FMU Student Art Guild Invitational
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
May 13 – July 13, 2004
Danger in the Idyllic: South Carolinians at Risk
Photo Essay by Lisa Pike & Lynn Hanson
Art Gallery Series
May 18 – August 2, 2004
Smith University Center Gallery
This photo essay by professors Lynn Hanson and Lisa Pike is one of the culminating products of an interdisciplinary project involving students in Ms. Pike’s Honors Environmental Science class and Dr. Hanson’s Business Writing and Technical Communication classes during fall 2002. Over 149 students were involved in the project with at least 59 contributing to the content of a CD entitled The Mercury Problem in South Carolina’s Freshwaters. The 15 photos and interpretive labels focus on the danger of eating mercury-contaminated freshwater fish in South Carolina.
Nature Observed:
Paintings and Drawings by Stephen M. Welch
Smith University Gallery
August 7 – October 29, 2004
“Growing up in rural Clarendon County, my family instilled in me a great appreciation for the world of nature surrounding me. . . . For as long as I can remember, one of my favorite pastimes was sketching and I would sketch with anything and on anything available. I loved nature and decided at an early age to become a biologist. The selection of my work is due in part to actually observing the subjects in the wild and trying to capture them in their natural settings. I prefer to paint animals that are often overlooked because of their size or often disliked because of the stigmas associated with them. Through my work, I hope to make people aware that these organisms are just as important as other plants and animals commonly recognized and loved.”
Stephen Welch teaches biology at Francis Marion University and in the Wilson High School International Baccalaureate Program in Florence, SC.
2004 Art & Art Education Alumni Invitational
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
August 17 – September 30, 2004
Gallery Gala Reception — 7:00 pm Thursday, September 30th
The Alumni Invitational gives graduates of FMU’s Art Education and Visual Arts programs an opportunity to socialize and showcase recent artwork, and affords the University and community with an opportunity to view their work and learn of their achievements following graduation. Alumni exhibitions help the Department of Fine Arts stay current with former students, assessing success in preparing students for graduate study and professions within the field. In conjunction with alumni surveys, the alumni invitational is a collegial means of soliciting recommendations for improvements to the curriculum and providing current art and art education majors with a pool of successful mentors to assist with placement “in the business” upon graduation.
“As Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts, I wish to thank all the alumni that contributed work for the Art & Art Education Alumni Invitational. Alumni exhibits help continue a dialogue with past students we have prepared. This kind of contact is nostalgic, educational, and exciting for all involved. Faculty are provided evidence of progress their students have made, and current students are reinforced by the creative endeavors they view. Even though there is a variety of artistic approach, execution, and media, these artists and their works are bound to Francis Marion University and the Department of Fine Arts by shared experiences and commitment to excellence. These artists and educators continue to be a great source of pride for the department and the Visual Art and Art Education programs. The entire university community will benefit from this exhibit and I congratulate the participants. I would like to also thank the faculty and staff who helped make this exhibit a success.” – Lawrence P. Anderson
Cultural Compost: Quilts from Surface to Content
Fiber Arts by Ellen Kochansky
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
October 5-28, 2004
In 20 years of public and private commissions, Ellen Kochansky has evolved through the familiar quilter’s concerns with color, image and technique, into more philosophical issues of community, archives and environment. Current works in progress are both two- and three-dimensional. Still suggesting quilts, they solicit materials from the members of the group for which they are made, creating a dynamic commitment. Training in theatre generates awareness of distance impact; passion for detail assures close-up interest.
“These current expressions represent three inspirations that have generated my recent themes… Personal and universal journaling, the simplicity and transparency of a single textile, and the conviction that we as individuals and as a culture scorn and discard what will prove to have mattered most… Through these works I hope we can recover awareness of our frugality, and celebrate the richness of our simplest resources.”
Included in Ellen’s exhibit is her series entitled “Mill Memory.” Commissioned as a companion to the book Textile Town, this collective community work is composed of hundreds of contributions from the people of Spartanburg County, relating to the history of the textile mills. A non-verbal history, it is framed in the floors of the demolished mills, and will become a permanent part of the planned Spartanburg Arts Center.
Ellen Kochansky lives and works in Pickins, S.C.
Between Abstraction and Figuration
Watercolors & Mixed Media Works by Kees Salentijn
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
November 3-19, 2004
Born in Amsterdam in 1947, Kees Salentijn’s work is characterized by a duality between figuration and abstraction. He has been a forceful presence in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and other European countries for decades. Strongly influenced by Spanish painters such as Saura and Millares, Salentijn’s style is evocative of spontaneous creation without aesthetic premeditation.
Selections from Salentijn’s sketches and notebooks were published as a book earlier this year. Salentijn has developed a personal style that combines expressionist, painterly, vigorous strokes with smaller but equally expressionist marks that are quick and slightly nervous, but sure and on-target.
