Department of Art News

The Department of Art faculty have an exhibit open through June in the Cullis Wade Depot Gallery: It’s What I Do.

Read more on MSU’s website.

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April Shelby at the reception for her senior thesis work.

April Shelby’s thesis work

Last summer, April Shelby decided to start a Facebook page to post pictures of her artwork.

“That generated a lot of interest, and I was surprised to find out that people were actually interested in the work I do,” the soon-to-be ceramics graduate from the Florence said.

Since then, Shelby has stayed busy creating pieces for sale and working on her thesis body of work.

“Last semester was a really big one,” she said.

Shelby was honored when she was selected by her professors to win a pottery wheel at the 41st MSU Juried Student Art Exhibition. She also recently received a grant from the Entrepreneurship Center that provided the funds to purchase a kiln, which has been ordered and should arrive any day.

“I’m just waiting on that phone call,” she said.

The artist gives credit to her professors and the Department of Art for helping prepare her for a career in art. She said studio assistant Michelle Neumann and Professor Robert Long were always available to help her with art and even to offer advice about working as an artist in general.

“My thesis also really taught me to become a dedicated studio artist and put forth the effort and work every day on a particular goal,” said Shelby.

She also says she could have never pursued her love of art without the constant support of her family.

“They’ve always believed in me, even when I’ve doubted myself,” she said.

Shelby said her next big purchase will be a building, and she’d like to start making as much work as possible to sell in stores and more sculptural work for galleries.

“I’m just excited to have my own equipment and make what I want to make,” she said.

April Shelby, right, stands with fellow senior Sarah Kilpatrick. Shelby recently received funds from the Entrepreneurship Center to purchase a kiln to help her get her own business started.

April Shelby will be graduating next week with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. However, Shelby is already well on her way to owning her own successful business, thanks to the Entrepreneurship Center.

Shelby, a ceramics student, recently received a $2,300 grant from the Entrepreneurship Center to purchase a kiln. She also recently won a pottery wheel from the 41st MSU Juried Student Art Exhibition and has already made her first sale.

Shelby’s funds came from the Thad Cochran Endowment for Entrepreneurship (TCEE). The endowment’s funds are to be allocated to help students with start-up capital needed to launch a business – usually the biggest barrier to starting a business.

The first step in the month-long application process to receive funding is to meet with Parker Stewart, marketing research associate for the Entrepreneurship Center.

Students then must complete a one-page business plan and put together a 10-minute presentation for the Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board (ECAB).

“I help them every step of the way,” Stewart said.

ECAB consists of business faculty and entrepreneurs from the community who meet once a month, and Stewart even suggests meeting with the committee just to discuss an idea and get feedback and general thoughts.

“With that many people in a room together,” he said. “They come up with some things you wouldn’t have even thought about.”

The Entrepreneurship Center also offers other resources to help anyone interested in starting their own business and even those interested in working for a new start-up company.

“We’re not limited to the type of student or the type of idea,” said Stewart. “As long they are passionate, are dedicated and want to move forward and make an actual company out of it.”

A seminar series, GE3011 – Engineering Entrepreneurship Seminar, is a one-hour elective open to anyone in the fall and spring. The course meets from 2-3:15 p.m. on Tuesdays and brings in alumni who’ve started their own businesses, patent attorneys and insurance professionals to give an overview of what’s involved in starting a business.

The Entrepreneurship Club (eClub) started with six students just over a year ago and has grown to 40 students with 20 different startup companies. The club is open to any MSU student. Dues are $25 per semester and go toward monthly lunches before the seminar series, trips and access to the newly built Company Laboratory (Co-Lab).

“The eClub takes ‘eMbarkments’ throughout the year to tour startup companies, pick the brain of the owners and get a feel for the people who are living the entrepreneurship adventure,” said Stewart.

The group recently toured Daxko, a software firm for nonprofits in Birmingham. Stewart said the culture was similar to Google. Employees could write on the walls; they rode in on skateboards, and the CEO’s desk was right there when you got off the elevator. Stewart said the eMbarkments are also beneficial for students who want to work for a startup company and get plugged in and network.

The eClub recently received funding and raised $15,000 to build a room, the Co-Lab, located in 209 McCool Hall. The walls in the room are covered with high-quality dry erase paint, and the room is meant to serve as a creative workspace for eClub members.

“It’s meant to be a space for students to be able to sketch a building design, a logo or website layout where they are not limited to your typical whiteboard space,” said Stewart. “It’s massive.”

