Department of Art News

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.

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.

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.

The graphic design senior show was held on April 23.  The night started in the Department of Art Gallery in McComas Hall and ended with a reception in the Visual Arts Center.

Check out some of the students’ work at www.msudesignstew.com.

Read the story in The Reflector by Daniel Hart – Feast your eyes: Senior graphic design students serve ‘design stew.’

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The Department held a clean-up day on Saturday, April 13.

Put on by the Department of Art Student Council, students volunteered their time to help spruce up the facilities.

After their morning of hard work, they were treated to pizza for lunch and enjoyed a competitive game of capture the flag!

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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.

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