display work at Malone Gallery

By JAINE TREADWELL

Features Editor

Once in a blue moon, there comes along a woman who is so rare, so unique that her essence must be captured for generations yet to come.

At least that is the belief of Troy State University art professor Pam Allen.

Her "Blue Moon" series of paintings, which will be featured in a month-long show in TSU’s Malone Gallery of Art beginning Monday, originated in this belief.

The exhibition will include 15 oil paintings – all figurative.

The subjects of the paintings are moons and young women, "young maidens" and appear to be portraits but they are not, Allen said.

"I worked from photographs and ideas in my head," the artist said. "When I first started the "Blue Moon" series, it was with the idea that there are maidens on this earth who are not mothers – not madonnas. How do we look at them? What merits their values? I began looking at these women in a different way. I searched for the qualities that made them strong, passionate unique maidens. These women appear once in a blue moon and I tried to capture a rare glimpse of them in my paintings."

The "Blue Moon" exhibition is itself a rare occurrence as Allen steps from behind the professor’s podium into the gallery spotlight.

"Art work is very personal," she said. "My students will see me exposed when my work is displayed. But it’s good for students to know their teachers work outside the classroom and try to practice what they preach."

The "Blue Moon" show will open with an artist’s lecture at 4 p.m. Monday and a reception will follow.