The Entrepreneurship Center also offers competitions with cash prizes. The center gave away almost $60,000 in prizes at a recent competition, including $15,000 in cash and $10,000 in legal services to the grand prize winner.

For those students who just want a taste of what it’s like to start a business, the center works to plug them into startup companies. They get paid to work for a certain amount of time and get experience.

“It’s cool to be able to see a student interested in entrepreneurship get plugged up with a startup company,” said Stewart. “And when they get done, they want to start their own business.”

Stewart said in his job he mainly serves as a liaison, putting students in touch with people they will need to start a business, such as attorneys, accountants, insurance representatives, people in a particular industry and faculty members. He encourages anyone with an idea or even those who are already making money and don’t know where to go from there to come talk to him.

“I’m not an expert at many things, but I know people who are.”

For more information, email Parker Stewart at jps274@msstate.edu, or call him at 601-810-2453. You can also visit the Entrepreneurship Center located in 210 McCool Hall.

Professor Jeffrey Haupt

The Department of Art is proud to showcase works by its very own faculty members from May through June. Works will include samples of paintings, ceramics, sculpture, drawings, photography and printmaking all made by professors at Mississippi State University.

The Department of Art Faculty Exhibition will be in the Cullis Wade Depot Gallery (second floor of the MSU Welcome Center, next to Barnes and Noble and the Stadium). Hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. The gallery is free and open to the public.

For more information, or to set up a guided tour please contact:
Lori Neuenfeldt, Coordinator for the Visual Arts Center Gallery and Outreach Programs
662-325-2973, lneuenfeldt@caad.msstate.edu

A reception was held on Thurs., April 11 for 16 fine art and photography students. The seniors were announced in the Department of Art Gallery in McComas Hall, and the reception continued at the Colvard Student Union Gallery and the Visual Arts Center on University Drive.

The exhibition, which will be on display from April 9 through April 13 in McComas Hall and the Visual Arts Center Gallery (and through the end of April in the Colvard Student Union Gallery on the 2nd floor), represents the culmination of a year of research and thesis studies, as well as four years of university foundations, survey, art history, academic and emphasis classes. The capstone experience consists of the development of a significant body of work, as well as critical studies, writing and exposition that leads to a group exhibition, archive and portfolio in the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

Students exhibiting include:
Loren Bartnicke
Mary Katherine Blackwell
Kellie Brady
Alexis Harrington
Nathan McRee
Ashlei Michelle
Jon Nowell
Destiney Powell
Dorothy Printz
Riley Reed
Whitten Sabbatini
April Shelby
Mary Switzer
Morgan Welch
Hannah Williams
Kacey Woolery

The Spring 2013 BFA Fine Art and Photography Senior Show is sponsored by the MSU Department of Art and the College of Architecture, Art and Design.

If you would like to purchase any of the work or for more information, contact the Mississippi State University Department of Art at 662-325-2070, or email lneuenfeldt@caad.msstate.edu.

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Click here for the schedule of events.

Watch the video on WCBI!

Read the article by Daniel Hart in The Reflector.

MSU senior art student DestineyPowell at work in her studio.

(Written by thesis students:)
What started out as a simple series of drawings grew into a much more personal battle for MSU art student Destiney Powell when she found out that her son has a hole in his heart and will require surgery, just three days before her senior art show opens on April 9. Life is built up of a series of experiences in which we have the chance to grow based on the decisions we make. Just ask Destiney, a senior Art/Drawing major from Batesville, about her own life experiences, and she will show you her scroll-like works of art that are as large as figures, complete with vibrant, organic forms alive with movement and color. She has illustrated the creation of life, from conception through the birth process. Powell chose to use this journey as a metaphor for her growth as an artist in order to “express the moods and emotions that [she] felt throughout [her] own pregnancy.” An optimistic and hopeful young woman, Powell says, “Maybe this life lesson is happening for a reason. My thesis is now about experiencing life with your creations. It’s now about my son and the experiences and challenges that he will face. Perhaps art is life after all.”

April Thesis Show Features Works by Sixteen MSU Students
Powell and 15 fellow senior art students will exhibit their Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Fine Art and Photography Thesis Exhibition during the month of April in three galleries across the MSU campus: the Department of Art Gallery in McComas Hall, the Colvard Student Union Gallery and in MSU’s Visual Arts Center at 808 University Drive. A public reception filled with faculty, students, friends, family and food will be held on April 11th in all three galleries beginning at 5:30 p.m. in McComas Hall, proceeding to the Union Gallery at 6:30 then arriving at the Visual Arts Center at 7:15 p.m. and ending at 8 p.m. It is also open to the public, so all are encouraged to attend. Student introductions will take place in McComas at 6 p.m.

