Students in Professor Dunnagan’s Painting II-V courses created site-specific artwork around campus for the project, “Creative Surprises.” Can you find them all?
Author: Art Department
Sculpture I Critique
Students in Sculpture I discuss their work in the Atrium Gallery of Ophelia Parrish Hall. Professor Danielle Yakle (lower right in green shirt with black apron) teaches Sculpture, Fibers, and 3D Foundations courses.
Faculty Exhibitions on east and west coasts
Congratulations to printmaking professor Laura Bigger, who has a solo show of her “Elements” series at the Crary Art Gallery in Warren, PA, and another in Nashville.
Congratulations also to painting professor Lindsey Dunnagan, who had a solo exhibition this year. “Pursuing Echoes,” a solo show by Lindsey Dunnagan, was on display from February 7 – March 10 at the Art Gallery at Umpqua Community College in Roseberg, Oregon.
Truman Alumnae have big hearts
Kayla Decker poses next to the heart she painted for the Kansas City Parade of Hearts
Kayla Decker, a Design alumna who now works as a Graphic Designer at Hobby Lobby Corporate Headquarters, in Oklahoma City, writes that she painted a heart design for the Kansas City Parade of Hearts in Kansas City now through June. There are 154 painted hearts around the city by 123 artists.
There is an app available on which you can track the hearts you have seen. Kayla also tells us that Jessica Endaya Keefer, also a Truman Design graduate now working for VMLY&R, a marketing form in Kansas City, MO, painted a heart for the parade as well.
Jessica Endaya Keefer poses next to her heart, painted for the Kansas City Parade of Hearts.
Alumna Lindsay Picht has solo show in Columbia, Missouri
Lindsay Picht stands in front of two of her works of art on display in Columbia, Missouri
Painting alumna Lindsay Picht had an exhibition of her work at the Columbia Art League in Columbia, Missouri. It was open from October 29-November 20.
Department Name Change
To better reflect what we offer in the department we have decided to change the name. The department is officially named Art+Design+Art History, or ADAH as the acronym. Our courses in the catalog will keep the ART prefix for our courses.
Five Students Receive Summer Grants to Create Art
Five art students were awarded TruScholar grants to pursue research this summer. You can see their resulting work in the Atrium Gallery of Ophelia Parrish from Monday, August 30- Friday, September 3. Below is a summary of each project:
For his TruScholar research, Kameron Clark compared struggles of contemporary wealth inequality with similar themes from the past. Historical paintings such as “Hard Times” by Hubert von Herkomer (1885) and “Evicted” by Blandford Fletcher (1887) are reimagined in the current United States climate.
Maggie Adams conducted her TruScholars project on the fiber artist Lenore Tawney; her research combined studio art and art historical methodologies. Adams focused on replicating Tawney’s understudied weaving techniques in her body of work “Woven Forms” and its connection to Abstract Expressionism in the 1960s.
Anna Grahlherr’s summer research reclaims the female nude in art from the perspective of female-sexed people. In this series, she rejects the tradition of the male gaze and explores diverse bodies.
ZuZu Smugala created artwork that explores how people use different coping mechanisms in their daily lives.
Kristen Buck’s project is about documenting her body to create permanence of her self-image. After going through a drastic physical change, her reality has been comprised by her own thoughts. The resulting series of photographs capture her contradictory feelings as well as igniting conversations about what an image is and how it serves to preserve truth.
Aaron Fine’s New Book
Congratulations to our Department Chair, Professor Aaron Fine, for his new book!
Color Theory Cover
This book discusses color theory from its ancient origins to the present, and provides a fascinating contribution to art theory using one of art’s essential building blocks. Professor Fine discusses aspects of color that are long-recognized as important but by analyzing “colonialist and gendered attitudes, materialist and romanticist perspectives, spiritualist approaches to color, color in the age of reproduction, and modernist and post-modernist color strategies” (from the Amazon description of the text) he provides a new framework that allows the application of color theory to practical applications. Published by Bloomsbury Press and gorgeously illustrated, you can order direct from the publisher or from your local bookstore or through Amazon. Congratulations, Aaron!
Truman Art Faculty Honored
Russell (Rusty) Nelson, Professor of Design
Design Professor Russell Nelson and Ceramics Professor Eric Ordway have both been selected as Featured Artists for the month of August by the Missouri Arts Council. The MAC selects artists with diverse demographics and locations throughout the state who are producing quality original work in a variety of art mediums and genres.
Reclaimed (watercolor) by Russell Nelson
Green Tea Set, Stoneware with Green Celadon By Eric Ordway
Eric Ordway, Professor of Ceramics
Last Chance to See!
This is the last week of the Student Juried Show in the University Gallery. We have pictures of students with their award-winning art if you need encouragement to see what students have been doing over the past year.
Phuong Duong, Intuitive, Spray paint and acrylic Winner of the Student Union Purchase Prize
1st place: Maggie Adams, Sink or Swim, Cotton, fishing line
Third Prize: Natalie Gruber, A Fly in the Ointment, Watercolor
Best in show: Wesley Scafe, Market Worship, Wood, 3D printed plastic
2nd place: ZuZu Smugala, Pink Rock, Acrylic on canvas