Shapes from Within:
Pottery by Sasha & Tari Federer
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
November 3-19, 2004
“Working in clay represents, for me, a timeless desire to combine objects of use with beauty, by creating the unique from the ordinary, and to experience beauty in everyday moments.” – Sasha
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia Republic, Sasha has lived in USA for half his life, in Florence for nine years — as a clinical psychiatrist by profession, and as a potter by passion. He studied pottery in Washington and Wisconsin, worked three years as a professional potter in New Hampshire and served as artist-in-residence with the National Endowment for the Arts.
“Working with clay represents the interconnectedness with the forces of nature that surround, and inspire us, along with the shapes that evolve from deep within. My mission is to combine these shapes and forces into art form and functionality.” – Tari
Spending much of her life in the Southwest, Tari studied as an art major at Ventura College and the University of California Santa Barbara. A few years ago she closed her studio in North Carolina and moved to Florence, SC, to marry and join forces with Sasha. Their joining has resulted in a creative collaboration in their quest to create in clay at their studio, Feather Pottery.
Student Works by FMU Photography Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
November 3-19, 2004
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
November 23-24, 29 – December 18, 2004
Student Works by FMU Painting Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
November 23-24, 29 – December 18, 2004
Student Works by FMU Ceramics Classes
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
December 6 – 18, 2004
Works on Paper by Howard Frye
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
January 4 – February 17, 2005
Gallery Gala Reception — 7:00 pm Tuesday, 8 February 2005
“I’m a linear person. I’ve always been attracted to the expressive qualities of line and so I have a natural affinity for drawing…. Looking at a drawing, you get a glimpse of the artist’s thought process in its most direct form; you can see where the artist paused, and which parts of the drawing he or she gave the most attention…. I use to be worried about finding interesting subject matter or developing a style; now I’ve come to understand that it is not so much what you make, but rather how you make it…. Conceptually, I’m interested in creating visual puns, paradoxes, and games related to visual culture. In today’s world, people are exposed to an unceasing repetition of images and contradictory messages, which I think results in both confusion and fatigue, and there is a danger that this could lead to numbness, apathy, and isolation. Much of my recent work alludes to this reality at least on some level, whether it’s by making jokes of art history, creating free-flowing images, or by combining visual elements to make a new image.”
Dr. Howard Frye teaches Art Education and Printmaking at Francis Marion University.
Reorganization of Space:
Digital Images by Kathleen Pompe
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
January 4, – February 17, 2005
“I am attracted to and photograph places and items that are mysterious or incongruous. It is the details, rather than the whole, that interest me because it is in the details that I can imagine the fantastic. When I reassemble the parts, the outcome is unique, and often far removed from the original. I tend to be drawn to the architecture of a place because the architecture reveals cultural information and insights of the people who live there. For example, in Cuba, the architecture suggested a people and culture at an impasse; a place where time is standing still, despite attempts at renovation.
“The digital images are narratives of landscapes that only partially exist. They represent views of places that are personal, surreal, and a product of my imagination. Although I present views of places as they exist today, I can’t resist creating personal, imagined places. The altered images are digital narratives, where my mind’s eye creates a story of an alternate reality.”
Kathleen Pompe is Professor of Photography at Francis Marion University.
Sculptural/Functional Clay Works from USC’s Ceramics Program
Ken Baskin, MFA Student
Jill Allen, MFA
Andrea Moon, MFA
Matt Berglund
Justin Guy, BFA
Shelby Duensing, BFA
Rene Rouillier, Adjunct Instructor
Virginia Scotchie, Professor
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
January 4 – February 17, 2005
The exhibition will highlight the creative research from the University of South Carolina Columbia Ceramic Studio within the Department of Art. The Ceramic Area has received national attention through its dynamic program which is headed by Professor Virginia Scotchie. Professor Scotchie has headed the program for the past 11 years. She received her MFA from Alfred University in New York and has exhibited her work on an international scale.
The graduate students at USC come from Michigan, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Korea. The work includes a variety of hand-built and wheel thrown forms exploring new directions in the ceramic arts.
February 8 Gallery Talk
Virginia Scotchie from USC’s Ceramics Program will be on campus with a few graduate students to give a gallery talk about their works on display and the graduate school experience. They will begin in the Fine Arts Gallery at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, February 8, and continue with a slide presentation in FAC 213 (Art Lecture Hall). Open to all!
Paintings by James Meekins
Smith University Center Gallery
January 11 – March 17, 2005
James V. Meekins began to draw and paint very early in life due to the influence of two older sisters. They taught him to read and write at an early age and, as they were also talented at drawing and painting, they taught him to do those too.
His first drawings were of horses, cattle and simple landscapes as James was fortunate to be born on a Texas ranch where working animals dominated their family life. This proved useful to an early start in his working career as in his early teens he found himself in “movie country” when his family moved to Los Angeles. Due to his father who had many cowboy friends in the business, James was able to work as an extra in old westerns and epic movies because of his riding ability.
James also began working on cross country pipelines which he loved doing. He became one of the top welders, then welder foreman and on to spread man and general superintendent. This led to work with oil companies planning work all over the world.
