Southwestern Michigan College Art Professor Emeritus David Baker presents “A Sense of Place,” two brisk suites of 2015 watercolor paintings, at St. Joseph’s PechaKucha Night at the Box Factory for the Arts, 1101 Broad St., at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11.

PechaKucha Nights present 20 images, each for 20 seconds, in a PowerPoint presentation style which originated in Tokyo in February 2003.

Baker, who recently moved from Dowagiac to St. Joseph, did his first group of paintings on location at Jean Klock Park. These were exhibited at Terrazzo Gallery in June.

The second suite, just completed, has never been publicly displayed.

“A Year at Shoreham Village” is a 12-month odyssey inspired by the cove and bluff along the shoreline near Baker’s new home.

Besides teaching at SMC for three-and-a-half decades, Baker is a faculty member of Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck and at The Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph.

He creates artwork in a variety of media, principally watercolor, oil or charcoal.

Much of his recent work strives to express the poetry of the local landscape or bodies of water.

Baker frequently works outside from direct observation.

His portfolio can be viewed online at www.dbakerart.com

PechaKucha — Japanese for “chatter” — has spread to more than 800 cities around the world, helped by a limited number of public spaces where people can show and share creative works in a relaxed way.

In other locales, PechaKucha Nights have taken place in restaurants, bars, clubs, beer gardens, homes, studios, universities, churches, prisons, beaches, swimming pools and even a quarry.

Images advance automatically in the format devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture as a way to keep architects and other creative types from talking too much.

Their six-minute-and-40-second time limit keeps PowerPoint presentations concise and fast-paced.

Anyone can present. Astrid’s daughter showed her artwork at 5.

Mark’s mom presented at 69 on elaborate wedding cakes she created.

The key to a great presentation is to share something you love.

 

Southwestern Michigan College is a public, residential and commuter, community college, founded in 1964. The college averages in the top 10 percent nationally for student academic success based upon the National Community College Benchmark Project. Southwestern Michigan College strives to be the college of first choice, to provide the programs and services to meet the needs of students, and to serve our community. The college is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges.