Out & About: ‘Candyland’ artworks touch on international politics

Shirley McMarlin | Monday, February 10, 2020 12:01 a.m.

Kim Stepinsky | For the Tribune-Review

Exhibiting artist Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer (center) of Hempfield with (from left) her husband, Adam Shaffer, son Maximilian and adjunct instructor/art gallery coordinator Christine Kocevar at the opening of her “Candyland: The Land of Hope” exhibition, Feb. 6 in the Science Innovation Center gallery at Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood campus.

Just as a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, a candy coating can sweeten a serious message.

Artist Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer calls her work on display at the Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood campus “Candyland: The Land of Hope.”

The bright pinks, lilacs and blues of the paintings are intended to make the political themes “easier to digest,” the artist said during a Feb. 6 opening reception, pointing to one work that recalls controversy surrounding President Trump throwing rolls of paper towels at Puerto Rican survivors of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The exhibition, on display through Feb. 28 in the Science Innovation Center gallery, also contains prints influenced by the art of indigenous people in Cuellar-Shaffer’s native Colombia.

During the reception, the artist also fielded questions from students in WCCC Portfolio 2, painting and drawing classes, from the specifics of her color selections to overarching themes of what distinguishes “good” art from “bad.”

Students were accompanied by adjunct art instructor/art gallery coordinator Christine Kocevar.

Seen: Pamela Cooper, Mary Ellen Raneri, Lucy Pollock, Jensen Ingraham-Beene, Gabrielle Morse, Samantha Lantz, Conner Schultz, Carol McKain, Stephanie Oplinger and the artist’s husband and son, Adam and Maximilian Shaffer.