News from Alumni

We are always happy to get news from alumni of our Art and Art History programs, some of whom are involved with Art careers and others who have really exciting careers in other fields.  Here are some of our latest updates from Art History majors:

From Bryna Campbell:

In May 2015, I graduated with my PhD in Art History & Archaeology from Washington University in St. Louis, with a dissertation titled “The Comic Grotesque: Troubling the Body Politic in American Graphic Satire from World War I to the Great Depression.” I also received a graduate certificate in American Culture Studies. Since graduating I have been teaching as an art history instructor at Portland State University in Portland, OR. I am also the co-creator and founding editor of The Art and Place Blog (theartandplaceblog.wordpress.com) and the co-creator of the creative writing project Un/Settled (un-settled.org), which focuses on themes related to rural diaspora.

Brian Dale (who wrote his senior thesis the same year as Bryna):

I work in financial services as an Asst. Vice President with Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis. I live with my family in Webster Groves, MO, and my involvement with art does not extend beyond drawing with my daughter and the odd trip to the museum.

Katherine Eusey:

My love of Islamic architecture led me to pursue an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University. Although my thesis was on the topic of mosque architecture, real-world pressures (ya know, needing to eat and pay rent) ended up pushing me into the field of security and intel. After working for a year as an intelligence analyst at a large security and executive protection firm in Tel Aviv, I joined a small startup called Levantine Group (also Tel Aviv-based) as the Director of Partnerships. In that role, I work with diplomats, journalists, corporate security managers, and even a few university study abroad program directors who are based across the Middle East.

If you are an alumn(-a/-us) of Truman’s Art programs and have news of your post-Truman activities, we would love to hear from you.  Please send us email at art@truman.edu.

Happy Winter Break!

25136

Finals Week ends on Friday, December 12 with December graduation taking place on Saturday, December 13th.  Congratulations to all Art Department (and Truman) graduates!  Please stay in touch (art@truman.edu).

This also means that the Art Department blog will be taking a break until the week before classes start in January.  However, during that time the blog will feature faculty artwork (and other images) related to winter themes so do check back often!

For now, greetings of the season to all!

Faculty at Council on Undergraduate Research Conference

Three Art Department faculty members serve as Councilors for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).  CUR’s mission is  “…to support and promote high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship”.  Dr. Sara Orel (Art History) was elected as Chair of the Arts and Humanities Division and also serves on the Executive Board.  This year, Prof. Wynne Wilbur (Studio) and Dr. Julia DeLancey (Art History) were elected to serve as Councilors in the Arts and Humanities Division.  In those roles, all three faculty members also attended the annual meeting this past summer in Washington D.C.  Truman State University faculty are very active in CUR:  one hundred twenty four (124) are members of CUR and many serve in leadership positions such as Division Chair or as heads of task forces such as Internationalization.  Stay tuned for more information about Art Department presentations at CUR as well!

003

Summer Course in St. Louis: JINS 336 – Environment

Vaughn Bell

Village Green, Vaughn Bell, 2008

This JINS course will be a
study of Art, Environment, and Community
in St. Louis.  Weekly meetings will be
held at various locations in the city, including the St. Louis Art Museum,
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis Public Library, and the Missouri Botanical
Garden.  Students will create artwork
dealing with ecology in the St. Louis community.  Other coursework will be online via
Blackboard.

Registration is now open – If
you will be in St. Louis for the summer, join the fun!

For
more information, contact course instructor Kelsey Wiskirchen (kelseyw@truman.edu).

Fibers Projects Exhibited in Ophelia Parrish Lobby

Students in Fibers 1 and 2 learned plaiting, coiling, and twining earlier this semester.  They then created sculptural forms which utilized these traditional basketry techniques.  For the final month of the semester, these projects will be on display in the glass exhibition case in the lobby of the Ophelia Parrish building.  Stop by to see these artworks in person!

Allison Behm

Allison Behm; Title: Wish Upon; Clothesline, cotton twine, wax, hand-dyed; Coiling

DSC_0268

Mia Hammond; Title: Spontaneity; Copper wire; Twining

DSC_0417

Emily VanGelder; Title: Sexual Fluidity; Hand-dyed cotton fabric, wire; Plaiting

DSC_0295

Emma Roeder; Title: Full Circles; Rope, commercial and hand-dyed cotton fabric, found objects; Coiling

Happy Summer!

7720
Photo Credit:  Tim Barcus (Campus Photographer)

The Art Department blog is on break until classes resume in late August…enjoy the summer, everyone, and be sure to check back again later in the summer to find out what's going on in Art at Truman!

Welcome back from China, Prof. Xu!

Truman Luxun 
Prof. Xu with Truman State University students in Shanghai

The Art Department is pleased to welcome back Prof. Ping Xu (Visual Communications) from his trip to China this summer.  Prof. Xu spend the summer in his home city of Shanghai.  While there, Prof. Xu met with a Truman State University study abroad class led by Prof. Julie Minn, met with faculty and students from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Dalian, China (whose work will be showing in the University Art Gallery this fall), and visited Expo 2010 in Shanghai.


Ping in Dalian 
Prof. Xu (front row, middle, light grey shirt) with faculty and students from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China.

Shanghai
One Prof. Xu's photographs of the Expo 2010 pavilions in Shanghai.