Department of Art News

Paige McDonnell, a recent graduate, was the second recipient of the Del Rendon Scholarship.

To Del Rendon, art was a full-time job. At least, that’s how his former art professor and thesis committee advisor Brent Funderburk described him.

“Del was one of those persons with indistinct edges in terms of his love of music, visual art and creative vision,” said Funderburk. “He would create art about musicians and music; he would write songs about his art. He would go into his evening critique and then perform later in a band. It was a full-time, never-clock-out artistic life, even as a student. Del believed that art should be a full-time, lifetime job – not just go to class, and do the work – which made him a role model.”

So, when Rendon passed away in September 2005, his family and friends decided to honor and remember him by establishing an endowment in the MSU Art Department, which helps make it a little easier for MSU students who possess similar passions for art fulfill their dreams.

The MSU Department of Art Del Rendon Scholarship is given to a freshman or sophomore art student who exhibits a strong and creative portfolio. The student must also have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA in their emphasis area and an overall GPA of 2.5 or better.

“The premise is to find a student that’s multi-disciplinary,” said Lydia Thompson, head of the Department of Art.

Thompson said the application process for the scholarship is a good way to build students’ knowledge of what a practicing artist does, as they will likely have to apply for grants and other funding to support their art in the future.

“It teaches them the process of how to put together an application and go through the process,” she said.

Each year, family and friends organize the Del Rendon Music Festival (also known as the DelFest) to raise funds for the Del Rendon Foundation that supports the scholarship.

Dave Hood, DelFest organizer and proprietor of Dave’s Darkhorse Tavern, characterized this year’s eighth-annual event, held on Feb. 23, as the most successful one to date.

“DelFest has evolved from a way for family and friends to find some meaning in his passing into an extremely special way to celebrate his art and music,” said Hood.

So far, two students have received the scholarship, which is renewable each year of study.

Aj Meadows was the first recipient of the Del Rendon Scholarship. Meadows received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2009 with a sculpture emphasis from Mississippi State and went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts from The Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

“Receiving the Del Rendon Scholarship acted as a sort of stamp-of- approval or ‘green light’ to continue with the arts, music in particular,” said Meadows. “The Rendon family has always shown support for my music, from playing amazing open mic nights at Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern to performing for sold-out crowds in Glasgow.”

Meadows is currently working in Scotland with his band, belle in the meadows, to record their first full-length album.

“I couldn’t have gotten here without the Rendons’ support,” he said.

Paige McDonnell just graduated with an emphasis in graphic design and has received the Del Rendon Scholarship for three years now.

“This scholarship was a fantastic opportunity that helped me afford a great education and was really encouraging as an artist to receive,” said McDonnell.

McDonnell is planning to spend eight weeks in London, England, for an internship this summer and looks forward to applying for a professional internship with Disney.

“We are excited to see the impact the scholarship has already had on students and want to continue to grow the endowment with the hopes that one day it can provide a full-ride to a deserving student,” said Andrew Rendon, Del’s brother and foundation board member. “We are also very grateful for Lydia Thompson’s leadership and passion and look forward to continuing to work with Lydia on growing this scholarship.”

Applications for the scholarship will be available in the fall, and the next Del Rendon Scholarship recipient should be awarded in early spring.

“The recipients of this scholarship are passionate, young artist who show great promise in making their mark in the art world,” said Thompson. “Del Rendon’s legacy lives on through the music and visual arts of our students and alumni.”

If you are interested in supporting the Del Rendon Scholarship, visit www.msufoundation.com. Please specify that you would like the gift to go toward the Del Rendon Art Scholarship in the College of Architecture, Art, and Design. You can also contact Nathan Moore at 662-325-8227, or email him at nmoore@foundation.msstate.edu.

Wesley Ortiz’s Muted Resistance features 12 works completed during the past year. (photo from the Monroe Journal)

(from the Monroe Journal)

Wesley H. Ortiz, a 1998 MSU Department of Art graduate, recently culminated his graduate studies at The University of Mississippi with a thesis exhibition at the Southside Gallery on Oxford’s historic square.

