Alumni & Friends

Recent Graduates in Studio Art

Here are some of our recent studio art and graphic design graduates, from the Class of 2000 to the present day.

  • Looking for earlier classes? Go to this page.
  • Recent art history graduates?  Go here.

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2023

Ryan Akers (MFA 2023, painting) was the department’s choice for 2023 Outstanding Graduate Student in Studio Art. Akers presented his thesis exhibition in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in March. He held a solo exhibition at Burgin Center for the Arts, Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and his work was selected for the Director’s Award in the 44th Montgomery (Ala.) Art Guild Museum Exhibition. Akers, said his professor Pete Schulte, stands out as “a high-achieving artist and a model artist-citizen. His care and concern for others provide a palpable and nurturing presence for both graduate students and the undergrads that he has taught and assisted.” In the classroom, Schulte said, “Ryan has demonstrated a level of patience, growth, and maturity that has endeared him to students and is indicative of an educator with a bright and promising future.” In his studio research, Akers has been “steadfast in his research and deeply committed to the development of his increasingly nuanced and experimental approach to drawing and installation,” his professor said. Akers received a BA in 2020 in interdisciplinary studies from New College at UA. His website is: https://www.ryanakersart.com/

Sylvia Cervino, (BFA 2023, studio art: digital media/painting, minor: anthropology) held her BFA thesis exhibition in May of 2023. Cervino was part of the four-person show, Gorgas Library Student Artwork Exhibition, in October of 2022, and made the President’s List in fall 2022. She received the 2021-22 Julie Peake Holaday Memorial Endowed Scholarship and the Carol B. Merkle Endowed Scholarship. Follow Sylvia Cervino on Instagram @dysiswitch.

Christine Choi (BFA 2023, graphic design), from Montgomery, Alabama, was the department’s choice for the 2023 Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Graphic Design Award. Choi’s work in package design was recognized with an Award of Excellence from Graphic Design USA (GDUSA) and will be included in the prestigious 2023 GDUSA Package Design Annual. She was elected communications officer for the UA AIGA Student Group and she served as a graphic designer for University Programs and UA Tide Talks. Assistant Professor Cassandra Palmer said, “Christine is a quick learner who works with enthusiasm. She is dedicated to her classwork and always willing to help her classmates. I know that she is going to be very successful in her career.”

Ryan Glantz (BFA 2023, studio art: digital media/drawing) presented her BFA thesis exhibition in May 2023. Glantz made the President’s List in the fall of 2022. Follow Ryan Glantz on Instagram @moonlight_miiko.

Danielle Guy, (BFA 2023, graphic design) is a graphic designer and customer representative for OxyCare Plus, Inc. Her website is here,

Brylane Hay (BFA 2023, studio art: digital media/drawing; minor: creative media) made the President’s List in the fall of 2022. As an art major, she received the Angelo Granata Endowed Scholarship, the Mary M. Morgan Memorial Art Scholarship Fund, the Granata Endowed Scholarship, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Studio Arts Scholarship throughout her college years. Find Brylane Hay’s art website here and on Instagram @b_doesart.

Will Henry (MFA 2023, printmaking, photography) describes his thesis exhibition work as “ a quiet reclamation of myself and my agency, as a marginalized person, to create space for myself in the world and to explore concepts of my own marginalization through introspection and desire…This body of work is a celebration of my marginalized looking and reflects ideas of healing, indulgence, and Queer erotic freedom through the act of looking. Will Henry received the BFA in studio art from the University of Montevallo with concentrations in photography, graphic design and printmaking and a minor in art history.

Parker M. Hunt (MFA 2023, ceramics) held his thesis exhibition in ceramics, Rough Around the Edges, in April. Hunt taught ceramics at UA and Gadsden State Community College and at the K-12 level. He was an assistant instructor in ceramics at UA Art Camp in 2022. He served as an artist assistant at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (Tenn.); visiting artist at Carlow University, Pittsburgh.; and artist-in-residence at the Walnut Gallery and the Mary G. Hardin Center of Cultural Arts, both in Gadsden. Hunt had a solo exhibition, Break Away, at Walnut Gallery in Gadsden, Alabama, in 2022 and has exhibited in national and regional juried exhibitions. Hunt received a BFA in ceramics and sculpture from the University of Montevallo and also studied at Ball State University, the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, and Gadsden State Community College. His art website is https://parkermhunt.wixsite.com/vesselmaker.

