Keynote Speaker
Mel Chin
Mel Chin was born in Houston, TX in 1951, he graduated from Peabody College in Nashville, TN in 1975, and later moved to New York City in 1983. Chin is highly motivated by social, political and cultural realities, and his work reflects his concern for the environment and social consciousness. His work is often exhibited or installed in public spaces beyond the traditional confines of the gallery or museum. A conceptual artist, Chin’s body of work ranges from earthworks to animated films. For Chin, art has the power to provoke greater social awareness and a sense of responsibility in the viewer. Through his community actions, he has engaged inner‐city neighborhoods and helped to rejuvenate local economies. His interest in science, ecology and the environment can be seen in some of his most famous works including Revival Field, where he collaborated with scientists to create a sculptural landscape by install plants known as hyperaccumulators – plants that have the ability to draw heavy metals from the soil. In this project that has been installed in locations all over the world, Chin was able to create an effective intersection between art, science, and technology. Mel Chin and his works Revival Field, S.P.A.W.N. and KNOWMAD were featured in the first season of the PBS series ART21 (Art in the Twenty First Century).
His most recent project, the FUNDRED DOLLAR BILL PROJECT, is an innovative artwork made of millions of drawings. This creative collective action is intended to support OPERATION PAYDIRT, an extraordinary art/science project uniting three million children with educators, scientists, health care professionals, designers, urban planners, engineers and artists. After Katrina had wiped out much of New Orleans, Chin was invited to the city to see how he could make a difference in the community. Working with scientists, Chin found that the lead contamination in the soil in New Orleans was at a hazardous level. To find a solution to this problem, OPERATION PAYDIRT was put into action. In 2010, once FUNDRED reaches its goal of 3 million artworks, an armored truck, running on vegetable oil, will pick up the drawings and take them to Washington D.C., where we will request from Congress an even exchange of FUNDRED DOLLARS for 300 million dollars worth of aid for New Orleans.
Mel Chin and and Fundred Dollar Bill Security guards stand before an emptied Contemporary Arts Museum Installation of the SAFEHOUSE w/ banker box filled with 7,100 Houston drawn Fundreds.
Mel Chin has had exhibitions of his work at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Fabric Workshop & Museum in Philadelphia, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Asian American Arts Centre in New York City to name a few. He has also been the recipient of many awards from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, and the Penny McCall, Pollock/Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Rockefeller, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Nancy Graves foundations.
speaker bios
Paul Hanna Lecture: Ken Dawson Little
Ken Little was born in Canyon,Texas in 1947. He received a BFA from Texas Tech in1970, and an MFA from the University of Utah in 1972. He has worked in various media including: bronze, ceramics, neon, performance, wood, steel, cast iron, $1 bills, shoes, and other found objects. His work has been featured in over 35 one person exhibitions, 200 group exhibitions, numerous national publications, and catalogs.
Since 1988 he has been a Professor of Art (Sculpture) in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Since 1993, he has maintained a studio and alternative exhibition space, “Rrose Amarillo”, in downtown San Antonio. His work is included in many public and private collections around the country. Collections include The Contemporary Art Museum, Honolulu Hawaii, The City of Seattle, The Nelson Gallery of the University of California at Davis, Microsoft
Corporation, Seattle and many others. A sixty four page retrospective catalog titled, Ken Little: Little Changes with essays by Kay Whitney and Dave Hickey is available. His artist’s web site is found at www.kenlittle.com
Art History Presentation: Catherine Caesar
Catherine Caesar’s current research interests include feminist art, conceptual practice, and reading rooms/libraries in contemporary art. Earning her doctorate at Emory University in 2005, she produced a dissertation titled “Personae: The Feminist Conceptual Work of Eleanor Antin and Martha Rosler, 1968‐1977.” She is an assistant professor of art at the University of Dallas.
