The School of Visual Arts will display work by the faculty through March 27.
Faculty members from the School of Visual Arts currently have pieces in the show at the Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery in the Norick Art Center. Heather Lunsford, director of the School of Visual Arts, said it is important for students to see that the professors teaching them are still making art themselves. The work on display includes ceramics, sculptures and short films.
“I’m a watercolorist, so I have pieces that are mixed media on paper,” Lunsford said. “I created one of them specifically for this show, and two of them came from the gallery that represents me, JRB in the Paseo.”
Lunsford said it is important for students to see that their work is continuing to evolve. She said every time she sees an artist talk or gallery it inspires and influences her work so that it evolves, and students should think about how they continue to grow outside of school.
“I thought it was really cool to see the faculty’s art,” said Kyla Bruegel, film production/studio art senior. “The professors are experienced in their fields, particularly in the art school, where they are artists themselves and participate in the local art community. It was nice to see this aspect of OCU celebrated, and I think it serves as good encouragement to the students.”
Burt Harbison, professor of studio art, has multiple 50×70 inch paintings on display in the gallery. Harbison said it’s good for students to understand how their professors see art because it’s all different. He said hopefully their beliefs are reflected in the work they produce, and that every art student should take everything every a professor says with a little skepticism.
“I used to be very determined to make my own compositions, and then paint those,” Harbison said. “What happened over the last several years is I would find images, whatever struck my fancy, and then I started pulling those up and changing them. Sometimes I draw and paint the image from reference, sometimes I actually project it, and once it goes on the canvas I start to mess with it and hopefully something will come out of it. This is what I’m going to keep working on until I croak.”
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