Student work on Flickr
June 26, 2009 by Unit #003
Recent Journeys
June 26, 2009 by Unit #003the following was posted by Donnie Copeland, Assistant Professor of Visual Art.
I just returned last week from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN where I attended the 2009 biennial CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) conference. The conference was a 3-day event with speakers from a variety of walks including, among others, Miroslav Volf, Makoto Fujimura, and Daniel Siedell. Beyond the general sessions, the conference offered attendees a variety of tracks focusing on scholarship, spiritual formation, art education, gallery and museum practices, and a final track, rather popular, offering a reflection on culture, art and art practices that took as its model Walter Brueggeman’s critical model for understanding the Psalms. Additionally each morning began with corporate worship, led by a very enjoyable Brian Moss of Seattle, Washington (http://prayerbookproject.blogs.com/prayerbook/). All this was interspersed with great people to converse with and get to know at meals and coffee breaks. Especially enjoyable was the Late Late Show, which invited artists to share from their portfolios in an informal setting. We had 3 evenings of these sessions which went on until about midnight. I would do it all again.
Daniel Siedell shared the following in a brief lecture one morning at the conference. I found these comments on his blog, http://dansiedell.typepad.com/blog/, and thought I should share them with you.
Great Culture?
By Daniel Siedell
I just returned from a thoroughly enjoyable experience at the CIVA conference hosted by Bethel University. Among my responsibilities was to offer some remarks on the theme of the conference, which was Culture? What follows are the remarks I read.
Most Christian commentary on culture reminds me of the scene in Moliére’sTartuffe when Monsieur Jourdain discovers, much to his delight, that he has been speaking prose all his life and didn’t even know it. Yes, we North American Christians have indeed been making culture all along. But is it great culture? What follows are three very short vignettes that may serve as icons for us to contemplate as we reflect on art and culture at this conference.
It was Aleksandr Tvardovsky’s habit to lounge about his apartment in his bathrobe while he read from some of the piles of manuscripts that littered his living quarters. As editor of the liberal magazine Novy Mir in the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, Tvardovsky was well known as a poet as well as a staunch defender of his literary magazine’s independence. One morning he came upon a manuscript. After reading the first few lines he stopped, put it down, took a shower, shaved, put on his best clothes, and drove to his office, where he finished reading it. What was the manuscript? It was, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote it in secret in the late 1950s.Tvardovsky was so moved by it that he convinced Khrushchev to publish it and it appeared in Novy Mir in serial form in 1962. Due in part to Tvardovsky’s support, Solzhenitsyn a few years later will win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
It is easy to see how Solzhenitsyn is the hero of the story. He risked his life, not only by committing his words to paper but sending them out into public. But we must not forget the editor. Tvardovsky recognized the greatness of the manuscript and, at significant personal risk, fought with the State and its censors for its publication. He lived surrounded by culture, by manuscripts written by intelligent and creative writers. Yet it took him just a few minutes to realize that in Solzhenitsyn he was reading something great. We need Solzhenitsyns who will have the courage not merely to write for the dresser drawer, as the Russians called it, but for the public. But we also need Tvardovskys who can recognize great artistic and cultural achievements amidst the clutter of cultured mediocrity that saturates our lives. Are we capable even of recognizing great art, great culture?
Art show not just for majors
April 7, 2009 by Unit #003the following was posted by Leah Garavelli, April 1st, 2009, for Ouachita’s online student newspaper, The Signal.
Ouachita’s Art Department is organizing its first Juried Art Show which will be on display April 20-24 in the Hammons Gallery of Mabee Fine Arts Center.
Students can submit their paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures, graphic designs and photography to Donnie Copeland, assistant professor of visual arts, or David Bieloh, chair and associate professor of visual arts, by April 2 for a chance to be in the show.
Sarah Altman at work.
Carey Roberson, associate professor of art at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, will judge the artwork on April 3 and decide which pieces make it into the show. He also will choose a best in show and first, second and third place winners in three categories: studio art, photography and graphic design.
Ouachita’s Hammons Gallery to host exhibit by ceramicist Ken Shipley
January 31, 2009 by Unit #003by Donnie Copeland, Assistant Professor of Visual Art
Ouachita Baptist University’s Hammons Gallery is pleased to announce its second exhibit of 2009 presented by ceramicist Ken Shipley of Clarksville, Tenn.
The exhibit, which will be open Feb. 4-25, will open with a reception to be held in the gallery at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 4. The artist will present a demonstration in room 204 of Moses-Provine Hall at 3 p.m. following the reception.
“Autrey” by Ken Shipley, porcelain and high fire reduction fired, approx. 8" X 7", permanent collection of The Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai, China.
Shipley is an associate professor of art at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His professional experience includes set, lighting and sound design in theatrical and musical settings in addition to his work as a production potter and seven years of teaching at the university level.
Shipley has exhibited nationally and internationally. His recent international exhibits include selected work exhibited in Vallauris, France, as well as the Celadon Art Gallery in London, England, which has been ongoing for the past two years. Additionally, in the fall of 2006 he was included in “The International Top 10 Teapot Masters Exhibition” in Shanghai, China, which then re-opened for permanent display at Fudan University in Shanghai. Recent exhibits in the United States include showings in Clarksville and Nashville, Tenn., and Statesboro, Ga.
Shipley, who has worked in ceramics for 30 years, began his career as an apprentice to both Charles Counts in Rising Fawn, Ga., and Bill Ashley in Chattanooga, Tenn. His work covers many aspects of ceramics, from production pottery to large, one-of-a-kind vessel pieces, both wheel thrown and hand built. The artist also uses a variety of firing processes including high fire reduction, salt/soda, wood fire and electric kilns to produce his work.