Art History Presentation: Stacy Schultz
Stacy Schultz received her Ph.D. in Art History from Rutgers University in 2004. While a graduate student, she served as an art history teaching assistant and in the English department’s Writing Program for incoming freshmen. Her previous teaching positions include two appointments as Visiting Assistant Professor at Kentucky Statement University (2004‐2005) and The University of Texas at Arlington (2007‐2008). She has also taught a variety of courses in the California State University system (CSU Northridge, CSU Fullerton, CSU San Bernardino, and San Diego State University) ranging from women’s studies to nineteenth‐century art. Professor Schultz’s research and teaching concentrate on the intersections of race and gender in contemporary performance art, photography, film, and video. Her dissertation, “The Female Body in Performance: Themes of Beauty, Body Image, Identity, and Violence,” has evolved into the departure point for two lectures given at the College Art Association: “Performing the Black Nude: The Artist’s Body as a Contested Site” (2005) and “Southern California Feminism and Body Image: A Performative Response” (2007). Her article, “Latina Identity: Reconciling Ritual, Culture, and Belonging” was published in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Woman’s Art Journal. “Naming in Order to Heal and Redeem: Violence Against Women in Performance” appeared in the January 2009 issue on Activist Art of n.paradoxa, a British journal devoted to feminist art. Dr. Schultz also gave two lectures in 2009 at the El Paso Museum of Art on the relationship between Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as part of “Blake to Kahlo to Warhol: Masterworks from the Harry Ransom Center” and a collaborative presentation with Assistant Curator of Education, Polly Perez, entitled “japAN/America: Anime, Manga, and Art.”
Robert Hite
Born in 1956 in rural Virginia, Robert Hite attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. After studying traditional ink brush painting in Malaysia, he worked as a studio assistant with Washington Color School painter Leon Berkowitz. Informed both by a rich southern narrative tradition and a closeness to natural environments, Hite’s imagery often draws upon his memories of youthful wanderings in the Virginia tide waters. He has sought out and photographed rural dwellings not only in the southern United States and the Caribbean, but also in Central and South America, as well as Europe and Asia.
Working within and between painting, sculpture and photography, Hite’s highly refined technique and meticulous attention to detail produce illusions that are both confounding and transformative. In the photographic series Imagined Histories, Hite resituates is architectural sculptures in outdoor settings, magnifying the effects of dislocation and displacement that is central to all his imagery. In 1997, Hite and his family moved to a nineteenth‐century Methodist church and parsonage in the village of Esopus, New York. The artist is currently represented by Susan Eley Fine Arts in New York City, Cardwell Jimmerson Gallery in Los Angeles, Espacio En Blanco in Madrid, and Pearl Arts Gallery in Stone Ridge, New York.
Hite will be a visiting artist at St. Edward’s University, and will give a lecture presentation of his work at the 2010 TASA conference. An exhibition of his photographs will be on display in the Scarborough Phillips Library at St. Edward’s University. While a visiting artist on campus, Hite will construct one of his sculptures with the help of students from the art department.
Robert Hite installing the sculpture for Mud Flat House (Hudson River, Ulster County, New York), 2006.
Panels and Workshops Presenter’s Biographies:
Future Akins, Texas Tech University Assistant Professor of Art in Visual Studies, is a feminist artist educator who grew up as a military brat in an alcoholic home. She has survived being widowed young, two failed marriages and numerous jobs, relationships and “start overs”… this is the foundation of her work both as an artist and as a teacher. Her research/ her art is focused on woman and aging: their self image vs. mass media’s false image. It is on growing up in a military family and how there is no hometown, no settled place to land. And it is on re-thinking art: how we learn art, how we teach art and how we approach art.
Christopher O. Adejumo is an Associate Professor of Visual Art Studies/Art Education at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published over 25 book chapters, articles, and instructional guides on visual art and art education. Professor Adejumo has given over 40 lectures on art education and contemporary/traditional visual art practices. A practicing artist, Adejumo’s relief prints, low-relief sculptures, and paintings have been shown in 30 local, state, national, and international exhibitions, of which twelve were solo exhibitions. He has conducted over 28 visual art workshops at reputable venues, including the Dallas Museum of Art. He collaborated with the Dallas Museum of Art to produce a documentary on the Yoruba Ibeji or twin figures. Adejumo is the founder and Director of the Greater Tomorrow Youth Art Program in Austin, and the Youth Summer Art Program at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the recipient of the 2004 J. Eugene Grigsby Jr. National Award for outstanding and continuous contributions to multiethnic art education, given by the National Art Education Association.
