Photo by Paul Corbit Brown of skulls of victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

IF YOU GO: Paul Corbit Brown will offer up a special slideshow presentation of his work in progress, “The Invisible Boys of Rwanda,” at 7 p.m., Wednesday April 25 at St John’s Episcopal Church, 1105 Quarrier St., in Room 109.

VIEW WEBCAST: Click here for a webcast interview and slideshow of Brown’s Rwandan photos.

By Douglas Imbrogno

With numbers and phrases, we try to capture the scope of tragedies. The media settled on “the worst shooting incident in U.S. history” to portray last week’s Virginia Tech slaying of 32 people. Yet with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, numbers and words beggar the mind’s ability to grasp the toll.

“They’re still finding bodies,” says West Virginia native and world-trotting photographer Paul Corbit Brown.

That’s understandable given the staggering piles of the dead. Estimated at anywhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers, they were all slain in a frenzy lasting about 100 days. Extremist Hutu militia groups, often armed with machetes, mowed down neighbors without pause, inciting or forcing others to grow the killing fields.

The genocide may have gone on only three months and a week, but its reverberations are what Brown now devotes his energies to documenting….

Click here to read this story in full.

For more on his work, visit www.paulcorbitbrown.com

“Portrait in the Composition of a Jackson Pollock Painting, Echo No. 10, 1959″ by Marc Dennis

“Figure It! The Human Factor in Contemporary Art” opens Saturday, April 14 at the Clay Center’s museum for a run through June 24. The exhibit contains 68 pieces, mostly paintings but also some photographs, drawings and prints. It explores the full range of figurative art by artists active over the past 30 years. Clay Center hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Adults $6.50, children, teachers and senior citizens $5. Call 561-3570 or visit www.theclaycenter.org.

University of Charleston senior art major Dane Klingaman, at his opening reception On Monday, April 9, 2007. Photo by Mark Tobin Moore

Dane Klingaman’s senior show of 57 collage paintings and digital prints on canvas is on view through Friday, April 13 at the Frankenberger Gallery on the 2nd floor of Geary Student Union at the University of Charleston. Klingaman’s art works have been included in regional venues such as the Cultural Center, Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences, Huntington Museum of Art, Art Emporium and Taylor Books Annex Gallery. Gallery Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., M- F.