WINONA LAKE – Though she’s appeared on stage, in film and in TV shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies,” Dannielle Robertson’s exhibit at the Mount Memorial Art Gallery showcases her work behind the scenes. There are costume pieces she generated for various Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts productions like “Shrek,” and photographs of her miniatures and art she created for movies like “Jurassic Park: The Lost World” and “Waterworld.” Robertson’s exhibit, titled “The Art of Hollywood,” runs at the gallery through Oct. 31. The opening reception is Friday from 7 to 9 p.m., with an artist talk at 6:30 p.m. Hours for the gallery, located at 200 Seminary Drive, Winona Lake, are Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. In an interview Monday afternoon, Robertson said the exhibit covers the last 40 years of her career and only a portion of it. “I wanted to show our creative endeavors are very diverse and college students, art students, should never get slotted into thinking they should do one thing in life. And they shouldn’t lose the human contact because 99 percent of my career has been built upon my connections with the other people in the industry,” she said. By putting her work from different media into one exhibit, she said, “What I wanted to do is show the interrelation between TV, film, theater and art and how it all grows together and how it all should respect one another.” Upon entering the one-room exhibit, viewers will see costume pieces and photographs of costumes Robertson created for Wagon Wheel shows like “The Little Mermaid,” “Gypsy,” “Shrek” and “Nunsense.” There’s a corner featuring puppets from “Nanny & The Dragon” Robertson put together for a children’s camp. Other photos and pieces highlight Robertson’s work in movies like “Godzilla,” “Volcano,” “Stuart Little 2,” “Batman & Robin,” “End of Days,” “Broken Arrow,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Spider-Man 3,” “The Lost World” and “Waterworld.” Another corner shows the costumes she designed for a production of “Into the Woods” for the Victorian Theater in Dayton, Ohio. There’s a glass case where prototype action dolls from “Space 1999” for Mattel Toys that Robertson handpainted are on display. In the same case are scripts from “Cheers” and “Stuart Little 2.” The photos from “The Lost World” are ones Robertson uses in her classroom so students “can see how the process works visually,” she said. Over the years, Robertson has worked with many people in front of and behind the scenes. “My career has spanned generations of people. I worked with Ray Harryhausen and Colin Arthur,” she said.