Cathi Ball is an Assistant Professor at Howard Payne University. She is a recent graduate of University of North Texas in 2005. Cathi taught high school art at Eastland High School before returning to get her master’s. She is planning a PhD starting this summer.
Terry Barrett is Professor Emeritus of Art Education, with a joint appointment in the Department of Art, at The Ohio State University, where he is the recipient of a distinguished teaching award for courses in criticism and aesthetics within education. He has authored five books: Making Art: Form & Meaning; Why Is That Art?; Criticizing Art (2nd ed.); Criticizing Photographs (4th ed.); and Talking about Student Art. He edited the anthology Lessons for Teaching Art Criticism, published articles in Aesthetic Education, Afterimage, Art Education, Exposure, Camera-Lucida, Dialogue, Cultural Research in Art Education, New Advocate, New Art Examiner, Studies in Art Education, Teaching Artist Journal, Theory into Practice, Visual Arts Research, and many chapters in edited books. He is an art critic in education, consults museum education departments, juries exhibitions, and conducts workshops on studio critiques and writing. www.terrybarrettosu.com
Dr. John A. Calabrese received his Ph D in Comparative Arts from Ohio University and his MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute. He is Full Professor and teaches art history, studies abroad art history and the following film studies courses at Texas Woman’s University: The American Film Noir Part I: 1940-1958; Film Noir Part II: 1959-Present; The Art of Alfred Hitchcock and Film Noir. He is a practicing professional artist and recently had a two-person exhibition of his graphite drawings at North Lake College, Irving, Texas.
Jenny Bryson Clark teaches Political Science at South Texas College and is Chair of the Women’s Studies Committee, the Distinguished Speaker Series and co-chairs the Foreign Film Association. Clark joined the STC faculty in 1999 after completing her Master’s degree in Political Science and Humanities from Southwest Texas State University. Prior to an academic career in Political Science, Clark taught English as a Second Language in Barcelona, Spain and Cali, Colombia. She holds a dual undergraduate degree in Sociology and Social Policy from the University of Sheffield, England. For the last five years, Clark has been actively involved in researching the plight of trafficked women and has been creating awareness about sex trafficking though organizing annual conferences at South Texas College. Clark has recently been asked to serve on a state-wide Anti-Trafficking Taskforce.
Roger Colombik and Jerolyn Bahm-Colombik collaborate on a wide range of projects that include large-scale public sculpture and social documentary studies on cultural identity. Their sculptural works create visual environments that soften the flight of time for the viewer. Within this realm is a place where sculpture becomes the breath of poetry. Their newest work can be enjoyed at the corner of 2nd and San Antonio in downtown Austin. They have spent several years experiencing the post-Soviet/post Berlin Wall hangover that has destabilized several countries in their attempt to become civil societies. Video, still photography and oral histories are collected in milieus where traditions and cultural heritage have collided head-on with westernization and government malfeasance. Major public projects have been undertaken in Republic of Georgia and Romania where the focus was to promote community dialogue on issues of emigration, education and communal memory. A portfolio of these projects can be viewed on Roger’s Facebook page. Their website, www.colombikart.com features a wide range of Jerolyn and Roger’s individual older works. Roger’s book, A Quiet Divide (Plain View Press, 2006) is a collection of poetry, prose and photography examining the undercurrents of ethnic conflict in Eastern Europe and the Mid-East.