The show, titled Muted Resistance, featured 12 works completed during the past year. The works, created with gesso, acrylic, charcoal and graphite, combine placid fields of whites and toned grays, juxtaposed with violent applications of drawing materials to create turmoil.

“My paintings are the voice of silenced negative human emotion. The works are expressions of negativity, despondency, confusion, anxiety, subjugation and the loss of identity,” said Ortiz. “They are examples of internal reactions to external tension. Each piece presents a fragile state of vulnerability and the act of fighting against or succumbing to the overwhelming distress. They represent our human psyche and physical tolerance to the many degrees of agony.”

Ortiz joined The University of Mississippi in 2010 as a graduate student in the Fine Art Department. In 2011, he won first place in the Mississippi Collegiate Art Competition. His work has been featured in the Meridian Museum of Art and the Amory Regional Museum in Mississippi, as well as the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Brooklyn, New York; the After Sputnik exhibition in Long Island City, New York; Tennessee Valley Art Association in Tuscumbia, Alabama; and Juried Online International Art Exhibit at Upstream People Gallery.

He received his Master of Fine Arts from The University of Mississippi on May 11.

Read about Ortiz on the “Eating Oxford” blog.

Julia Moore, owner of Wet Paint (Photo by Thomas Wells | Daily Journal)

Women-owned businesses thriving
(By Sarah Robinson | Daily Journal)

New information provided in the State of Women-Owned Businesses Report showed Mississippi ranked sixth in the nation in terms of growth in the number of women business owners since 1997.

The number of women-owned businesses in the state is estimated to be 68,000 in 2013, a 77.4 percent increase since 1997. Those firms account for 6.1 percent of Mississippi’s workforce and contribute more than $9.3 billion to the state economy.

Julia Moore (MSU art alumnus) opened Wet Paint, a paint-your-own craft business in the Barnes Crossing Plaza in Tupelo, when she was just 24 years old.

“I have always wanted to own my own business. …I didn’t know it would be at such a young age.” she said.

Moore said she depended on private investment and the support of her family to get the business off the ground. She has been open for about 18 months and said she sees about 100 customers per week.

“I think a lot of people don’t see women as having the same business brain that men do,” she said.

But Moore grew up in a family-owned business and often goes to her family for advice.

“If I have an accounting question, I go to my sister. For business questions, I go to my mom; and for operations questions, I ask my dad,” she said.

Experienced business owners agree that having a close support network is critical.

Lisa Hawkins has owned Room to Room furniture on Coley Road in Tupelo for 10 years and previously owned the Velveteen Rabbit, another successful retail outlet that specialized in children’s clothing.

Hawkins said many of the obstacles women perceive are in their minds. Although she still struggles with self-doubt from time to time, “I grew up always believing that I could do anything,” she said.

Hawkins was recently chosen to serve on the Memphis board of directors for the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, a testament to her leadership skills.

She has a master’s degree in nursing, and she said education is important to give women confidence and credibility in the business world.

Finding a mentor and taking advantage of community resources can give aspiring entrepreneurs an advantage, she added.

In addition to her involvement in several nonprofit groups, Hawkins has been involved with New Expectations for Women in Mississippi, or NEWMS, an organization aimed at helping empower women to improve their quality of life.

Hawkins said women need to support one another in their business efforts, and that joining networking groups is a great way to find a support system.

According to the NEWMS website, women in Mississippi are 50 percent more likely to live in poverty than men in the state. The organization sponsors workshops, lectures and other educational programs specifically geared toward women.

Martha Swindle is active with NEWMS and said the leadership class the organization offers is “not like any other leadership class you’ve ever taken.” She said many women have taken the the class taught by local business leader Rubye Del Harden.

“One woman has taken it seven times,” Swindle said.

The Renasant Center for IDEAs business incubator also has been a jumping point for Tupelo and Lee County entrepreneurs and business owners.

Catonyia Steen went to the Renasant Center soon after she decided to open a clothing store.

She spent more than a year taking classes at the Renasant Center and worked with the staff to create a formalized business plan she used to secure bank financing.

