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?
Painting
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.
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.
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
Alumnus Shows at Indian Hills
Truman alumnus Joe Hermann has an exhibition up at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa. Joe did his AA degree at IHCC, then came to Truman where he majored in painting. He then went on to the University of Delaware, where he earned his MFA.
Joe is “interested in the infinite aspect of art making, capturing moments in time. His painting are full of the nuance and drama that makes life interesting.” The gallery is open Monday-Thursday and Sunday afternoons. His exhibition is up until Thursday, March 25th. Congratulations, Joe! It looks like a wonderful show!
Lindsey Dunnagan Exhibits in Kansas City
Ice Flare Detail 6, Mixed Media on Acrylic
Professor Lindsey Dunnagan has told us about her current exhibition at Weinberger Fine Art in Kansas City, MO. The Exhibition is titled “Northern Catch” and she writes:
This series is a pleasure project inspired by my childhood of growing up in Anchorage, Alaska where I spent time by the ocean and watched the sky for the Aurora Borealis. Each piece is multi layered and includes images offish nets, the shapes of icebergs, and patterns found in the Alaskan landscape, such as ice striations. Formally, some pieces are linked to one another because the series responds to and plays with process scraps. For example, “Migrating Silver” is made of several paper layers. The top layer has a hole cut in the shape of a fish net. Inside the hole are other fish net and ice berg shapes cut out of other paintings. Every cut form becomes part of a new work. The playful process of this work parallels my glance back at childhood. By manipulating shapes from the place I love, the work evokes a panglossian nostalgia.
Ice Flare Detail 2, mixed media on acrylic
Sun Shimmer, watercolor, graphite, and silver leaf on paper
Lindsay Dunnagan’s Show at Culver-Stockton College
The Maybee Art Gallery at Culver-Stockton College currently features “Spectrum Gaps,” a solo show by Professor Lindsey Dunnagan. It will be open from September 3rd to November 20th, but is not open to the public.
Science Faculty Purchase Student Art
Art student Elle Renault’s painting p53 was selected from the recent Flora and Fauna exhibition to be purchased and displayed indefinitely in Magruder Hall. Congratulations to Elle for being selected and having the honor of her work remaining on display at Truman State University! Thanks to Dr. Anne Moody for organizing this people’s choice award and to the science faculty that donated money to purchase the work! We hope to continue this interdepartmental tradition with subsequent Flora and Fauna exhibitions going forward. 
News from Current and Former Students
We have lots of great news, from some current students:
Daniel Degenhardt and Linnea Moody both have received Tru-Scholars fellowships for undergraduate research this coming summer. Both of them will be working with Photography Professor Priya Kambli.
Art major Abby Moreno will be doing research through the McNair program this summer. Dr. Heidi Cook will be her mentor for that project.
And Department Chair Aaron Fine writes:
Current Art Major Natalie Gruber was surprised but pleased by the response to her painting of “Mothman in Domestic Bliss” – a painting she created in her Painting I class. When she posted it on twitter it received over 23,000 likes and was shared over 8,000 times within just a few days. Comments included those begging her to sell prints of the image, so it seems this one post has led to a new side business for her.
And we have news from an Alumna of the department:
Painting alumna Megan Klco Kellner had her collection of poetry selected to be published as a chap book by Michigan Writers Cooperative Press. More information can be found in their Facebook Announcement:
Michigan Writers Cooperative Press — Chapbook Contest Winner
Michigan Writers Cooperative Press is pleased to announce the winner of our annual chapbook contest. This year we will be publishing one new author, Megan Klco Kellner and her poetry chapbook, “What Will You Teach Her?”
Megan’s book will be released at a celebratory reading and reception on Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 7pm. We invite the public to join us for this free event at the Writing House on the campus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Mark your calendars to help us celebrate Megan’s work.
Megan Klco Kellner writes poems and makes paintings in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds an MFA in painting from Kendall College of Art and Design. She started writing poems in earnest during late-night feedings after her children were born. She is, above all, their awe-filled observer.