BY AMY CARLSON GUSTAFSON

Pioneer Press

From the time she was 6 until she started college, local artist Lindsy Halleckson was a devoted figure skater. She competed nationally in Junior Olympics and Olympic trials, but by the time she graduated from high school in Lakeville, she had had enough of life on the ice. When she attended college at St. Olaf in Northfield, she chose a pre-architecture program but later realized she wanted to pursue her love of art. By combining her interests in science and math with her passion for art, Halleckson graduated in 2002 with degrees in studio art and art history. For the exhibit "Between the Lines: Behind the RED CULTure," which opens Saturday, Halleckson, Alissa Valdovinos and William Collins introduce works based on the emotional and scientific shades of the color red.

1. Why did you build an exhibit around red? Red is definitely my favorite color, and there is just something about it that draws me to it. Over the last couple of months, I've been researching what people say about red, and it's amazing what I've found. Anything from Russian or Chinese communism to love or hate to witchcraft. Sausages was the funniest one.

3. How do you use science in your art? After college, I was thinking about the philosophical parallels of art and science — how we use either art or science to see the world around us. With this exhibit, I'm going on the idea of the relationship of color with sound.

4. Does your artwork always have a certain message? Yes. I feel like that is the purpose of art. I always try to create a strong image — a balanced composition. I do create my art for a specific reason, but it's up to the viewer if they want to get that or not.

5. If red is your favorite color, what is your least favorite? Browns. They're the hardest for me to work with.

by Valerie Valentine

The Pulse

Red denotes lifeblood, passion, virility, warning, love, communism, meat...no other color encompasses such varied symbolic connotations recognizable in mass culture. What better theme for an artistic salute? Kids down at Studiopolis do it up in Between the Lines: Behind the RED CULTure, with works by emerging painters Alissa Valdovinos and Lindsy Halleckson. Opening night was accompanied by the music of William Collins, playing laptop songs composed in the key of red.

The combination of music and art appeals, because so often one art influences another. Inspiration can arrive from beyond the realm of human emotion and experience. Artists use other arts to enter into a subject, or they combine media to double the reactive effects. Film begs for soundtracks, sublime visuals arouse the poets, and visual artists interpret sounds, words and sights.

Collins’ “key of red” is a creative twist on the scientific analysis of color and sound. The musical note F-sharp vibrates on a wavelength identical to that which the color yields. His songs hit the ear the way red hits the eye. What results is a double-whammy in tonal stimulation. A wistful, rich melody sporadically decayed by soaring beats echoed the experience outward in a way that quiet artful musing cannot replicate.

Art by Alissa Valdovinos comes from deep inside. Cellular units make the bits come together in an organic manner. It could be brains and bloody body parts, or simply that which is most vulnerable in the artist. The paintings are intimate; “Conversation with My 2nd Attempt” is like looking at someone’s visual diary. A human target for love gets hit, infected and begins disintegrating. Figural shapes make it utterly human; a combination of virility and virus that present this composition as a work of life and death.

Viral speckles and chunks can cause the skin to crawl, while comforting with warm tones at the same time.

Lindsy Halleckson’s post-punk pieces balance bold color with wild titles. “Satan’s Sassy Underpants” gives a frame of reference to otherwise abstract streaks. The work relies heavily on aesthetics and philosophy of abstract expressionism, mainly that of spontaneous improvisation and gestural technique. Halleckson keeps the tone consistent, with red’s resonance differing widely, depending on background shades.

Studiopolis should be anyone’s starting point for investigating the artistic portal that is Northrup King. In this space artists get communal, and showcase their sharing sensibilities by making it a gallery.

Between the Lines: Between the RED CULTure runs through July 10. Studiopolis, Northrup King Building, No. 423, 1500 Jackson St. N.E., Mpls. 763-442-3101.