Carol Flueckiger, Associate Professor of Art and Faculty Affiliate, Women Studies Program at Texas Tech University is an artist whose work is informed by early American history, daily weather forecasts, and text printed on clothing tags. In her paintings, images such as clothing, personal objects, and historic handwriting are blueprinted onto wood panels by using cyanotype a 19thc century photographic process. These images collide to create overlapping narratives about geography nature and history. She works out compositions for her paintings through sketchbook pages that take the form of cotton thrift-store shirts blue printed with historic graphics. This is a method she developed after her recent completion of an American Antiquarian Society fellowship to gather vintage graphics and primary documents about Early American feminism. During lectures on her work she has been know to wear these shirts as a way of “buttoning herself into history.” www.carolflueckiger.com
David Freeman was born in Shreveport LA; (his mother taught English and home economics, his father was a chemical engineer, motor head and avid sailor). Freeman’s family moved to Montana near the Canadian border, where his dad threw him out the bathroom window to run around to the front door and dig out a 10 foot snowdrift. They lived there for 8 years and then moved to Tripoli, Libya. They were evacuated by the 7th fleet for the Six Day war, and later moved to Saudi Arabia when Kaddafi nationalized the country (and the oil companies), went to school in Switzerland and during vacations their parents drug them through all the greatest museums in Europe and taught them that art is something that can change the world for the better. It seemed they were tearing down the tent and rolling up the rugs, gathering up the sheep and moving every few years. David received his BFA in printmaking at the Academy of Arts in Memphis and his MFA in printmaking from UTSA. He was part of L.A. Heights Alternate Space, External Combustion and Foster Freeman galleries and started Voices of Art Magazine in 1993 with Mr. William Keith (and it is still being produced today). Teaching at STC and being in the Rio Grande valley is as exotic and adventurous as one could hope for – it’s full of juxtapositions and contradictions that are inspiring and exciting. He is now only 6 minutes away from the border to Mexico and travel there frequently.
Amy Gerhauser was born in Sacramento, California and earned a BA in art from the University of California, Santa Cruz; after undergraduate school she worked as a carpenter doing residential remodeling and later had a metal art-furniture business. She earned an MFA in Visual Studies from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and received a Virginia Museum Graduate Fellowship. While teaching sculpture at UT Tyler she was awarded a President’s Summer Faculty-Student Research Grant that supported an artist residency at the New Orleans Sculpture Lab as well as the construction of a cupola furnace for making cast-iron sculpture. She regularly exhibits research, presents at conferences, and gives workshops and artist talks; selected exhibitions include the 2008 International Art Bookmaking Festival, Seoul, Korea, Sculpting America, University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art, the 2003 International Sculpture Center Member Juried Exhibition, Grounds for Sculpture, New Jersey, and the 14th Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition, North Carolina, where she was awarded first place. Since the fall of 2005 she has taught foundations and sculpture courses at St. Edward’s University in Austin Texas. She and her husband live outside of Austin and are developing a sustainable lifestyle that includes raising poultry and organic gardening.
Jack Gron was born in the steel- producing town of Steubenville Ohio in 1951. He received his BFA degree in sculpture from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus Ohio in 1973. Jack attended Washington University in St. Louis where he earned his MFA degree in sculpture in 1976. From 1976-1980 Jack operated a sculpture studio in Chicago where he fabricated and installed several large -scale public works while teaching part time at community colleges in the area. In 1980 Jack moved to Cincinnati Ohio and taught sculpture and ceramics at the University of Cincinnati for two years. After that he moved to Lexington Kentucky where he taught sculpture for 20 years and served as Chairman of the Art Department for 7 years. In 2002 he accepted a position as Director of the School of Art at Northern Arizona University for three years. In 2005 Jack was offered the position of Chairman of the Department of Art at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi where he continues today. All through his academic career, Jack has maintained a high profile as a working artist in developing a national and international reputation.
Born in Independence, KY, Hollis Hammonds graduated with a BFA in Drawing from Northern Kentucky University in 1998, and received her MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of Cincinnati in 2001. Currently she is Area Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Art and the Director of the Fine Arts Exhibit Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. She has exhibited her work throughout the U.S. including shows at Indiana State University, the Arts + Literature Laboratory, Eastern Oregon University, & Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Stan Irvin received his M.F.A. in Ceramics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974. Shortly after, he started ceramics programs at Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, Texas and later at St. Edward’s University where he is currently a Professor of Art and teaches clay figure sculpture as well as beginning and advanced levels of ceramics. Stan maintains his studio in central Austin and Specializes in a variety of single-fired, altered wheel-thrown vessel forms. Stan received the First Place Award in the 2009 Texas Teapot Tournament sponsored by The Clay Art Museum and Educational Organization of Houston, TX. And recently had a solo exhibition of his work at Rockport Center For The Arts in Rockport, TX. His work may be seen at Clayways in Austin, Texas; Sunset Canyon Pottery and Gallery in Dripping Springs, Texas; at the Texas Clay Festival held annually in Gruene, Texas and at his annual December open studio event in Central Austin.