Throughout these travels he was able to continue with his art. He attended many schools and had personal instruction under many leading artists. He studied color and composition under Thelma De Goede Smith, and attended many workshops in France, Holland and Germany in both design and portraits. He never abandoned the Western influence in his work, although he did a “Renaissance” series which won many awards and does commissioned portraits as well. James finds himself at home in all cultures but is an American Indian and cowboy first.
His great, great grandfather, Jonathan Meekins, was an early settler in the old Cheraws which later became Marlboro County. Jonathan’s sons and daughters moved to several of the surrounding counties, where James has acquired land that once belonged to his family. His studio, once a school and Lodge known as the Dalcho School, was built by Masons in 1874 has itself survived through many changes in fortune.
James Meekins came to South Carolina in 1989 seeking his roots and found them through the help of many people in Dillon, Marlboro and other surrounding counties. Soon after he arrived, the Florence Museum invited him to exhibit his work, together with portrait artist, Lorna Shanks. The show launched James’ art in the area.
Beginnings:
Paintings by Anya Belkina
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
February 22 – April 7, 2005
“The central motif of Beginnings is the Russian nesting doll, or matreshka. Leveraging the toy’s inherent theme of propagation, parenthood and sacrifice, the pieces explore the dangerous mutations and ironic reversals of family relationships. In addition to referencing female forms, the images can be interpreted more broadly as visual metaphors for cyclical process common to all matter; they speak of birth, development, decay, death, and regeneration.”
Anya is an assistant professor of drawing and painting at Duke University.
Gallery Talk by Anya Belkina
1:30 pm Friday, April 8, FAC-213
Moscow born artist Anya Belkina will be on campus to discuss her artworks which have been on display in the Fine Arts Center. Anyone who has passed by Hyman has noticed the massive paintings based on the Russian nesting doll and seen the animation on continuous playback in the main gallery.
After studying at the Moscow Art Institute, Anya moved to California and worked in graphic design and animation. She then went on to complete graduate studies at UCSD and now is an assistant professor at Duke University’s Department of Art and Art History. Anya will be taking her works back to Durham after the talk, so do come by and take a last look before it disappears!
Spirit Houses by Carol Owen
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
February 22 – April 7, 2005
“My Spirit Houses tell family stories that celebrate the people, places and events important to us. The house image represents shelter, family and memories of home. These Spirit Houses are shrines to such memories. They make sacred those shards of the past that have made us what we are.
“I construct each house individually with Japanese rice paper, foam core, and my own handmade paper. I then paint them and embellish them with photographs and objects chosen to tell the stories that make up the rituals and ceremonies of our lives.”
Carol lives and works in Pittsboro, NC. Her recent publication, Crafting Personal Shrines, is available through Lark Books. Visit her website at www.carolowenart.com.
Student Works by FMU Drawing Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
March 22 – April 1, 2005
Student Works by FMU Painting Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
April 5-18, 2005
Student Works by FMU Painting Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
April 5-18, 2005
Senior Shows by Graduating FMU Visual Arts Majors
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
April 12 – May 7, 2005
Student Works by FMU Photography Classes
Smith University Center Gallery
April 20 – May 7, 2005
Student Works by FMU Ceramics and 3-D Design Classes
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
April 25 – May 7, 2005
Recent Works by Jackie Wukela
Smith University Center Gallery
May 24 – July 28, 2005
“My hope is to explore the world of color and light — looking at things we see every day and recording them during a moment of magic.”
After several years as an elementary school teacher and then full time wife and mom, Jackie Wukela now devotes much of her time to her art. Educated in Georgia with a degree in education and further work in art at the University of South Carolina, Jackie has been doing commission work for over 20 years.
Although she began working in acrylics, over the years patron requests have led to study and work in watercolor, pencil, colored pencil, pastels and oils. “Commission work spawns ideas, so it becomes at once a luxury and then a necessity to have time to try out new techniques or further develop old interests. I try not to get bogged down in one medium for too long. I do a great deal of portrait commissions in oil and colored pencil, but my most innovative work right now is in acrylics.”
Recent Works by Lynda English
Hyman Fine Arts Center Gallery
May 24 – July 28, 2005
Lynda English is a native of Florence, South Carolina. She is a member of the Florence Artist’s Guild, a Member of Excellence in the South Carolina Watercolor Society, a signature member in the Southern Watercolor Society and a signature member in the CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America). Lynda taught art to 6th graders through high school at The King’s Academy in Florence for four years. She and a business partner, Jackie Wukela, own the Lynda English Studio-Gallery & Art Supply. She teaches beginner and advanced watercolor classes and watercolor collage at the Gallery, and does portrait and landscape commissions in watercolor and colored pencil.
Lynda paints and draws in a very realist manner giving great attention to color and detail. She enjoys layering her watercolors and colored pencils to achieve strong rich colors. Her favorite subjects are ones that have strong lights and darks. She also likes zooming in on ordinary objects, bringing the viewer right up to them so that they can feel and see things that normally they would overlook and take for granted.