The exhibition, which will be on display from April 9 through April 13 in McComas Hall and the Visual Arts Center Gallery (and through April in the MSU Colvard Student Union Gallery on the 2nd floor), represents the culmination of a year of research and thesis studies, as well as four years of university foundations, survey, art history, academic and emphasis classes. The capstone experience consists of the development of a significant body of work, as well as critical studies, writing and exposition that leads to a group exhibition, archive and portfolio in the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Each student is mentored by a faculty thesis committee and develops the exhibition processes as part of a team of students. The BFA Graphic Design senior show will follow this exhibition. Mississippi State University’s Art program, a part of the College of Architecture, Art and Design, is the largest undergraduate studio program in the state of Mississippi and offers views of its senior student work each semester.

Student Artists Represent Diverse Art Disciplines
Sixteen MSU senior students represent Fine Art Concentration emphasis areas of Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, and Drawing, as well as the Photography Concentration.

Riley Reid, MSU Photography student from Athens, Ala.

“Woman at Window” by Riley Reid

Art/Photography major Riley Reed of Athens, Ala., explored the sociological and psychological theory that says our perception of ourselves is really based on how we think others perceive us. Reed observed this theory through her camera lens as she has photographed people interacting inside their homes, but she will not be inside with them. She stands outside and takes the photographs through a window, with the permission of the subject(s), of course. Reed says that this “allows her and her audience to become involved in the lives of others but distanced in a way that gives an extended look into the lives of others outside the critical eye of the world/community.”

Jon Nowell, MSU art student, stands in the proximity of his work

Jon Nowell, an Art/Sculpture major from Ridgeland, strives to celebrate his artistic freedom. He says that these “artistic objects and instances manifest naturally and ostentatiously to illuminate the things [he has] learned, observed, desired and failed to comprehend fully.”

Dorothy Printz, an Art/Painting major from Brandon, seeks to communicate past, present and future emotions through her mixed media, sculptural spheres that include letters from her grandmothers and dyed fabric.

Art/Painting major Kacey Woolery of Morton depicts the struggle of dealing with past relationships through his charcoal and paint representations of “The Red String of Fate.”

Art/Photography major Alexis Harrington of Starkville studied Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs,’ a psychological theory, as she photographed the experiences her subjects go through when a specific need is taken away.

Loren Bartnicke, an Art/Painting major from Little Rock, created busy, visually intriguing, thought-provoking images of people. Her paintings are not about the subject but about the physical existence of the paintings.

Ashlei Michelle of Ocean Springs is an Art/Drawing major; however, she succeeds in creating three-dimensional objects that complement her drawings. The series of objects appear to be clothing made of latex that obviously constricts the motion of the wearer. The purpose of these wearable objects is to convey the social implications of physical disability.

Starkville native and Art/Painting major Mary Switzer says that there is “a cognitive spontaneity” in the way she has painted her atmospheric, soft, neutral acrylic paintings.

Kellie Brady, an Art/Photography major from Brookhaven, uses a monoprinting process to create nonrepresentational images of conflict and tranquility that stem from her own life experiences.

Mary Katherine Blackwell, an Art/Drawing major from Macon, has illustrated a murder ballad called “The Mountain” written by her brother and local Blues musician, Drew Blackwell. To create a sense of unease, Blackwell chose to splash red ink on the otherwise neutral color palette.

Art/Photography major Nathan McRee of Grenada captures his curiosity of nighttime and dim light in a series of landscape photographs taken across the countryside of Webster and Grenada counties.

Morgan Welch, an Art/Sculpture major from Jackson, has built a workbench to be presented not only as a tool but also as a historical study and an effective design object. He has strategically planned out this highly practical workbench so that it functions in the best interest of the user.

Hannah Williams, an Art/Photography major from Amory, has photographed the interior of her home in order to create a dialogue of the transitional tension that takes place when domestic change occurs.

Art/Photography major Whitten Sabbatini of Clinton explores people, places and incidents through the medium of digital photography.

April Shelby of Florence is an Art/Ceramics major who combines hand-built and wheel-thrown clay techniques. She has constructed multiple ceramic objects that can be arranged differently each time they are displayed so that the perception of the work of art is never the same.