Meredith “Butch” Jack is Professor of Sculpture and Printmaking at Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. He moved to Houston, Texas in 1976 to escape the below zero weather of Minnesota and to take advantage of the close communication potential of the Houston art scene. He has been involved with iron foundry since 1974 and has been a panelist and demonstrator at many of the iron casting conferences since 1988. His unique distinction is that he will be the only person to run a cupola at all six of the International Cast Iron Conferences when he demonstrates his “ladlette” furnace in Kidwelly, Wales in July.
Living in Austin, TX provides a green home-base for the cultural and environmental activities that are Randy Jewart’s passion. He founded Austin Green Art five years ago and has successfully directed its sixty-plus projects and raised over $500,000 to support its unique blend of art and activism. AGA partners with environmental groups like ForestEthics in San Francisco, green-minded company’s like Whole Foods Market and Starbucks, and school groups from pre-school through University of Texas and Carnegie Mellon. Randy chooses to be inspired by the work of these groups to address complex environmental and social issues and he leads AGA in the making of art that brings this work to the community. Randy’s formative experience was a life in gymnastics that led him through Academic All-American status at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. His career as a stone sculptor was highlighted by exhibitions in Poland, the Pier Walk sculpture show in Chicago and as a board member of the International Sculpture Association. His masterpieces though, are his daughters — Ames (9) and Helen (5). An accidental radio encounter with William McDonough, architect and green visionary, inspired Randy’s innovation to bring artistic practice into a leadership role in the Sustainability Revolution. A literary scholar by training, he urges everyone to read Derrick Jensen, who he calls “the best writer on the planet.”
Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. started art school at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum at age eight before majoring in English/Art at Dartmouth College, 1951-55, A.B. and getting his M.F.A. from the University of Colorado, 1955-58. Since 1963, he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art and Who’s Who in the World. He studied Chinese painting (NYU and Harvard-1968); then Chinese art/culture in Taiwan (his first Fulbright-1969). He was a Fulbright Scholar to Georgia, 2001-2002-2003; Mongolia, 2004. He directed five university art departments and five museums. As a Smithsonian Institute Kellogg Fellow (1983-1984), he researched museum practices (after being selected there as one of fifty artists in the 1976 International Public Art Exhibition). While at the University of Guam, he completed more than a dozen large architectural works (the largest: 40′ x 60′ UOG mosaic wall). Returning stateside (1976), he concentrated on smaller watercolors and acrylics, while also selling larger creations abroad (American Embassies). He has had over 600 national and international exhibitions. His process centers on “system thinking.” Improving his verbal skills, he has been a disc jockey and directed television shows. His mantra for work/life is: “May the beauty we love be what we do.”
Donnie Earl Keen has been owner of Keen Foundry, founded in 1959 by his father, in Houston, TX since 1987. He began working with artists when Houston sculptors Meredith Jack and Ed Wilson came to him to help complete a commission to cast replacement architectural details in 1993. He attended his first artist/iron caster conference in 1998, when he went to the 3rd International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art at Johnson Atilier in Mercerville, NJ. Since that initial exposure he has given workshops and panels at more than a dozen conferences and was the keynote speaker at the Southern Iron Conference in 2005 at Sloss Furnaces. He has hosted four symposia for sculptural iron casting at his Houston foundry. He has had a close relationship with Lamar University’s Art program since 1994.
Bret Lefler was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated from high school and then attended the School of the Art institute of Chicago receiving his BFA in 1994. Upon graduation Bret returned to Fort Worth to attend Texas Christian University where he received his MFA in 1996.In the spring of 2006 Bret received his Doctorate in Art Education from Florida State University. During this period Bret has shown his artwork throughout Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth and Florida. He currently serves as the Department of Fine Art Coordinator and is teaching 2-D Design and Art Education classes in Brownsville, Texas at UTB/TSC.
