American artist Chuck Close once said "amateurs look for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work."

Liz Whitney Quisgard, the artist behind the newest HUB-Robeson Gallery exhibition, said this phrase describes her career perfectly.

Pattern and Structure premieres today on the bookstore level of the HUB-Robeson Center and will be displayed until Dec. 2.

The exhibition features large paintings, sculptures and fiber works made of yarn. The works emulate and are inspired by oriental rugs. She said her work was meant to bring attention and respect to older and more classic forms of art, such as tapestries and architectural columns.

"My art pays homage to those past art forms," she said. "The pieces feature dazzling color, dramatic contrast and elaborate embellishment."

A Manhattan resident, Quisgard does all of her fiber work by hand, and she said it takes around 90 hours to create a wall tapestry.

Quisgard, 77, also said she creates her paintings, which she describes as "architectural fantasies," by meticulously painting dots to create intricacy in her work.

"[My work] captivates the mind by seducing the eye," she said.

Bethany Van Velsor, gallery publicist, said Quisgard's works are very expansive and experimental and feature a lot of bright color.

"[People] have probably never seen anything like this," she said. "You can spend hours looking at it."

Unlike many artists, Quisgard said she did not create her pieces with any deeper symbolic meaning in mind.

"What you see is what you get," she said. "It is what it is. I don't apologize for that. If people are looking for something socially significant, they won't find it here."

Van Velsor agreed. She said the art was created for its aesthetic appeal.

"[It's] purely decorative and a joy to look at," she said.

Quisgard attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, and in her career, she transitioned from Abstract Expressionism to geometric pattern painting. She has also painted murals on public buildings and lobbies.

Quisgard will speak to the public in the HUB Auditorium at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 4 prior to her exhibition's reception at 7 p.m. Her talk is titled "Going for broke in New York: What every emerging artist should know about the obstacle course that is the NY art world" and is sponsored by the John M. Anderson Endowment Artists and Scholars Lecture Series in the School of Visual Arts.

Despite her age, Quisgard said her sense of enterprise hasn't diminished.
"I'm still as ambitious as I ever was," she said. "I hope there's a lot of strong years ahead of me. I'm never out of ideas."