WC’s Harcum Gallery to host Liz Zorn’s exhibit, Animal Farm

Liz Zorn’s ultimately incorrect medical diagnosis, giving her two years to live, motivated her to return to her art studio, where she created a series of collage and graffiti-style paintings that grew from her personal healing to a commentary on life. Pieces from her Animal Farm series will be featured in an exhibition at Wilmington College’s Harcum Art Gallery from Oct. 22 through Dec. 11.

An opening reception honoring the artist is planned for Oct. 22, from 4 to 6 p.m., with refreshments served. Normal gallery hours are weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by special appointments arranged through Curator Hal Shunk, emeritus professor of art. Harcum Art Gallery is located in the Boyd Center for Cultural Arts on WC’s campus.

Zorn began her artistic journey as a young girl in the mid-1960s, taking private lessons as part of an Indianapolis Museum-sponsored youth program. That early instruction led to a brief apprenticeship as a composition artist and a short career in graphic design and newspaper composition art. By her mid-30s, she returned to painting as her primary artistic medium.

In early 2024, she encountered a medical emergency with an initial diagnosis giving her two years to live. “That diagnosis turned out to be wrong, yet the seriousness of the situation remained — I was determined to turn it around,” Zorn said, noting that, once back in the studio, she initially could not work at all. “Eventually, that changed, and what emerged from the uncertainty was a series of collage and graffiti-style paintings that grew from my personal healing to a commentary on life, current events and everything that caught my attention. If it was on my radar, it went into a painting.”

Zorn found words, marks, layers of paper and paint “all very raw and immediate.” When she reached the two-year mark with her health, her test results were some of the best she ever experienced. ”This is crazy work, but some of the best work I’ve ever done,” she said about the Animal Farm series. “Not because it checks a box or fits a world narrative of what art should or should not be, but because it says exactly what I intend to say.”

The series name, Animal Farm, is inspired by Snowball in author George Orwell’s 1945 novella, Animal Farm. “Snowball was the purest of heart, and the one who got away,” Zorn recalled, noting that one day in the studio, while working on a piece in the series containing many animal shapes, she thought about Snowball. “I was going to be like Snowball. I was going to survive. I was going to be the one who got away.”