Daniel Lievens is a graphic designer living and working in Austin, TX. He received an MFA in Design from The University of Texas at Austin in 2005. He has been a Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin and is currently an adjunct faculty member at St. Edward’s University in Austin.
Richard Lubben is serving in his 6th year as a visual arts instructor at South Texas College and has previously served as Department Chairperson, Faculty Senate Secretary and President of Council of Chairs. He earned a BA in studio art from California State University, Sacramento and a MFA in painting and drawing from the Insituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where he later joined the faculty. Other academic appointments include the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico in San Germán and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico, Ponce. Recently Lubben has taken interests in organizing exhibits and panels focusing on arts and activism in Texas, Mexico and the Caribbean including this year’s 5th Annual Human Rights Exhibit in McAllen, TX.
Tom Matthews received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and minors in Mass Communications and Art from Belmont College in 1984, and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Drawing from Texas Tech University in 2007. He currently serves as Assistant Chair and Visual Arts Instructor teaching Sculpture and Art Appreciation courses at South Texas College in McAllen, Texas.
Connie McCreary has been working with clay since 1981. She earned a Masters Degree in Ceramics from the University of Dallas. She has taught visual arts in a variety of venues from public arts projects and public schools to private workshops, lectures, demonstrations and college courses. Connie has shown her ceramic work in many craft sales and galleries in Texas and the U.S. Her work and studio were featured on an HGTV series called “Crafters Coast to Coast”. Ms. McCreary has explored performance art venues with student and profession<al artists, collaborating with dancers, musicians, poets and other visual artists. Currently, she is serving as the Vice President and Board Member of the Texas Clay Arts Association. In addition to the responsibilities of TCAA, she has been a founder and leader of Greater Austin Clay Artists since May of 2003.
Leighton McWilliams is an Associate Professor and Assistant Chair in the Art and Art History Department. He exhibits his photo/sculptural work nationally and lives and works in Arlington, TX.
Rosemary Meza-DesPlas is a visual artist from Dallas, Texas. She has exhibited nationally: Center for Latino Arts in Boston, Polvo Gallery in Chicago, to A.I.R. Gallery in New York. Her artwork ranges from hand-sewn human hair drawings to large scale drawing installations. She is currently represented by Mighty Fine Arts in Dallas, TX and Climate Gallery in Long Island City, NY. Rosemary Meza-DesPlas has been a faculty member of El Centro College for ten years; she teaches painting, drawing, design and art history. She is featured in the 2007 Triumph of our Communities: Artists and Organizations video from the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University.
Leslie Mutchler earned a BFA from Kent State University in Kent, OH and an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Elkins Park, PA. Her multidisciplinary work challenges our expectations of accumulation and minimization by sourcing from a recognizable vocabulary of modern and contemporary furniture, interior and architectural design. Mutchler’s installations and collages have been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Selected group exhibitions include Commodity: Sarah Frost, Juan William Chavez, Leslie Mutchler, Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis, MO (2008); Paper[Space], Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA (2008); Discrete Space, Big Medium Gallery, Austin, TX (2008); Disturbance of Distance, Box13 Gallery, Houston, TX (2009); One Every Day, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Art, New York, NY (2009); and Medium Resistance, the Icebox, Philadelphia, PA (2010). Recent solo shows include Catalogue/Build, Middletown, OH (2009); Adapted Utopia, Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia, PA (2009); OverGrowth, CactusBra Space, San Antonio, TX (2009); and Outer Space/Green Space, Courtyard Gallery, AT&T Conference Center, Austin, TX (2010). Currently, Mutchler is Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching and restructuring 2D Foundations. http://www.lesliemutchler.com
The impetus for much of Scott Nicol’s artistic practice arose from time spent in the rainforests of Venezuela and Ecuador in 1991, when the sense of being engulfed within a vast organism led to the manifestation of longstanding environmental concerns in his work. He felt that the potential of art to act as a locus, bringing artist and audience into communion with the land, allows for a deeper understanding of not only the workings of the natural world but also our socially constructed attitudes towards it. This came to fruition during the course of graduate studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, when he suspended masses of stones smoothed by local rivers from trees using biodegradable hemp twine, then left them to reintegrate into the environment as the fibers slowly decomposed. It was during this period that he reestablished contact with the rainforest, traveling to Costa Rica to construct work in an ecosystem similar to those which had so powerfully influenced the early evolution of his art. For six summers he taught college courses involving the creation of art utilizing the natural materials of the rainforest at the La Suerte Biological Field Station in Costa Rica and the Ometepe Biological Field Station in Nicaragua. Time in spent in Central America, and on the border in South Texas, made clear the fact that while personal interaction with ecosystems is vital, it is equally important to act to prevent their destruction. Nicol is currently active with the Sierra Club and No Border Wall, while teaching studio art classes at South Texas College.
