has been teaching art at the college for more than 20 years. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she received a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Pratt Institute and a master's in fine arts from Yale. Her art has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the United States and Europe and is included in public and private collections such as the Contemporary Art Center in Osaka, Japan. In 1987, Duval received a Fulbright Fellowship to Berlin, Germany. She also won a MacDowell Colony grant to Germany.

Mark Sloan, director of the Halsey, says, "This faculty exhibition gives the college community and the public a chance to see the diversity of approach, technique and talent of these professors."

A reception honoring the artists will be held 5-7 p.m. Friday at the gallery. Also, Hull will discuss his work at 6 p.m. Nov. 1, and Duval will speak on her art at 6 p.m. Nov. 8. Both talks will take place at the gallery in the School of the Arts, 54 St. Philip St.