Liv Komisar (BFA 2023, studio art, painting/digital media; minor: Blount Scholars program) had work juried into the Tennessee Collegiate Art Competition 2023, Middle Tennessee State University, and Alabama Artist: Roots and Wings, at ArtsRevive Cultural Arts Center, Selma, Alabama. She was included in the four-person show, Gorgas Library Student Artwork Exhibition at UA in October of 2022. She has served as a gallery assistant in the Paul R. Jones Museum and made the President’s List in the fall of 2022. Liv Komisar’s art website is here.

Molly Lay (MFA 2023, sculpture) describes her thesis exhibition work: “[it] explores the habit of walking through natural spaces and the opportunity this practice creates to bring a sense of awareness to one’s lived experience…I have found that walking, writing and creating provide unique opportunities to still the mind by a simple act of attention beyond the self.” Lay received the Leslie and Francis Posey Foundation Graduate Art Scholarship and was awarded a Small Grant by The Arts Council of Tuscaloosa and a Levitetz “Community Work Grant” Seed Grant for two public sculpture projects in Tuscaloosa. She held an internship at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Education and Community Engagement and worked as a curator for the Great Explorations Children’s Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Her art website is https://www.mollylaystudio.com/.

Kole Nichols (MFA 2023, printmaking; pronouns: they/them) said their work is influenced by interests in “cyclical movements and patterns, navigation, mapping, repetition, light, presence, and absence. At times there are references to architectural elements, organizational systems, and even natural phenomena. As I work, I seek to analyze and deconstruct moments or spaces that I encounter hoping to create images and objects that embody their experience.”  Recent exhibitions include Star Patterns, their thesis exhibition; Remnant (solo) at Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, Alabama; Jumbo Shrimp (group) at Take It Easy, Atlanta; Transmutations (the inbetweenness of things), curated by Sergio Suarez at Whitespec, Whitespace, Atlanta; and a three-person exhibition, Moon Gallery, at Berry College, Mt. Berry, Georgia, among others. They have interned with artist Sara Garden Armstrong, assisted photographer Kenwyn Alexander, and taught drawing classes at Space One Eleven in Birmingham. Nichols’ website is https://www.kolenichols.com/.

Mackenna Overholt

Mackenna Overholt (BFA 2023, studio art: painting/drawing; minor: art history) is the designated artist for the UA Student Government Association Presidential Portraits, creating oil paintings of current and recent SGA presidents, and she will continue that commission as an alumna. Overholt was part of the four-person show, Gorgas Library Student Artwork Exhibition and made the President’s List in fall 2022. As a major, she received the Marilyn Williams Elmore Endowed Art Scholarship, the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Studio Arts Scholarship, the Art Students Endowed Scholarship Fund, and the Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Scholarship throughout her college years. In 2022, she served as a sales associate at Altitude Gallery in Bozeman, Montana, and the Gorgas Library exhibition coordinator at UA. Find Mackenna Overholt on Instagram @mackennaoverholtfineart or on her website.

Liza Reid Smith (BFA 2023, studio art: painting/digital media; double major in public relations; minor in Chinese) received the Bradley Endowed Scholarship Fund, the Mary M. Morgan Memorial Art Scholarship Fund, the Carol B. Merkle Endowed Scholarship, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Studio Arts Scholarship, throughout her years as an art major. She made the President’s List in the fall of 2022. Find Liza Reid Smith on Instagram @lizareidart.

Prattville native Ella Smyth (BFA 2023, studio art: painting/drawing) was the department’s choice for the 2023 Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Studio Art Award. Smyth holds a 4.0 GPA, has been awarded multiple departmental scholarships, and made the Dean’s List in 2021 and the President’s List in 2019, 2020 and 2022. She is the lead gallery worker for the Sella-Granata Art Gallery and served as an education intern at the Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts. Smyth’s artwork was selected for the Bellwhethers 2021 Juried Exhibition at the University of Tennessee at Martin and the West Alabama Juried Show in 2022. In praise of her growth as an artist and artist-citizen, Professor Pete Schulte said that Smyth “possesses a spirited work ethic, innate curiosity, and abiding commitment to her practice and development as an artist. She elevates the overall classroom discourse, and through encouragement and example, has been a strong role model for less experienced students.”

Autumn Darah Williams (BFA 2023, studio art: digital media/painting) presented her BFA thesis exhibition in May of 2023. Williams served as chief graphics editor for the Crimson White and made the fall 2022 Dean’s List. As an art major, she received the Myra and Jim Morgan Endowed Scholarship and the Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Scholarship. Autumn Darah Williams’s website is here and she is on Instagram @darrahea.