Colby Parsons is a sculptor and Associate Professor of Art at Texas Woman’s University. Colby teaches ceramics courses and has been a member of the faculty since 1998. He received a Bachelor’s degree from Miami University and a M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Colby also worked as the potter for a small production pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio. His current work in clay is sculptural, often making use of found objects and other material in addition to clay. The vocabulary of form for these sculptures is derived from various industrial and domestic implements and objects.
Jana C. Perez holds an M.A. in Graphic Design and an M.F.A. in Photography and is currently assistant professor of graphic design at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. Perez has presented research at the 2009 UCDA National Design Education Summit, and the 2008 Hawaiian International Conference on Arts and Humanities. Perez’ fine art work has been featured in several exhibitions nationwide including the 4th Photography Biennial, the ReFresh Print Biennial I, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, and as a Portfolio Winner at The Houston Center for Photography.
Catherine Prose is a working artist in Wichita Falls, Texas, where she is Assistant Professor of art and Gallery Director for The Juanita and Ralph Harvey School of Visual Arts at Midwestern State University. Prose holds a bachelor of arts degree from Cameron University and a master of fine arts degree from Texas Tech University. Prose is a mixed media artist working in printmaking, painting, drawing, and photography.
Jason Reed is currently Assistant Professor, Photography at Texas State University. He holds an MFA in Photography from Illinois State University and BA in Geography from the University of Texas-Austin. His personal photographic work explores the cultural landscape of the places he has called home (Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois). In addition, he is the Director of Borderland Youth at Texas State University, a social art project which seeks to use diverse mediums such as photography and creative writing and collaboration between professional artists and young people as a means to add a rich new layer of personal, familial and cultural stories and perspectives to the collective archive of American life.
Kent Rush was born in Hayward, California (the East Bay side of the San Francisco Bay Area) in 1948. He spent his formative years absorbing the artistic, intellectual and political milieu of the San Francisco/Berkeley area of the late 60′s. He studied art, drawing and especially printmaking, at the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) with Robert Bechtle, Charles Gill and Jeryl Parker and received his BFA in 1970 amid the tumult of People’s Park and the Berkeley Viet Nam Moratorium. In the mid 70′s he earned a Masters Degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where he studied lithography under Garo Antreasian while he also worked as a printer’s assistant and photographer for the Tamarind Institute of Lithography. Shortly thereafter he moved to San Antonio, Texas to start the printmaking program for the (then) San Antonio Art Institute,1976. While teaching and working there he completed an MFA Degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1979. That same year he moved back to California where he made art and began showing at Art Space Gallery in Los Angeles. He taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts (’80-’81) and the San Francisco Art Institute (’82) and began showing also at the Bluxume Gallery, San Francisco. He has spent the past 27 years making art and teaching in San Antonio at the University of Texas at San Antonio since 1982. His work has been exhibited extensively in the United States in solo, two and three person, group and competitive shows. Internationally he has also had works shown in London, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and France. Coming from a background in printmaking, drawing and painting Rush, over the past 20 years, has appropriated photography as a means to making images. Specifically he collects (on film) mundane objects and surfaces (primarily concrete) from urban and suburban sites and presents them in monumental format.