Steen opened Fashionista in the West Main Shopping Center just over a year ago.

The Pontotoc native said her father was a business owner and she grew up working in the family owned businesses. “I guess it just came in my blood,” she said, “I wanted to do the same thing.”

In addition to growth among women-owned businesses, the annual Women-Owned Businesses Report showed growth particularly among minority-owned businesses.

Steen, who is black, said she faced more obstacles entering into business as a woman than as a minority. She said some people she has encountered think women are more easily manipulated than their male counterparts.

“They think they can easily persuade you to do different things” rather than sticking to your plan, she said.

Steen added that staying focused is important, as is learning as much as much as possible and being passionate about your dream.

For more information about Wet Paint (fun for all ages and located at 4344 Mall Drive in Tupelo), email Julia Moore at wetpaintceramics@gmail.com, or call 662-269-2412.

Journey Concert Poster | Jamie Mixon

A concert poster created by Professor Jamie Burwell Mixon for Verizon Arena won second place in the Pollstar LIVE! Poster of the Year competition at the 2013 Pollstar Concert Industry Awards and Conference. Her poster for a performance by the band Journey was on exhibit at the CIC 2013 in Los Angeles in February along with 30 other posters selected as finalists for the award. Over 200 concert poster entries were received from around the country this year.

The 24th Annual Pollstar Awards were held Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles and hosted by Michael McDonald. Presenters included singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, producer and musician Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), performer Deadmau5 and Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville.

Katie Killian, a recent Department of Art graduate, had one impression from the “Autonomy of Motion” series and an intaglio/monoprint, “Separation of Plight,” accepted into the Student International Juried Small Print Show. Both prints were created in Professor Linda Seckinger’s Art 4620 Advanced Printmaking course.

The international competition is sponsored by El Minia University in El Minia, Egypt.

The exhibition will open in the Creativity Center at El Minia University on March 23, 2013. The show will also travel to the Opera Art Gallery in the Opera complex in Cairo later in 2013.

Following the exhibitions, the accepted prints will be entered into the El Minia University permanent print collection.

Killian graduated with a BFA in spring 2012 and is planning to earn an MFA degree in printmaking at the University of Arizona at Tucson, where she was recently accepted into the Graduate Program for fall 2013.

Anna Katherine Phipps | “Homophony” | Acrylic & latex | 40 W 25.5 H

Anna Katherine Phipps, a December 2012 graduate from the Department of Art, was selected as “Runner Up” in the Fine Arts category of Creative Quarterly: The Journal of Art and Design (Issue 30).

Her submission, “Homophony,” was completed under the instruction of Professor Brent Funderburk for her thesis body of work.

According to the national magazine, “Runner Up” entries receive a majority of votes by the judges. Phipps’ work will be reproduced in the online gallery when the coinciding issue of CQ30 publishes this spring.

See the complete list of winners. (Phipps is listed under runner-up | fine art: student)

Katie Killian | “Autotomy of Motion”

Katie Killian had a print accepted into Americas 2013: Paperworks, a national juried art competition and exhibition.

The juror, Nicole Pietrantoni, selected only 28 pieces for this prestigious national competition. Killian’s accepted print, “Autotomy of Motion,” was an intaglio/monoprint created in Professor Linda Seckinger’s Art 4620 Advanced Printmaking course during her senior semester at MSU.

Killian recently graduated from MSU in 2012 with a BFA in Art (emphasis in painting). She has applied for entry into a number of printmaking graduate programs and hopes to start working toward an MFA degree in the fall of 2013.

Americas 2013: Paperworks National Juried Exhibition will be on display at the Northwest Art Center Hartnett Hall Gallery at Minot State University in Minot, N.D., from Jan. 7 through Feb. 20. There will be a public reception on Jan. 17 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. at the Hartnett Hall and Gordon B. Olson Library Galleries.

The juror, Pietrantoni, is a professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. She is the recipient of numerous artist residencies and awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship to Iceland, a Leifur Eiriksson Foundation Grant, the Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award and the Elizabeth Catlett Fellowship. Her work is in numerous collections and has been in both group and solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad.

