The Sordoni Art Gallery featured a show that has the ability to change viewers’ opinions on what is traditionally considered art. The exhibition, known as LIT by artist Lyn Godly, is a mash-up between art and science. 

The exhibit features photos that are first manipulated with materials such as graphite and pastels and then, the finished images are placed in light boxes. Following that, Godly threaded LED lights into the images in the boxes or overlapped them with a dichroic film that selectively passes and reflects certain colors of light. 

Godly has a background in industrial design, a field focused on how people interact with the objects around them. She further decided to make the exhibit full of nature images because research suggests that nature-based images lower stress levels and calm people. Godly also chose to use light throughout her pieces to affect the viewer in a positive way. 

She also mentioned how she would like to use these calm-inducing images and lights beyond exhibitions.

“We are looking at how we can use this kind of work in hospital settings and manipulating both the image and the wavelength to have a positive effect health-wise on people. It may be a hospital, it may be a chemotherapy room where people are stuck in a high-stress environment for a long time, it may be a courtroom,” said Godly. 

One of the artworks featured in the show, “InFlight,” has had a notable impact on viewers. In past shows, it led people to sit and stare at the piece for hours. People even returned several times to the piece to enjoy the sight which is not typical of most art in exhibits.

Heather Sincavage, the director of the Sordoni Art Gallery, brought Godly’s work to the campus because of how the diversity of her use of art relates to many of the academic fields and interests at Wilkes.  

“Learning that she (Godly) is really focusing in on not just the aesthetics but also the physiological impact was pretty exciting. So, I thought, thinking about our campus and how there are a lot of people in healthcare here, it might be an interesting way to involve people across campus,” said Heather Sincavage, director of the Sordoni Art Gallery.

This exhibit will be open to the public until Sunday, Aug. 4. The gallery will be open during their summer hours from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday. 

The Sordoni Gallery attendants encourage not only Wilkes University students and faculty but the greater community to stop by the exhibit before it’s gone for good. 

“Incorporating light is something that is really different and really unique to this show. It’s not something you see every day, it’s not something that you would see in this area a lot so it is really special to the art gallery here,” said Olivia Caraballo, educational outreach ambassador for the Sordoni Art Gallery. 

The gallery also held a lecture that featured the artist and a community event called Art Block both in mid-July.

The Sordoni Art Gallery is located inside the Karambelas Media and Communications Center and will remain open until the closure of the exhibit. On Aug. 27, the gallery will reopen to feature a new exhibition “Rust Belt Biennial.” 

You can also find the Sordoni Gallery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @SordoniGallery. Any images or selfies that you take at the gallery can also be featured on their page using the hashtag #SAGSelfie.