Artists use their medium as a platform to communicate a message. Paintings can often trigger thoughts and feelings through elements such as color, form and line quality. Artwork may even bring back a memory for a viewer. In his MFA thesis, Mark Robert Barry played on this theme.

His show, “mnemonic,” opens Monday at the Arts Council Gallery at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center. The opening reception is Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. The show will run until March 28.

Barry’s last exhibition, a master’s requirement, focused on disease and the way some bodies fall apart faster than others. While the work in his current show built on his previous series, it is much lighter.

“I kinda wanted to make something more accessible, to viewers as well as myself,” Barry said.

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Bill Dooley, a professor in the art department and director of the graduate program, said he has watched Barry’s work progress and referred to Barry’s body of work as “a window of cultural forensics.”

“I feel like there’s something about Mark’s painting that speaks to spirituality,” Dooley said. “Paintings hold a certain mystery for people who look at them. Mystery that turns into intrigue.”

Before enrolling in the graduate program at The University of Alabama, Barry worked in graphic design and brand strategy. His professors said his former career has helped him in his studies and affected the way he approaches the program.

“He has this ability to know what people want to communicate,” said Matthew Mitros, a ceramics professor. “He’s really thoughtful in his delivery with students.”

Barry wants the audience to see the memory of how the piece was made, in addition to what else they may see in the work.

“Artwork that speaks to many people is artwork where we have a sense of knowledge of how the work was made or the opposite, a sense of wonder about how the work was made,” Barry said. “I’m intentionally making it extremely obvious and clear through showing the process history.”

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Dooley said Barry’s process heavily involves manipulating paint and canvas through “acting upon the plane” of the work, and that Barry spoke to him about his work in terms of creating forms and then removing what was unnecessary.

“He kind of straddles painting and sculpture,” Dooley said. “Although his works are literally paintings, they tend to engage space.”

Barry’s work falls into current ideas of painting’s place in the art world. Because photographs can capture accurate representations of object, Dooley said painting has become less about factual truth and more about feelings and emotions.

“He’s interested in you connecting with his memory,” Dooley said.

Barry has a specific memory of creating the work, but viewers have given him different perspectives on what they see in the pieces. His wife, a dance professor at the University, said the shapes were dancers. Another viewer thought they were nations at war with each other.

Barry said he has a need to create and if he isn’t working on something, he gets agitated and his attitude affects those around him.

“I make art because it makes me a better person,” Barry said.

He said by making himself and those around him happy, he does his part to make the world a better place. He said his time in the MFA program has made him more aware of himself in addition to strengthening his technical skills.

“I know why I like the things that I like,” Barry said. “I have an understanding of my personal aesthetic.”

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