Hannah Willis (BFA 2023, studio art: ceramics/sculpture) served as a gallery assistant in the Paul R. Jones Museum and The University of Alabama Gallery and made the Dean’s List in the fall of 2022. Also in 2022, she was awarded a scholarship in support of a summer arts residency with sculptor Jeffery Meris at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. She will serve as an intern with the children’s program at Anderson Ranch in May. Willis has been a volunteer facilitator for ceramics with the UA LEAP (Leaders Exploring Academic Possibilities) Program for two summers, and her work was part of “Southern Synergy,” a teacher/student exhibition at the 38th Annual Alabama Clay Conference, Auburn in 2022. Willis received the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Studio Arts Scholarship for the 2021-2022 school year. Find Hannah Willis on Instagram @hannah_bydesign.

2022

Zoe Fitch at Harrison Galleries

Zoe Fitch (MFA 2022, painting) presented her MFA thesis exhibition, Damnable Tales, in Harrison Galleries, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in March. Her work has been juried into numerous exhibitions, including the 59th Annual Juried Competition at the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana, and the Paducah School of Art and Design’s International Juried Print Biennial. Her work was selected for the In Art Gallery’s 2021 Painting Exhibition and its 2021 Non-Traditional Exhibition, for which Fitch won Best of Show. Her painting, Mississippi Migrant Mother, won First Place in the In Art Gallery’s online exhibition, Me, Myself & I.  Her website is here.

Upneet Kaur Mair, The Great Grandfather, 2021, mezzotint, 8 x 10 inches

Upneet Kaur Mair (MFA 2022, printmaking) had a print, Thief and Raccoon, juried into the 7th Graphic Art Biennial of Szeklerland, Romania, in October and November 2022. Mair presented her MFA thesis exhibition, Hypocrisy of the Parallel Universe, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in April. She has recently had work juried into the 29th Emerald Coast National Juried Arts Exhibition in Florida and into the national juried Ink Only III at Durbin Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama. Mair’s large silkscreen and relief print on muslin (54 x 92 inches), titled Welcome to the Club, part of her MA exhibition, was published in the August 2021 issue of The Hand: A Magazine for Reproduction-Based Art. She holds a BFA in painting from Central India School of Fine Arts, Nagpur, India, and has exhibited her work in Shenzhen, China, and across India including Nagpur, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Mumbai.

Allie McGilberry (BA 2022, studio art with a focus on graphic design) sent news: “I am working as a graphic designer for a software company in my hometown of Nashville called i3 Verticals,” and she adds that her professors, “Cassandra Palmer and Jonathan Cumberland helped me be fully prepared and excited to join the professional world, and I felt very well equipped for my new job.”

Shivam Pawar, “Pay Day,” charcoal and acrylic on raw canvas, 109 x 60 inches

Shivam Pawar (MFA 2022, printmaking) presented his MFA thesis exhibition, Embedded Memories, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in April. Pawar’s prints have been juried into exhibitions around the world, from India, Serbia, and the US. He had two accepted to the 19th International Graphic Triennial in the Stadtsaal, Frechen, Germany, and one juried into the Fourth International Printmaking Biennial in Čačak, Serbia. He recently had works juried into Cimarron National Works on Paper Exhibition, in Stillwater, Oklahoma and Brand 49: Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, in Glendale, California, as well as a collagraph with chine-collé selected by juror Alison Saar for the International Print Center’s exhibition Umbra: New Prints for a Dark Age in 2019. Two works by Pawar were chosen for publication in the August 2021 issue of The Hand: A Magazine for Reproduction-Based Art. 

Ashlee René Thompson, “Animal,” 2021, 30″H x 26.5″W, acrylic, watercolor, graphite, and oil pastel on canvas

Ashlee René Thompson (MFA 2022, painting; certificate in museum studies) has accepted a position as assistant professor of drawing and painting at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville. Thompson has been an instructor teaching Drawing I in the department. She had work juried into the 56th Annual Montgomery Art Guild Regions Bank Exhibition, Regions Bank (RSA Tower), Montgomery;  Divulge: d’Art’s Second National Exhibition Featuring the Use of Art for Therapy & Mental Health Awareness; and in the online exhibition, 2022-Artistic Independence at the Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, California. She also exhibited in the New Art Vibes-Art Exhibition, Galerie Azote-Art Contemporain, Paris, and Contemporary 4th Edition, at the Boomer Gallery, London, as well as in Florence, Italy; Venice; and Amsterdam, Netherlands. She presented her MFA thesis exhibition, Fragments, in The University of Alabama Gallery in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, in April 2022. As part of the museum studies certificate program, she served as the project manager for the exhibition, Weaving Muscogee Creek Culture: The Artistry of Mary Smith, at the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum in Tuscaloosa in 2021. She holds an MLA in general studies and a BA in art with a minor in art history from Auburn University Montgomery. Her art website is here.