For more information, call (870) 245-5559 or visit the artist’s website at http://www.shipleypottery.com.
Warhol exhibit turns heads, changes minds
January 13, 2009 by Unit #003the following was posted by Annette Whitehead, December 28th, 2008, for Ouachita’s online student newspaper, The Signal.
I’ve never been a big fan of Andy Warhol. I never really saw the point in portraying a person’s face in the brightest colors available, or recreating boxes from a store shelf, or even flat-colored soup cans. But as an artist, I study art movements for reference, and I see exhibits for the personal look of art.
As I walked into the Warhol exhibit at the Arkansas Arts Center, I was not surprised to be greeted with huge, fluorescent images of Marilyn Monroe. Her face was on several walls, all bright, but all different. They were much larger than I expected, given that the size referenced in a book gives no justice to an art piece in person. I was able to get close and examine each individual screen print, and read the artist’s explanation for producing these works. I was intrigued.
Continuing through the exhibit, there were several prints that I’ve never seen, and I was happy to see some early works that included sketches. Seeing work from before an artist became famous helps aspiring artists see where it all began.
After looking at a particularly interesting piece about string, I saw a rather large, silver Mylar balloon floating to seemingly nowhere. It had escaped from its room… click here for the complete story.
Ouachita’s Hammons Gallery to host Kell Black and Barry Jones exhibit
January 12, 2009 by Unit #003the following is by Brooke Showalter, OBU Assistant Director of Communications
Ouachita Baptist University’s Hammons Gallery will host Kell Black and Barry Jones in a guest exhibit from Jan. 12-28. The multimedia art exhibit will feature aspects of Black and Jones’ “Please Call Stella” piece.
The artists will hold a closing reception and artists’ talk on Jan. 28 in Hammons Gallery, which is located in Ouachita’s Mabee Fine Arts Center. The reception will also include a live audio visual performance by Black and Jones. The time of the reception is to be announced.
“This is a unique exhibition because it involves video, music, typography and sound—something new for the department—very post-modern and very experimental,” said David Bieloh, associate professor of graphic design and chair of the department of visual art at Ouachita. “To my knowledge,” he continued, “this would be a unique exhibition not only for OBU, but for the area in general.”
“Please Call Stella” was inspired by the speech accent archives compiled by Dr. Steven H. Weinberger of George Mason University. Weinberger and his team recorded thousands of native and non-native English speakers reading a short narrative paragraph that contains all of the sounds in the English language, beginning with the words “Please call Stella.”
The scene is set,” explain Black and Jones in their artist statement, “for a story that never progresses but is stuck forever in time, endlessly repeated by people from all over the world.”
click here for the complete storyDavid Cateforis Lectures at Arkansas Arts Center on Warhol
November 25, 2008 by Unit #003Thursday night, November 20, Advanced Painting and a few friends had the opportunity to view the Andy Warhol: 15 Weeks of Fame exhibit at the Arkansas Arts Center. David Cateforis, associate professor at the University of Kansas, lectured on Warhol’s life and work which was enjoyable and very informative. He gave a thorough look into the context of Warhol’s work in relation to the work of other artists at the time and discussed how Pop Art came to be at all. One of my favorite bits he gave us was a look at how Warhol’s influence might be playing itself out in the work of living artists at the moment which included a slide of Ai Weiwei’s Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo. A wonderful piece, it remained with us and became the point of conversation on the way home.
Ai Weiwei, Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, 10" X 11" X 11", painted Han Dynasty urn, 1994
Warhol’s, Green Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962
Arkadelphia to Memphis
November 21, 2008 by Unit #003
Friday, the 7th of November, we decided to head to Memphis to appreciate what was going on in the galleries. We took a list of places that interested us in some way, printed maps to each and hit the road with a little bit of optimism to go. Arriving just before sunset we arrived at the Power House Memphis (pictured above) which has a show paying homage to Memphis native and photographer, William Eggleston. The architecture of this place was austere and beautiful all at once. We were off to a good start. The area south of downtown along Main St. was really enjoyable with shops and restaurants and other galleries. A lot has been invested in the area in terms of real estate and housing. From there we headed north and to east Memphis passing Beale St along the way.
The Powerhouse made us feel small.
We also did a whirlwind tour of 4 other galleries, all enjoyable: Marshall Arts, Material, L Ross Gallery, and the David Lusk Gallery. An interesting connection between Material, L Ross and David Lusk was that the shows all exhibited acrylic paintings which were vastly different from each other. The spaces themselves, the galleries that is, were all just as unique in aesthetic and feel as well.
“Woman Searching”, acrylic on canvas, 30″X40″, 2007-2008, by Carl Moore. His work was shown at the L Ross Gallery. You can see more of his work at http://www.cemooreart.com/index.html. He is also a designer.
“Hidden River #5″, acrylic, oil stick on canvas, 66 x 84″, 2008 by Robert Rector at David Lusk.
One of my favorites of the evening was Marshall Arts. Pictured left is Bobby Spillman’ “Gimme Shelter,” oil on canvas. See more of his work at the L Ross Gallery.
In all, Memphis was energetic and very much worth the visit. This was only a visit to the galleries and didn’t include the museums or the multitude of other possible venues to visit. I definitely look forward to our next visit.
Rondall Reynoso’s “Mixing Metaphors”
November 14, 2008 by Unit #003
New 5 euro coinage
November 9, 2008 by Unit #003Matthew Dent’s new coinage for the UK was pretty great, but this Dutch commemorative coin is a fully contemporary chunk of wow.
On the front, the names of famous Dutch architects form an image of the queen while some Dutch architecture books on the back form an outline of The Netherlands. The design was done using free software running on Ubuntu/Debian. (design observer via www.kottke.org)
