Alumni

Posted on by Art Department Art History

What is Valerie Lazalier (BA 2011, Art History) up to these days?

Valerie Lazalier at workValerie Lazalier (pictured above, right) started a new job in January.  She writes us:

“I started work at Lawrence University as the Gallery and Collection Assistant in the Wriston Art Center Galleries. In this role I oversee the care of the university’s art collection which involves accessioning new donations, performing inventories, preparing works for storage, arranging art viewings, and overseeing interns. The galleries change exhibitions five times a year, so I also get to help with installing and deinstalling shows, which I really enjoy. I am also responsible for digitizing more of our collection and getting it posted to ARTstor. Lawrence is a liberal arts university, just like Truman, so I’m feeling very at home here!”

Thank you for the update, Valerie!

If you are an alum and have news to share, please write to us at art@truman.edu  We’d love to hear from you.

Posted on by Art Department Department, Uncategorized

Suzy Williams, BFA ’08: Designer and Successful Quilter

Suzy Williams earned her BFA in VisCom in 2008, and has found success by combining both areas.  We just heard from her about what she has been doing.  Suzy writes:

What has been exciting in my transition from full-time graphic design to textile design is seeing the two art forms connect so well. The Fibers Department was the original reason I chose Truman, but the convergence of design and technology I found in the VisCom department is what grabbed my attention in the end.
I now use the skills I learned in VisCom as a base for designing all of my quilts and patterns. I use Illustrator to layout my designs, choose colors and quickly and efficiently determine the math behind the sewing. InDesign is the program I use to layout the PDF patterns I sell.
Drip-Quilt
I believe these foundational graphic design skills give me an added edge over other quilters and textile designers who do not have the tech background.
To give you an example of what I mean, here are both a digital sketch and a quilt of my design “Triangle Jitters.” This pattern is currently being sold in my online shop.
Triangle Jitters, by Suzy Williams: Digital Pattern (left) and Final Quilt (right).

Triangle Jitters, by Suzy Williams: Digital Pattern (left) and Final Quilt (right).

Three of my quilts were featured in QuiltCon 2016 this past February; they include Mod Mountains, Drip and Modern Fans . Mod Mountains (below) received a third place award for handwork.”
Mod-Mountains

Mode Mountains, by Suzy Williams (BFA 2008).

Congratulations, Suzy! It is always great to hear about the successes of our students.

If you are an alum and have news to share, please write to us at art@truman.edu  We’d love to hear from you.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Uncategorized

Museum Studies Students Visit General John J. Pershing’s Boyhood Home

Recently the Museum Studies class taught by Dr. Sara Orel took an afternoon trip to visit the General John J. Pershing Boyhood Home State Historical Site.  General Pershing is an alumnus of Truman, then the Missouri State Normal School, which he attended for two years before leaving for West Point.  While at the museum, students had an opportunity to view a variety of types of display settings, from the historic home itself, set up to look as it would have in the 1870s and 80s, a small schoolhouse that serves as the primary display space for the museum’s collection of objects, and the new museum building, which is in the process of renovation and will provide a much-expanded space for both permanent and changing exhibits.

Denzil Heaney, Administrator and Curator of the General John J. Pershing Boyhood Home State Historic Site in Lacelede, Missouri, discusses the array of World War I poster images on display in one of the exhibition spaces at the site. Truman students shown are, from left to right, Rachel Pozzo, Anthony LaMarche, Luke Edwards, and Victoria Loos.

Denzil Heaney, Administrator and Curator of the General John J. Pershing Boyhood Home State Historic Site in Lacelede, Missouri, discusses the array of World War I poster images on display in one of the exhibition spaces at the site. Truman students shown are Rachel Pozzo, Anthony LaMarche, Luke Edwards, and Victoria Loos.

The host for the visit was Denzil Heaney, administrator and curator of the site.  His enthusiasm and flair for storytelling and the importance of the site were quite inspiring for the students, who subsequently prepared exhibition proposals to take advantage of the new museum space.  There are exciting opportunities for Truman collaboration with the Pershing Historic Site, a state park that attracts thousands of visitors from around the world every year.  The current interest in the centenary of the Great War means the number of visitors will only continue to increase.

 

Truman’s quickly-growing Museum Studies program, still informally structured but with a strong track record of graduate school and job placement, provides internships across the state of Missouri which are available to students of all majors, including Art History, Studio Art, and Visual Communications, but also students in fields including Anthropology, History, Communication, Biology, Chemistry, and many others..

If you are interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary program in Museum Studies at Truman, contact Dr. Sara E. Orel (orel@truman.edu) for more information.