Sandra Vega, Invasión Espiritual: Frontal, 2021, cyanotype, 22 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Sandra Vega (MFA 2022, printmaking) was named Outstanding Graduate Student in Studio Art in 2022, the departments highest honor. Vega’s MFA thesis exhibition Cielo Azul, Piel Morena (2022) and her MA thesis exhibition, Caminos de Identidad (2021) were on display in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. In her artist statement, Vega writes, “My work explores the politics of identity, biculturalism, which I define as a state of double consciousness, and an interpretation of otherness. I document a self-defining journey, navigating the hybridity of existing within this duality.” Vega was a graduate teaching assistant and taught Introduction to Printmaking and Drawing I classes at UA. She is a frequent workshop presenter and recently gave a relief printing workshop at Shelton State Community College. A native of Odessa, Texas, Vega earned the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa and worked as a summer camp art instructor, teaching design for screenprinting and Adobe Creative Cloud to high school students. She assisted in the NEA-funded program Pots-n-Prints mobile studio featured in the Washington Post that traveled to rural areas in southwest and west Texas, teaching students screenprinting, etching and ceramics. Her website is here and she is on Instagram.

Hannah Warner (BFA 2022, digital media/sculpture) had her work, Lucid Beacon, accepted for a 2023 Black Rock City Honoraria art grant for the international Burning Man event August 27-September 4, 2023. Out of almost 400 projects invited to submit proposals, Warner’s was one of only 75 artworks selected (one of 16 that “play with fire”) and the first-ever winner from Alabama. Warner spent the fall following her graduation at the NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland.

2021

Sarah Dittmann, Mrs. William Dittmann, 2021, quilted material, cyanotype, embroidery, screenprint, beads, 3 feet x 3 feet.

Juan López-Bautista (MFA 2021, painting) is a professor in the department of biological sciences, a curator of algae, and a College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Board Faculty Fellow at The University of Alabama. He received his PhD in plant biology from Louisiana State University, an MS in biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research associate at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He presented his thesis exhibition, Border Stories, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery November 2021.

William Bounds (BFA 2021, studio art: digital media/painting) currently works as a junior designer at Uptick Marketing in Birmingham, Alabama.

Carolyn Cowper (BFA 2021, studio art: digital media/drawing) currently works as a graphic designer at The Cochran Firm in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rebecca DeLong

Rebecca DeLong (BA 2021, studio art) currently works as a graphic designer at LPK in Cincinnati and runs her own graphic design studio that focuses on branding, packaging and other design services.

Sarah Dittmann (MFA 2021, printmaking) was hired as Lecturer of Art, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, in September 2022. Dittmann held her MFA thesis exhibition, Stitched Together, March 6-27, 2021, at Aaron Sanders Head Studio in Greensboro, Alabama. Through quilting, printmaking, and gathering oral histories from her female relatives and researching her ancestors, as well as incorporating her Czech heritage through fabric and sewing arts, Dittmann created a body of work whose purpose is “to have a personal conversation about the effect of the patriarchy on the family history.” She holds a BFA in printmaking from the University of South Alabama and has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions across the country.

Sarah Lumpkin (BA 2021, studio art) is a graphic designer at Boucher + Co. in New York.

Student holding an award plaque, under the trees.
Kelsey Meadows with her award.

Kelsey Meadows (MFA 2021, ceramics) was selected as the department’s 2021 Outstanding Graduate Student in Studio Art. Meadows presented her MFA thesis exhibition, The Somewhere in Between, at The University of Alabama Gallery in April and May 2021. Her work consists primarily of ceramics in conjunction with other materials. Her MA thesis exhibition, Beneath the Fabric, in 2020,  presented unglazed ceramic sculptures which she created after studying a variety of objects under the scanning electron microscope. In 2020-2021, her artworks were accepted into three juried exhibitions: in Laguna Beach, California; Portland, Oregon; and Loveland, Colorado. Meadows was the recipient of a full-tuition scholarship for a three-week intensive summer workshop at Anderson Ranch Art Center. She taught ceramics at the Birmingham Museum of Art and served as president of the Crimson Clay Club in 2020 and 2021. Meadows holds a BFA in ceramics and sculpture from Frostburg State University.

Amber Quinn in The Arts Council Gallery, DWCAC.

Amber Quinn (MFA 2021, photography) teaches at The Altamont School in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2022, BHAM NOW named Quinn one of “12 Black artists in Birmingham that are making the city look better.” Quinn presented her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, “Two Ways of Seeing,” which focused on portraits of her African American friends and family, in April and May at The University of Alabama Gallery in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Quinn gave an invited lecture titled “Portraiture and Identity in American Art and Art History,” about her MA thesis exhibition, Fragmented and Forgotten, sponsored by Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. She was awarded a Small Grant for that exhibition from The Arts and Humanities Council of Tuscaloosa County in 2019. Quinn received a BA in art with an emphasis in photography from the University of Montevallo.