Artist Richard A. Lou works on the installation of his exhibit at the Department of Art’s woodshop in Howell Building. Lou’s exhibition is site-specific, meaning it is different every time it is installed, having to fit in a new space with different dimensions.

By Lori Neuenfeldt, Programs Coordinator for the Visual Arts Center Gallery and Outreach Programs

The Mississippi State University College of Architecture, Art and Design and the Department of Art is proud to bring the work of artist Richard A. Lou to the MSU Visual Arts Center (VAC) Gallery on University Drive.

Stories on My Back is a three-dimensional, multi-media installation that combines photography, found object and sound. With his work, Lou questions and initiates discussions about race and celebrates the multicultural background that the world shares. To do this, Lou oftentimes references his own Chinese and Hispanic heritage as a visual way to introduce the viewer to ideas of cultural identity. Lou constructs spaces that are meant to evoke ceremonial places where familial stories of loss, migration, assimilation, power, and love are told and shared. The artist uses the power of storytelling as a means to connect with visitors. As audience members walk through the installations they hear recorded stories of tales passed down from the artist’s own family, spanning four generations.

In an interview with Guisela Latorre for an article in the 2012 American Studies Journal, Border Consciousness and Artivist Aesthetics: Richard Lou’s Performance and Multimedia Artwork, Lou said, “I always talk about stories. I come from that background. My father was a wonderful storyteller, and my mother is a wonderful storyteller. In actuality that is how I entered into the visual arts, it was from writing because I was interested in writing before I became interested in the visual arts.”

Text and word are both important to Lou’s work. Images of Lou’s family are throughout the installation of Stories on My Back. One of the images, titled Magda, is Lou’s daughter juggling small stones, each imprinted with a single word – “Chinese,” “the,” “grind,” “would” and “Pebbles.”  These stones reference the story of Lou’s father who practiced speaking English with pebbles in his mouth. Another visual reference to Lou’s Chinese heritage that is significant to the installation is the color red. Red is the Chinese symbol for good fortune. Red also recalls bloodlines – the essence that ties generations of families together.

Versions of Stories on My Back have exhibited at the University of Mississippi and Georgia College & State University. What makes the installation of the piece unique is that it is site-specific, meaning it is different every time it is installed, having to fit in a new space with different dimensions. The VAC Gallery installation of Stories on My Back will be extremely unique because the piece will fit into four different gallery rooms.

MSU photography alumni April Wallace, left, and Candace Hitt help Richard A. Lou with the installation of his exhibit. Hitt received her MFA from the University of Memphis and studied under Lou.

Richard A. Lou is Professor of Photography and Chair of the Department of Art at the University of Memphis. Lou’s career includes work as a curator and essayist and he has worked with groups as the Border Art Workshop and the Georgia Council for the Arts. Lou received his BA in Fine Art from California State University at Fullerton and his MFA in Fine Art from Clemson University.

Stories On My Back will be on display January 15 to March 23, 2013 at the Visual Arts Center (VAC) Gallery, 808 University Drive, Starkville, Mississippi.

The artist, Richard A. Lou will be speaking to the public about his work on March 7, at 3 p.m. in the Robert and Freda Harrison Auditorium in Giles Hall.

A gallery reception will also be held Thursday, March 7 from 6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at the VAC Gallery. Both events are free and open to the public. For more information call 662-325-2973.

Frog Principal Designer Michael McDaniel recently presented a system of 3S detachable gondolas connecting neighborhoods throughout Austin,Texas, making it possible for cyclists and pedestrians to “hop” over particularly congested areas. (Image from fastcodesign.com)

Michael McDaniel, a 1998 graphic design alumnus from the Department of Art at Mississippi State, has recently been highlighted for his aerial mass-transit proposal for 21st century cities.

McDaniel, a principal designer at frog, said the side project began as a way to teach junior designers “how to do design research and break up complex problems into attackable chunks.”

He was invited to speak about the concept at the PSFK conference in San Fransisco on Nov. 1 and said the project has since taken off.

Check out his interview with Fast Company.

Read the feature by PSFK.