The view from inside the building that will serve as the new General Pershing Museum in Laclede, Missouri.

The view from inside the building that will serve as the new General Pershing Museum in Laclede, Missouri.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Department, Uncategorized

Heidi Cook (B.A. ’07) serves as Director of the University Art Gallery for 2015-2016

While Professor of Art Aaron Fine is on sabbatical this year, researching and writing about color theory, 2007 Truman graduate Professor Heidi Cook is filling in as Visiting Director of the University Art Gallery and teaching Art History courses as well – Non-Western Art, Contemporary Art, and Introduction to the Visual Arts. She writes:

I am a Truman alumna (German and Art History, ’07) and I am truly excited to be back on campus and working alongside the Art Historians who introduced me to the history of art and made me want to pursue it further. Teaching Art History is one of the coolest jobs. I get to spend my time reading, thinking, and talking about how artworks visualize important and changing social, historical and religious ideas across the globe and throughout history. My hope is always that I can begin to open students’ eyes to the power of their visual surroundings.

I am currently a PhD candidate (All But Dissertation) in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. My research focuses on the modern art and design of Central and Eastern Europe. Using a body of folkloric works created by Croatian-American artist Maksimilijan Vanka as a guiding thread, my dissertation explores how objects and images related to Croatian folk culture were used to imagine a variety of competing Central European identities. In February, I am chairing a panel at the College Art Association Conference in Washington, D.C., about the relationship between European folk culture and American immigrant identity titled “Old Country in the New Country: Exhibitions, Museums, and Early Twentieth-Century American Immigration.”

If you ever want to talk about modern art in Central Europe or about applying or attending graduate school, feel free to stop by my office OP 1231 or email me at hcook@truman.edu.

We are very pleased to have Prof. Cook on campus this year, and know that students in her classes are benefiting from her knowledge and enthusiasm.

Prof. Heidi Cook, her husband Brent, and Pumpkin, in Kumrovec, Croatia in front of the house where Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito was born.

Prof. Heidi Cook, her husband Brent, and Pumpkin, in Kumrovec, Croatia in front of the house where Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito was born.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, Department History Gallery

Happy Halloween!

Taylor (Klein) Worley (BA Art History, 2009)as Max, from Where the Wild Things Are.

Taylor (Klein) Worley (BA Art History, 2009) as Max, from Where the Wild Things Are.

Art students celebrate Halloween enthusiastically because of all its creative potential (not to mention a bit of candy to enjoy).  Those who overlapped at Truman with Taylor (Klein) Worley from 2005 to 2009 will remember her elaborate and convincing costumes.  After she graduated with her Art History BA, Taylor completed her Master of Library Science at Emporia State University in 2012.  She is now a Youth Services Librarian at Springfield Public Library in the Oregon Willamette Valley. She still enjoys going all out for Halloween, this year by entertaining children and parents alike with her convincing Max (Where the Wild Things Are) costume.  She is pictured here at her library’s annual “Little Monster’s Bash!” event. Youth Librarianship lends itself creativity in many ways, but dressing up as beloved characters is one of Taylor’s favorites!Taylor (and we) wish you the Happiest of Halloweens!  If you are an alum and have news (or Halloween pictures) to share, please write to us at art@truman.edu  We’d love to hear from you.

Posted on by Art Department Art History, MAE, Uncategorized

Alumni News

We were thrilled to see that the research of Art Department alumnus Dr. John Garton (BA:  Art History and Studio Art, 1997) has been getting a lot  of circulation recently in the Boston area.  While Dr. Garton’s Ph.D. and current research continue his Senior Thesis  focus at Truman on painting in Renaissance Venice, he maintains an active secondary specialization in Latin American art, especially art of the pre-Columbian period.  Most recently his interdisciplinary, collaborative research on Olmec sculpture has resulted in a short piece in the Boston Globe and a video feature which will be displayed in the galleries of the Worcester Art Museum and can be viewed on line.  Dr. Garton is Associate Professor of Art History at Clark University in Massachusetts.  Congratulations!

Grant Kniffen (BSE: Art, 1984) stopped by when he was in town this September, when he told Bob Jones, Professor of Art, that he retired in 2013 after teaching 27 years at Parkway North High School in Saint Louis, Missouri. In 1995, Grant was selected Secondary Art Teacher of the Year by the Missouri Art Education Association. He was Parkway School District’s High School Teacher of the Year during the 1996-1997 school year. You can see his work in a variety of mediums on his website.

If you are an alum and have news to share, please write to us at art@truman.edu!  We’d love to hear from you.