Ally Thomasson (BFA 2021, studio art: digital media/painting) currently works as a junior designer at Bulletproof in New York.

Nathanial Trost (BA 2021, studio art) received a Marshall Scholarship and will attend the MFA program at Goldsmiths at the University of London (UK).

A’Neshia Turner (BFA 2021, studio art: digital media/painting) runs Artist by Noon, her graphic design studio.

2020

sculpture by Katie Adams
Sculpture by Katie Adams, in her MFA Thesis Exhibition, Harrison Galleries, First Friday, March 6, 6-9 pm.

Katie Adams (MFA 2020) teaches sculpture at The University of Alabama. Adams presented her MFA thesis exhibition, Bulbs of Dream and Dread, March 6-13, 2020, at the Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa. She received the BA from Western Kentucky University in art. Her work has been included in numerous juried and group exhibitions including Height x Width x Depth (HWD) in Kettering, Ohio; 51st Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show, Corpus Christi, Texas, and 24th Annual Jack Lunt Memorial Juried Art Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ky. She demonstrated at the 2016 Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design Convention (SOFA) in Chicago.

abstract mixed media painting
Jude Anogwih, “Border Post,” detail, mixed media on canvas, paper and paper tube, varied dimensions.

Jude Anogwih (MFA 2020) presented his MFA thesis, The Wall is a Given, at The University of Alabama Gallery in Tuscaloosa in May 2020, and online here. Anogwih’s work has been shown internationally and nationally in many exhibitions including Videonale (Lagos, Nigeria); Biennale Jogja XII (Yogyakarta, Indonesia); “Shifting Africa,”Mediation Biennale (Poznan, Poland); Urban Cadence: Street Scenes from Lagos to Johannesburg, Gund Gallery (Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio); Analogue Eye-Video Art AfricaNational Arts Festival (Grahamstown, South Africa); Jardim Canadá Centro de Arte (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil); 5th International Festival of Video Art, FIVAC 2013 (Camagüey, Cuba); Imagined Communities, Golden Thread Gallery (Northern Ireland). He was selected as a Goethe-Institut Moving Africa Participant at Salon Urbain de Douala and he won a Goethe-Institut Fellowship to dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany, among other awards. He is a founding member and co-coordinator of Video Art Network Lagos. Anogwih’s website is here.

Phoebe Burns, Two Masks, 2020, photo composite, dimensions variable.

Phoebe Burns (BFA 2020, studio art: photography) has a studio at Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment in Huntsville, Ala. Her work has been included in Separate/Together at the Southeast Museum of Photography, and shown at the Gadsden (AL) Museum of Art, the 44th Montgomery Art Guild Museum Exhibition, Creatures, Beasts and Myths at the online Vacant Museum, and in 80/20: Alabama Women’s Caucus for Art, in Huntsville. Her work at Lowe Mill was mentioned by JUXTAPOZ magazine. At UA, Burns was a double major in computer science and studio art and her BFA concentrations were in photography and digital media. She presented her thesis work in the exhibition, Structure and Surface, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. Burns’ photography can be found on her websiteInstagram and Facebook pages.

Ramsey Chandler (BA 2020, double major in studio art [focus on graphic design] and creative advertising) works as a junior art director at GSD&M in Austin, Texas. She was on the team that won the Young Ones Bronze Pencil award in 2020 for their Free Speech Whopper advertising campaign promoting a “disruptive spirit for good.”

Charlie Cruz (BA 2020, studio art and psychology; pronouns: he/him) works as an instructional tech assistant for ACCESS Virtual Learning and in OTIDE: UA’s Office of Teaching Innovation and Digital Education (formerly the College of Continuing Studies) at The University of Alabama.

Sarah Fields, BA 2020, now works as a marketing assistant.

Sarah Fields (BA 2020, studio art with a focus on digital media) recently contacted us to let us know what’s been going on since she graduated. Fields writes, “I work as a marketing assistant for Cheree Berry Paper & Design in St. Louis, a woman-owned and -led small business. We specialize in graphic design for events, such as weddings, and work on corporate and nonprofit branding and event collateral, digital media and websites, and we offer a retail line.” She also says that several UA art and art history professors were “instrumental in my journey through the college experience. They each shaped me and challenged me to look at my own work in different ways and helped me grow not only in the technicalities of their individual fields but also in the overall experience of creating and looking at art.” During Fields’ undergrad years, she won the UA College of Arts and Sciences’ 2019 Asian Studies Essay Award for her research on an Italian Jesuit court painter during the Qing dynasty in China.

