The word “stratification” means a process by which materials form or are deposited into layers.

A collaboration of six artists — including a Wichita State professor and many alumnus — took that idea to heart and created a series of artworks now on display at the WSU-owned SHIFTSPACE gallery in the 400 block of Commerce Street in downtown Wichita.

Stratification will be on display until Feb. 13. About 800 vistors saw the art during the Final Friday gallery crawl this weekend.

In this fourth installment curated by SHIFTSPACE manager Lisa Rundstrom and Creative Rush founder Kylie Brown, the artists took the challenge of creating artwork that explores insight into humanity through a shared artistic journey.

“This idea originated when I was trying to break down my own creative process,” Brown said. “I was trying to figure out how I organize myself so I created six or seven layers that I deal with when trying to come up with an idea. When I broke them down, I was trying to figure out what would match that.”

After creating a list of artists that would fit with the concept, the idea was pitched to Rundstrom and they decided which artists would best realize the aesthetic idea.

“If you look at a composers score, there are maybe 20 lines, and every note has their own individual lines,” Brown said. “As a whole, it looks beautiful, but it looks chaotic to somebody who doesn’t understand. That is what I was trying to replicate in this gallery.”

Although Brown did not necessarily specify the “look” the gallery needed, she said the concept was crafted by the six artists, who together created a gallery that flowed through her “layers” as she had planned.

Tim Stone, artist and life drawing professor at WSU, is one of the artists in the series.

“I feel like this gallery was sort of an experiment to see how our art would be able to come together and how it clashed,” Stone said. “My work consists of paintings on canvas and a new experimental process of painting on masking tape on the canvas and then taking it off and installing it. By doing this, it gets rid of the object and focuses more on the illusion.”

 “Stratification” consists of different styles that blend and mesh paintings, drawings and yarn work, just as Brown hoped.

“It’s great to see everyone viewing these artists’ work and reacting to it,” Brown said. “It’s nice to see the community being involved in a unique and interesting creative process and for the community to feel a part of the process.”

WSU students and faculty stopped by to view the work.

“This was my first time coming to SHIFTSPACE,” said Johnny Vu, an art education major. “I liked the intimate, avante garde style of the gallery because it is unusual and seemed to be pushing the boundaries of what one might normally view.”