Judy Stone-Nunneley is an artist and educator whose creative work encompasses mixed media prints and textiles, installation and artist’s books. She has exhibited her work in over one hundred solo, invitational and juried exhibitions in the United States, China, Canada and Australia. Born in Dallas, Texas, she received the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She has given lectures and workshops on creativity and printmaking at national and state art conferences including the Southern Graphics Council, Mid-America Print Council, Texas Association of Schools of Art, National Art Cloth Symposium, Art Educator’s of Minnesota, Wisconsin Art Educator’s Association, Nebraska Women’s Caucus for Art, and the National Art Education Association. College teaching experience includes the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Currently she is Head of the Visual Arts Department at Brewer High School in Fort Worth. Website: www.bluejayranch.com
After leaving the Brazosport area in 1989, Georganna Tapley moved to countries like Venezuela, Ireland, England, Taiwan, Korea; the list goes on. She taught art classes and created several programs for schools. She received her Masters in Fine Art from UEL University Docklands in London England, and her bachelors from NCAD National College of Art and Design in Dublin Ireland. She now teaches art and art appreciation at Lee College, Brazosport College and at the Art Alliance Center at Clear Lake. Georganna Tapley’s In the Company of Strangers, a collection of artwork on textiles will make its debut in Baytown on August 25 in the Art Gallery in the Lee College Performing & Visual Arts Center. The exhibit, which was shown most recently in London, will run through September 25. After traveling the world and living in several different countries. www.georgannatapley.com
Peter Tucker is Assistant Professor of Media Arts at SUNY Fredonia, where he teaches Digital Foundations, web design, and various new media courses. Peter has been an adjunct faculty member at St. Edward’s University, teaching Video Production, New Media and Color & Design. Peter was also a visiting lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin in Digital Foundations. Peter has an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA from Oklahoma State University. Peter’s work often involves melding sculpture with technology or with performative elements and explores issues of religion and belief systems. For more information: www.pedrotucker.com
Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Gary Washmon studied painting at the University of New Mexico, BFA 1976, and the University of Illinois (MFA 1980). He moved to Texas in 1978 to teach at the University Of Texas in Austin, and is currently Interim Chair and Professor of Art in the Visual Arts Department of Texas Woman’s University. His artist residencies include Yale Summer School for Music and Art, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, as well as workshops in Mexico and Canada. Washmon’s work was published in the books “American Art Now” and “Art of the 80’s”, by Edward Lucie-Smith and his work is included in many public and private collections. Past exhibitions include numerous solo and group exhibitions in private and university galleries.
Korean-born artist, Sang-Mi Yoo is currently living in Lubbock, Texas, teaching at Texas Tech University as an Assistant Professor of Art. Yoo received her MFA in printmaking from The Ohio State University in 2001 and BFA in Painting from Seoul National University in 1992. She was awarded a 2009 Springfield Art Museum Purchase and Cash Prizes, 2007 Texas Tech Arts and Humanities Project Grant, a 2004 Jentel Artist Residency Fellowship and a 2003 Artist-in-Residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. She has had exhibitions in national and international venues, including Gyeongnam International Art Festival (Korea), Moonshin Museum (Seoul, Korea), 2008 Pacific Rim International Print Exhibition (New Zealand), The 13th Seoul Space International Print Biennial (Korea), The Contemporary Artists Center (North Adams, MA), Colorprint USA International 2002 (Lubbock, TX) and Art Chicago 2003/04. Her prints are included in permanent collections at Arkansas State University Art Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Columbia Collge Chicago and The Museum of Texas Tech University.
Dr. Marjorie Zielke is an Assistant Professor of Arts and Technology. Dr. Zielke is principal investigator on many of the serious games and modeling and simulation projects at UT Dallas – working primarily within the defense and health sectors. She is closely aligned with the ATEC graduate program and works with many ATEC graduate students in both a classroom and project context.
Eric Zimmerman is an artist and writer who lives and works in Austin Texas. He is a contributing writer for Art Lies magazine and Austin based e-publication …might be good. He received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2002, and his MFA from The University of Texas at Austin in 2005.
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