Angel Greene (BFA 2020, studio art: digital media/painting) presented her BFA thesis work in an exhibition, Structure and Surface, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in April 2020. Greene’s surfboard design was selected to represent The University of Alabama at the Maui Jim Tournament design competition in conjunction with the Maui Jim Invitational college basketball tournament in Hawaii in November 2020.

Alyssa Hochstetler (BFA 2020, studio art: digital media/painting) double-majored in the Accelerated Master of Business Administration and presented her BFA thesis exhibition in December of 2020. Hochstetler will spend the year after graduation completing her MBA. She also works as Chief Design/Marketing Officer for Comas Start-Up in Tuscaloosa. Hochstetler has served as a data analyst in the College of Human & Environmental Sciences and as a marketing intern at Interra Credit Union in Goshen, Indiana. She was awarded an Honors College Presidential Scholarship and the Farley Moody Galbraith Scholarship for 2019-20. Find her on Instagram @alynicholestudio.

Nasrin Iravani, “Departure,” 2020, ceramic, 18 x 18 x 10 inches

Maggie Hocutt (BFA 2020, studio art: painting/drawing; double minor in art history and history) presented her BFA thesis work in an exhibition, Structure and Surface, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in April 2020.

Nasrin Iravani (MFA 2020) was awarded an assistantship in the doctoral program in Fabricative Cultures: Material and Technology in the College of Art & Design at Louisiana State University. Iravani presented her MFA thesis exhibition, Magnanimous Moment of Departure, in April 2020, at the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, and online here. Iravani also received the MA in Handicrafts (ceramics) from Tehran University of Art. Iravani has participated in ceramics exhibitions internationally, in Milan, Italy; Madrid, Spain and Tehran, Iran, and in the United States. Recent exhibitions include The Millennial Show Juried Exhibition, Dayton (Ohio); Clay: A Southern Consensus, New Orleans; 33rd Annual Alabama Clay Conference; The Ritual Table (Corning, New York); and Vitreous, New Orleans. She was accepted to an artist residency at Baltimore Clayworks for the summer of 2020. Read more about Iravani here.

bronze sculpture of a hand holding a twig with nut and leaf
Ringo Lisko, “Curiosity’s Gaze,” bronze and aluminum on granite, 11-1/2 x 9 x 6 inches

Ringo Lisko (BFA 2020, studio art: sculpture), whose eight-foot-high bronze “Flourish” is the newest addition to the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden, will attend the Rinehart School of Sculpture at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in Baltimore in the fall.  Lisko presented her BFA thesis exhibition in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in May 2020 and online here. Lisko works as a foundry and fabrication assistant in the department of art and art history’s metal shop. In 2019 her sculpture design was selected to be the first created in the McMahon-Pleiad Public Art Trail initiative, a collaborative public sculpture project between UA, UAB and UAH. Her work has appeared in numerous shows and community sculpture projects. More of Lisko’s work can be seen on her website and Instagram page.

Ashley Livingston (BFA 2020, studio art: painting/printmaking) presented her BFA thesis work in an exhibition, Structure and Surface, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in April 2020. She received several awards including the Farley Moody Galbraith Annual Scholarship, the Windgate Charitable Foundation Endowed Studio Arts Scholarship and the Carolyn Haddon “Julie” Matthews Memorial Endowed Scholarship. She was the lead gallery worker for the Sella-Granata Art Gallery and was active in the student organizations Alabama Print & Book Group, Crimson Clay and CHAARG Alabama.

Photograph by Sam MacDonald.

Sam MacDonald (BFA 2020, studio art: photography/graphic design) presented her BFA thesis work in an exhibition, Structure and Surface, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in April 2020. MacDonald was the photo editor of Alice Magazine. She photographed and took oral histories of artists for the Black Belt Artist Project and served as a photo editor, design editor, and social media publicist. MacDonald received the Farley Moody Galbraith Annual Scholarship and was a finalist for the SPJ Sports Photography Mark of Excellence. MacDonald’s photography can be found on Instagram and on Facebook.