The Spring 2013 BFA Fine Art and Photography Senior Show is sponsored by the MSU Department of Art and the College of Architecture, Art and Design. For more information, contact the Mississippi State University Department of Art at 662 325 2070, or email lneuenfeldt@caad.msstate.ed

Artist Richard A. Lou, one of the jurors for the exhibit, congratulates all the students and tells them the quality of their work made his job tough.

A reception for the 41st MSU Student Juried Exhibition was held on March 7 in the Department of Art Gallery in McComas Hall. The presentation of awards honored winners in the Fine Art and Graphic Design competitions.

This year, 105 works were selected consisting of sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, mixed media, graphic design, typography and package designs. Over $2000 dollars in prize and purchase awards were given out.

The work was selected for the exhibit by two jurors outside of the university. Richard A. Lou is a photography professor and chair of the Department of Art at the University of Memphis, and Doug Barrett is an assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The show will remain up until March 28. Gallery hours in the Department of Art Gallery in McComas Hall are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All galleries are closed during school holidays.

Congratulations to the following winners:
• 1^st Place in Fine Arts category – Shelby Nichols for Scanography: Ecuadorian Tropics
• 2nd Place in Fine Arts category – Trey Hardin for Clarence
• 3^rd Place in Fine Arts category – Dominique Belcher for Colorful Soul
• Honorable Mention in Fine Art – Angela Latham for Nestled Tea Pot
• Starkville Area Arts Council Award ($100) – Nicole Beck for Fantasy and Reality
• 1^st place in Graphic Design – Sweta Desai for “We Click – Self Promotion”
• 2^nd Place in Graphic Design – Ashley Bennett for “Stay Foxy, Self Promo”
• 3^rd Place in Graphic Design – Margaret La Foe for “Cured! Pork Products Packaging”
• Graphic Design Juror’s Award ($100) – Bethany Johnson for “Letter Press Business card”
• RGH Paint Award to Regan Watts
• Mount Vision Pastel Award to Anthony Lowe for “Plugs”
• Potter’s Wheel Award to April Shelby
• Bill Dunlap Purchase Prize – Angela Latham for Nestled Tea Pot
• Bill Dunlap Purchase Prize – Jacob Craig for Untitled
• Bill Dunlap Purchase Prize – Sarah Kilpatrick for Tea Bowl

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The Art Department is pleased to announce the Penland School of Crafts Higher Education Partners Program Scholarship. This scholarship will enable the recipient to attend a two-week workshop in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to study one of the following disciplines: Books & paper, Drawing, Iron, Photography, Letterpress, Wood, Clay, Glass, Metals, Printmaking or Textiles.

This opportunity is available to ALL concentrations within the art major.  You must be a sophomore, junior or senior with a minimum 3.0 GPA within your concentration and have completed the 18-hour foundation program.

The deadline for application is January 25; an information session will take place Friday, Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. in Stafford 100A.

To Apply:  Submit five images from your portfolio on CD, a letter of intent, and the general information form to the Art Department Office.

Read the flyer for more details!

Lydia Thompson in her studio.

(SUN HERALD)

Professor Critz Campbell | 3 Feet High and Rising

Andrew Robertson, MSU alumnus | Wishful Reveries

Paige Prisock Cannon is a graduate from MSU and took sculpture courses from Professor Critz Campbell. Her painting, Fall, is shown, bottom right.

When Rosemary Prisock first asked members at Old Waverly Gulf Club in West Point to submit art for a show as a way to celebrate National Art Month, she was a little nervous about how many people would get involved.

Prisock, the directory of hospitality of the club, ended up being shocked by how many members shared her love for art and contributed to gallery.

“I was thrilled,” she said. “I think for our first year, it’s amazing.”

The owners of Old Wavery, George and Marcia Bryan, heavily support the arts, and Marcia even submitted two collages for the show.

The entrance of the club now houses the gallery, made up of 133 pieces of art ranging from acrylics to pottery, jewelry, sculpture and collage.

Some of the artwork is for sale, and Prisock said half of those pieces have already sold.  She said it has also been a great opportunity to introduce the artists and their work, and several have been commissioned to do more pieces.

She said everyone has enjoyed viewing the gallery, even guests of a recent wedding, and it’s been great for members to learn about the talents of their fellow members.

“They have gotten to share that gift with other members,” she said.

Prisock said it took them about ten hours to hang all the pieces, which will come down at the end of the month.

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Those from MSU participating in the event were Professor Critz Campbell, Paige Prisock Cannon, Leah Harrell, Bryan Houston and Andrew Robertson.