Department of Art News

(www.friends-of-noxubee-refuge.org)

Friends of the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge announce an Adult Wildlife and Photo Workshop and Trail Walk sponsored by the FONR Group.

The workshop will be taught by Department of Art alumnus Blake McCollum on June 15 from 3 – 5 p.m. at the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center Auditorium.

The workshop will help prepare attendees for the 2013 Amateur Photography Contest. Rules and entry forms will be available at the workshop. McCollum will also teach tips on camera use and outdoor photo shooting.

The Trail Walk will be a chance to practice the new skills learned and will include the Beaver Dam Trail, Woodpecker Trail, Trail of Big Trees and a walk around Bluff Lake. (Click here to learn about the trails).

Participants must pre-register with Andrea Dunstan at Andrea_Dunstan@fws.gov. Questions should be addressed to Margaret McMullen at mrmcmullen@bellsouth.net, or call  662-323-5548 ext. 226.

Click here for more information.

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.

[Show as slideshow]

Twenty-one graduating Graphic Design students will host their BFA senior show, celebrating their final days as Mississippi State students. Come get a taste of what these designers have been “cookin’ up” this semester!

The public is invited to a reception honoring these talented students on Tuesday, April 23rd. The reception will begin in the Department of Art Gallery in McComas Hall at 5:30 p.m. and will then proceed to the Visual Arts Center at 808 University Drive for the rest of the evening.

The Graphic Design exhibition will be open to the public the week of April 23–30.

Exhibited work includes posters, illustrations, packaging, editorial, typeface design, advertising, identity, website, self-promotional design and more. Students’ final portfolio books will also be on display the night of the reception.

To get a glimpse of what will be at the BFA Graphic Design senior show, go to www.msudesignstew.com or like their Facebook page COME SEE WHAT’S COOKIN’.

For more information, please contact Professor Jamie Mixon at jmixon@caad.msstate.edu.

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

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

The third annual FIGMENT Jackson will take place from May 18-19.

The call for art is open, and they will be accepting proposals through April 15.

Figment is a free participatory art event that is open to everyone. Participate as an artist and creator. Figment celebrates an abundance of creativity & passion, challenging artists and our communities to find new ways to create, share,
think & dream.

Click here for more information.

The Department of Art, College of Architecture, Art and Design and Mississippi State University is proud to host a series of presentations, “A Life in the Arts,” that will explore what it means to have a life in the arts. Guest speakers will discuss aspects of their careers in fine arts, publishing, design, television media and creative writing.

March 25
4:30pm
Giles Hall, Robert and Freda Harrison Auditorium
William Dunlap – Artist
W. Ralph Eubanks – Author
Sam Haskell III – Television producer and author

More about the presenters:
William Dunlap:
William Dunlap is a nationally recognized artist born in Mississippi. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1967 from Mississippi College in Clinton, worked as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Mississippi from 1967 to 1969, and earned a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Mississippi in 1969. In 1985 he won the Mississippi Arts and Letters, Visual Arts Award and since has had numerous exhibits of his work around the state. His paintings, sculpture and constructions are included in prestigious collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Lauren Rogers Museum, Mississippi Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, IBM Corporation, Federal Express, Arkansas Art Center, and United State Embassies throughout the world.

W. Ralph Eubanks:
W. Ralph Eubanks is the author of Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi’s Dark Past (Basic Books), which Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley named as one of the best nonfiction books of 2003. He has contributed articles to the Washington Post Outlook and Style sections, the Chicago Tribune, Preservation and National Public Radio. A graduate of the University of Mississippi (B.A.) and the University of Michigan (M.A., English Language and Literature), he is a recipient of a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and has been a fellow at the New America Foundation. Ralph lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three children and is director of publishing at the Library of Congress.

Ralph’s most recent book, The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South, was released May 19, 2009, by the Harper imprint at HarperCollins.

Sam Haskell III:
In 2007 Television Week Magazine named Sam Haskell III “One of the 25 Most Innovative and Influential People in Television of the Last 25 Years.” Haskell earned his ranking among the industry’s best through his 26-year career at the renowned William Morris Agency where he was one of the most powerful agents and dealmakers in the business.

Originally from Amory, Haskell graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1977. Haskell worked in Los Angeles for William Morris Agency first as an agent in the TV Variety Department then as senior vice president, after which he was promoted to West Coast Head of Television. In 1997 he was named executive vice president and a member of the WMA Board of Directors, and, in 1999, he was appointed to the position of Worldwide Head of Television.

Prior to Haskell’s retirement from WMA in late 2004, his clients included: Bill Cosby, Kathie Lee Gifford, Ray Romano, Whoopi Goldberg, Dolly Parton, George Clooney, Sela Ward, Martin Short, Kirstie Alley, Tony Danza, Sean Hayes, Michael Feinstein, Lily Tomlin, Lucie Arnaz and His Royal Highness The Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

Haskell is also known for his role as executive producer of “Mississippi Rising,” a three-hour, MSNBC special hosted by Morgan Freeman, which raised over $30 million for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. As Chairman of the Mary Kirkpatrick Haskell Scholarship Foundation, Mr. Haskell’s biennial “Stars Over Mississippi” benefit concerts in Amory have raised millions of dollars in college scholarship funds for Mississippi youngsters in need of financial assistance to further their education. In addition, Mr. Haskell serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Miss America Organization and Executive Producer of the Miss America Pageant telecasts.

Haskell’s discusses is journey from a small town Mississippi boy through his days in Hollywood in his nationally-bestselling memoir, Promises I Made My Mother, in which he attributes his success to the lessons he learned from his mother at an early age – lessons such as faith, hope and character.

Check out the story by Margaret Kovar with MSU University Relations!

Bill Dunlap in his studio in McLean, Va. While serving as an artist in residence at Mississippi State University this spring, Dunlap plans to stay busy making work and being inspired by the students and community. (Photo Credit: Linda Burgess)

William “Bill” Dunlap, MSU’s first artist in residence, will be giving a presentation about his work during Professor Linda Seckinger’s print survey course on Wednesday, Feb. 27.

The presentation will begin at noon in Briscoe Hall, room 204, and is open to all students, faculty and any others interested.

Wyatt Waters | via www.wyattwaters.com gallery

Watercolor painter Wyatt Waters will conduct a demonstration of his techniques and a discussion about his life as an artist on Thursday, Feb. 21.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at noon in Freeman Hall, room 225.

This program is sponsored by the The MSU Artist in Residency Program featuring Bill Dunlap.