Anna Sella (BFA 2020, studio art: graphic design/drawing) graduated from UA summa cum laude and took a position as a full-time junior art director at GRO Marketing in Tuscaloosa in January 2021. Sella will start out as Junior Art Director and will be doing “anything from branding to flyers and brochures,” she says. While at UA, Sella worked as a graphic design intern for the Culverhouse College of Business. She also created the masthead design for the department of art and art history’s monthly e-newsletter, illustrations for K-3 reading books for the statewide initiative Reading Allies and was part of the design team for the Black Belt Artist Project catalog. Sella’s accolades include a Silver ADDY in the professional category from the American Advertising Federation of Tuscaloosa for her work for Culverhouse College of Business (2020), as well as a Silver ADDY in the student category for packaging design (2020). She was awarded the Paul R. Jones Endowed Scholarship, Carol B. Merkle Endowed Scholarship, Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Art Scholarship and Mary Morgan Memorial Art Scholarship Fund. Find her on Instagram @annakselladesign.

2019

Art history students visit the Permanent Collection’s curation space to study artist Thornton Willis’ paintings up close.

Arielle Gray (BA 2019) Along with her regular studies in her third year of the MFA photography program at Yale University, Gray was contacted in the summer of 2023 by an editor at T – The New York Times Style Magazine, to do the photography for a story, “The New New Haven,” about local New Haven artists, the changing art scene there and the town’s historical relationship with Yale University. This fall, works in progress by Gray and nine of her classmates in Yale’s MFA program were featured in Cultured Magazine. She also won a 2021 Google Creator Labs Photo Fund award and will be in Photolucida’s Critical Mass TOP 50 Exhibition. She is on Instagram at @ariellegray_.

Sam Joslin (BFA 2019, studio art: sculpture/ceramics) is an MFA candidate in sculpture and ceramics at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Read about her graduate work in this Alumni Profile. Joslin completed the ceramics post-baccalaureate degree at the University of Montana. At UA, Joslin won numerous scholarships and awards, including a UA Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity (URCA) grant. She held a solo exhibition at Harrison Galleries.

John Klosterman (MFA 2019, printmaking) is a full-time instructor in printmaking at UA. Prints by John Klosterman won recent recognition in two international juried exhibitions, and he was featured in a podcast interview about his work. During the summer of 2020, he was artist in residence at Hope Center for Arts and Technology, Inc., in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Read more about his artist residency here.

Since graduation, Jonathan Lanier (BFA 2019, studio art: sculpture) has been working as a foundry specialist in UA’s art foundry under Professor Craig Wedderspoon. He has been accepted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for the fall of 2021.

Alayna N. Pernell (BA 2019), from Heflin, Alabama, was recently appointed program manager at the Milwaukee (WI) Artist Resource Network. Previously she was an associate lecturer in photography and imaging at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee art and design department. Since she graduated, Pernell work has been widely exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Sheldon Museum of Art (St. Louis, MO), the Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA), SRO-Photo Gallery at Texas Tech University, and others. Group exhibitions include FEMME, FLXST Contemporary, Chicago, IL; Homecoming, JKC Gallery, Trenton, NJ; Our Mothers’ Gardens, SRO-Photo Gallery, Texas Tech University; Source Material, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver Colorado; BAS Presents: STRAIGHT LICK, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Who We Are, Susan Eley Fine Art, Hudson, New York; and Our Mothers’ Gardens, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, among others. She won the Snider Prize in 2021 from the Museum of Contemporary Photography, was included in Photolucida’s Top 50 in 2021, and was awarded the 2020-2021 James Weinstein Memorial Award by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago department of photography. Her work is held in the permanent collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. In 2019, she graduated from The University of Alabama summa cum laude with a BA in studio art with a focus in photography and a minor in African American studies. Her art website is here.

Dana Tokarzewski (BFA 2019, studio art: digital media) recently accepted her first design job in the packaging and collateral department at FOCO, a sports memorabilia and marketing company based in New Jersey. Tokarzewski said that because of the graphic design classes she took at UA, “I feel extremely prepared for my career in design and for that I am so grateful.” While at UA, she held a BFA senior exhibition at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in 2019, received the Carol B. Merkle Endowed Scholarship and participated in the 2017 Annual BFA Juried Exhibition at Harrison Galleries.

Sarah Westmoreland (BA 2019, journalism, minor in studio art) works as an in-house photographer for Trident Technical College in Charleston, S.C.

several students gathered in a gallery space
Sarah Johns and Megan Goldman in the Secession Building, Vienna.

2018

Francesca Baldarelli (MFA 2018, printmaking) is a full-time Teaching Artist in printmaking and 2D design for grades 9-12 at the Hope Center for Arts and Technology, Inc., in Sharon, Penn. Read more about her work at HopeCAT.

Megan Goldman (BFA 2018, studio art: painting; minor: art history) interned with curator Mardee Goff at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in the summer of 2017.

Richard Oliver Reed (BFA 2018, studio art: ceramics) is an instructor at Illinois Central College. He received the MFA in ceramics from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana. Reed completed a post-baccalaureate degree at Indiana University, Southeast. Find him on Instagram.

