The Helmet Project

At 8am on September 11, 2001, it was easy to perceive our lives as serene; we were safe.

Even while Bernie Madoff’s crimes were being exposed, most saw our economy, our country, as prosperous; we led the world.

And while the scientific community embraces a vision of quantum mechanics and string theory, shattering our basic understanding of the observable universe, we are left behind only capable of viewing Newton’s world; we are blind.

We are a visually biased society, living in a time in which we can no longer believe in what we see.

Artist Biography

Gary Chapman received BA and BS degrees from Berea College and his MFA, in Painting, from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He spent many years living and painting in New England before relocation to Alabama as a Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Chapman defines himself as a conceptually driven figurative painter working in oil and mixed media. He is an active exhibition participant, having had over 50 solo exhibitions, as well as having participated in numerous group and invitational exhibitions.

He has received many grants and fellowships, including a 1996 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship from the Southern Arts Federation and 2002 and 1994 Individual Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.