June 11th, 2013 Comments Off
(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.
May 15th, 2013 Comments Off
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.
April 29th, 2013 Comments Off
Riley Reid recently received a Spirit of State Award sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs at Mississippi State University. Reid, a photography major in the Department of Art from Athens, Ala., was recognized with the other recipients at a public ceremony on Friday, April 19, in the Bill R. Foster Ballroom in the Colvard Student Union.
The eighth annual Spirit of State Awards formally honored those students who have excelled in campus involvement and service to the university and have made an impact on their peers and the broader campus community. Students from all MSU campuses, freshmen to graduate, were nominated.
“The many contributions Riley has made to Mississippi State University, the Department of Art, and the photography concentration make her a very special student,” said Assistant Professor Dominic Lippillo. “Her professionalism, integrity and strong work ethic will allow her to succeed in all of her future endeavors.”
Riley has demonstrated a commitment to the integrity and values that exemplify the ‘Spirit of State’ by volunteering her time for meaningful activities on and off campus. She was the lead student volunteer for the 2012 South Central Society for Photographic Education Conference; volunteers for Help Portrait, a global movement of photographers, hairstylists and makeup artists using their time, tools and expertise to give back to those in need; and recently served as a juror for the Starkville Parent Teacher Organization Art Competition (grades K – 12).
“Riley is an exceptional person. She is extremely creative as demonstrated in her recent BFA images,” said her professor Marita Gootee. “Frankly, I do not think we could have managed the October 2012 South Central Society for Photographic Education conference without Riley. She organized the student volunteers and contacted vendors for donations. She did just an amazing job. Her love of photography is in everything she does. She is a special person, and I am proud to know her.”
For more information contact the Department of Art at 662-325-2970.
April 25th, 2013 Comments Off
Andrew Yerger | “PAW2″
Andrew Yerger, a senior in the Department of Art, was awarded the 2013 Jefferson Clarke Wilson Memorial Award For Excellence in Photography, which carries a $100 award.
Yerger was selected for his overall portfolio of entries.
The award is sponsored by Stuart Herring in memorial to his friend Jeff Wilson, who was an accomplished photographer and woodworker in addition to being a computer programmer and an employee of Mississippi State University for 35 years.
April 12th, 2013 Comments Off
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
April 12th, 2013 Comments Off
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.
April 5th, 2013 Comments Off
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
March 21st, 2013 Comments Off
Darrious and Jay | Whitten Sabbatini
- Tim and Timothy | Whitten Sabbatini
Mississippi State Department of Art student Whitten Sabbatini had two photographs accepted into the Spirit of Place photo and video competition hosted by Maine Media Workshops + College. Sabbatini is a senior concentrating in photography.
More than 3,800 images and videos were submitted to 11 competition categories from image makers around the world. More than $25,000 in prizes will be awarded in a special ceremony on June 7 at Maine Media Workshops + College, along with an exhibition in the Maine Media Gallery in Rockport Village.
Two of Sabbatini’s images received Honorable Mention by the jurors.”Tim and Timothy” is an image of two young men sitting on the front of a car with its hood up. The two look as if they were working on jumping the battery as the car sits in the drive. The other image, “Darrious and Jay,” is of two older boys standing on a unpaved driveway. One boy holds a basketball. Deep in the background is an American flag.
“In both cases, Whitten saw the image and stopped to talk to the individuals. The photographs in this series are taken while Whitten converses with his subjects,” said Professor Maria Gootee, area coordinator for photography in the Department of Art. “There lies the mixture of the staged and unstaged. For a moment the viewer is invited in to visit, but there is also a feeling that this visit is only temporary. It is this duality that makes Whitten’s work so interesting.”
“We are very pleased with the response to this contest from people all over the U.S. and many other countries around the world and impressed by the quality of images and videos selected by our jurors,” said Meg Weston, president of Maine Media Workshops + College.
An esteemed panel of nine jurors representing the fine art, documentary, film and television professions selected winners.
“I was struck by the versatility and expansive points of view that suffused the work I reviewed,” said Norton Museum of Art curator Tim Wride.
Ben Fowlie, founder and director of the Camden International Film Festival, noted “the quality of the work was exceptional, and provided a glimpse inside both local and global communities.”
“Whitten’s work is a way for him to explore his surroundings and understand the people residing in this area. The images speak on many levels and seem to slow down the viewer’s sense of time, allowing the audience to explore all of the details in these temporary moments,” said Assistant Professor Dominic Lippillo.
The jurors were Stacey Baker, associate photo editor, New York Times Magazine; Roger Dell, director of education, Farnsworth Art Museum; Charlotte Dixon, artist and educator; Edward Earle, curator of collections, International Center of Photography; Ben Fowlie, founder and director, Camden International Film Festival; Patricia Luchsinger, producer, NBC Today; Jessica May, curator of contemporary & modern art, Portland Museum of Art; Laura Ozment Schenck, executive producer of television and special projects, Maine Public Broadcasting Network; and Tim B. Wride, William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography, Norton Museum of Art.
March 8th, 2013 Comments Off
Richard A. Lou presented a lecture on March 7 before the reception for his Stories on My Back exhibition.
Lou discussed themes that are found in his work, such as questioning his identity and questioning photographs’ claim to reality through storytelling. He also discussed the idea of collaboration and how artists often serve as “citizen diplomats.”
Lou, who is half Chinese and half Mexican, discussed how he questioned his identity growing up and how he would cross the border from Mexico to the United States for school every day with his father from age six until age nine.
Many of Lou’s works, including his current exhibit at MSU, are site-specific. “The Border Door – 1988” is work that Lou did along the U.S./Mexican border. For the work, the artist created a door and handed out keys for people to use his border door.
Another series, “Border Sutures,” involved a group of artists crossing the border in various locations and installing steel “staples” to ‘put the nations back together.’
For “Headlines – 1992,” Lou shaved his head once a month and invited different artists of color to create text or drawings on his head. The images would last 7-10 days, thanks to Lou’s sleeping on his stomach and wearing a bathing cap for showers. The artist said he wanted to “not be able to divorce myself from my work,” and he definitely got his wish. The artwork on his head was with him at the grocery store, when he picked his children up from school and wherever he went. Lou said people often stereotyped him and were scared of him until they started a conversation and learned about his project. The artist plans to start this project again soon for the 21st anniversary.
Lou wrapped up the lecture by again referring to the idea of artists as “citizen diplomats.” He said he enjoys what he does because his work is important to his conscience and represents issues that are important to him.
Watch some video from the lecture:
Video 1 (Lou discusses some of his early border projects.)
Video 2 (Lou discusses his “Headlines” project, where he invited artists to create works of art on his head.)
Video 3 (Lou discusses how he used humor for a project that served as a way to discuss who has the power to define culture.)
March 8th, 2013 Comments Off
A reception was held at the Visual Arts Center Gallery on March 7 for Richard A. Lou’s Stories on My Back.
Read more about Lou’s exhibit and site-specific installation.
Stories On My Back will be on display until March 23, 2013 at the Visual Arts Center (VAC) Gallery, 808 University Drive, Starkville.
