On the surface, the two exhibitions local artist David Ruhlman currently has on display at the Alice R. Rogers and Target Galleries at Saint John’s University may not seem all that connected.
“Yogi Not Yogi” consists of paintings, sculptures, mixed media and objects Ruhlman has found over the years that explore the duality between the traditional Yogi – a seeker of enlightenment – and the iconic cartoon character Yogi Bear.
“It’s really about finding the wonder and dialogue with the things around us,” said Ruhlman, a graduate of the University of Utah who has lived in St. Cloud for a decade now and teaches art at South Junior High.
David has said he often thinks about a quote by science fiction writer, Phillip K. Dick, who wrote, “the symbols of the divine show up in our world initially at the trash stratum.” “We can learn a lot about ourselves through the things we throw away or typically dismiss as low art,” said Ruhlman.
“So the next time we see a cartoon, or something we typically think of as unimportant, we can look closer. I’d always thought of Yogi Bear as kind of a throwaway character that meant nothing. But the more you delve into it, and the more you think about it, there are really fascinating things about the ways in which this cartoon can be used when it comes to imagery, history and telling our own stories.”
The second of the two exhibits is titled “The Messenger” and consists of a series of works dealing with the healing process and navigating grief – a concept inspired by Ruhlman’s mother’s illness and death several years ago.
“I started to think about the ways I was dealing with her illness and death, as well as about seances and some of the other ways we try to communicate with those we’ve lost,” he said. “It deals with a lot of the different things that go into the process of how we work through something like that.”
Those things include leaning into the search for enlightenment, sometimes assisted by familiar pop culture imagery.
“One of the pieces is a photograph of my mom but showing Casper the Friendly Ghost leaving her body,” Ruhlman said.
“In another, I used these ink stamps of Yogi Bear that I stamped 748 times, using it as a mantra in memory of my mom.
“I’m 50, so I grew up watching Yogi Bear like every other kid, never imagining thinking about it more than twice,” he continued. “It was the 1970s and ’80s. I loved cartoons. Now I’m trying to use that language I grew up with as a way of accessing or thinking about my core beliefs. Seeking enlightenment in places I didn’t look before.”
The two exhibitions are scheduled to run through March 11. A reception and artist talk with Ruhlman is planned from 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 13.