2017

Engineering-turned-sculpture student Brandt Deeds (BA 2017, studio art)  built new bicycle racks at 4th and 23rd for the City of Tuscaloosa, designed by recent graduate Alli Sloan. Deeds designed and built another set at Government Plaza in 2017. He and New College major and art student Nick Jackson together made their first sculpture for the Nucor Charity Auction, which brought in $12,000 to Children’s of Alabama. Visit his website for more designs.

Alex Lee Green (BFA 2017, studio art: digital media/photography; minor, art history) has accepted a position as registrar and collections manager at Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta. At the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, he interned at the U.S. Pavilion to support the exhibition Everlasting Plastics. Previously, he served in two highly competitive internship positions: one as a marketing and design intern for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he worked for the Trust on the Corridor Preservation Program, a collaborative project to preserve and document the historic Route 66. He was also awarded a museum internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in 2019, where he led weekly art talks, gave tours of the collection, and supported the assistant curator in installing exhibitions. Green was awarded a Goodrich Internship at the Birmingham Museum of Art where he rotated among the Registration, Education, Development and Curatorial departments to learn how each works. Find him on Instagram at alexleegreen.

Celestia Morgan standing with arms folded in an art gallery before her framed photographs.
Celestia Morgan

Celestia Morgan (MFA 2017, photography) is an assistant professor of art in the UA Department of Art and Art History, appointed in August 2022. Previously, Morgan was named one of two postdoctoral research associates in the College of Arts and Sciences for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years. Morgan has had solo exhibitions at the Paul R. Jones Museum and the Birmingham Museum of Art. Her photographs have been included in the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s current exhibition “New Southern Photography,” curated by Richard McCabe, which was written about in the New York Times‘ “Lens” blog and featured one of Morgan’s photographs. Her work was also featured in Contemporary Alabama Photography, at the Mobile Museum of Art, also curated by McCabe (curator of photography at the Ogden). Celestia Morgan’s website is here.

Erin Mosley (BA 2017, studio art and German) was awarded a competitive editorial internship at Art Papers in Atlanta on graduation.

Jamie Reschke (BFA 2017, studio art: painting, sculpture) is the program coordinator and gallery manager for the School of Art & Design at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. She has worked as an artist and sculptor in Nashville, Tennessee, and as a museum interpreter at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. Follow her on Instagram.

Mallorie Roberts (BFA 2017, studio art: ceramics) has been accepted into the MFA program in Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Roberts completed the ceramics post-baccalaureate program at the University of Florida along with classmate Meg Howton (BFA 2016) with a final group exhibition, Ephemera.

Kelsey Shearron Windham (MFA 2017, painting) was listed among Southern Living’s The Daily South’s “Southern Artists to Follow on Instagram Now” in 2016. In January 2016, she presented her MA exhibition, Stands In Solitude, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in Tuscaloosa. She has participated in solo and juried group exhibitions in Memphis and Tuscaloosa.

2016

Ausharea Adams (BFA 2016, studio art: photography, drawing) held her BFA exhibition, Gravity, at the Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa with fellow BFA majors Haylee Walker and Tanika Powers.

Mitchell Griest (BFA 2016, studio art: drawing) is a software consultant for Pariveda Solutions and coaches a rowing team at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta. He participated in several interesting projects while working on his degree, including working with renowned jazz composer and musician Anthony Braxton, creating performance art and working with a didgeridoo artist. Griest has a website: Custom Aerosol Art.

Meg Howton (BFA 2016, studio art: ceramics) is an instructor in ceramics at The University of Alabama and supervised the 2022 ceramics session of UA Art Camp. Howton holds an MFA in ceramics from the School of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University. Howton said, “While at SIU, I have been able to be a part of educating a new group of young artists in ceramics by teaching beginning ceramics as well as teaching at the intermediate level.” Howton also served as the acting Visiting Artist Program Coordinator. She completed the ceramics post-baccalaureate degree at the University of Florida in 2018 along with classmate Mallorie Roberts (BFA 2017).

Sculpture by Meg Howton: "Dwindle."
Meg Howton, “Dwindle,” ceramic, 6″x12″x7″

Sarah O’Mary Roberts (BA 2016, double major in advertising and art) is the art director and graphic designer for 78 Magazine, based in Jasper, Alabama, and runs her own business, OMary Designs, specializing in event stationery and small business branding. Previously she was a graphic designer at The University of Alabama’s Strategic Communications division. In September 2017, she designed a mural backdrop for ABC 3340’s Talk of Alabama set: http://abc3340.com/station/talk-of-alabama/talk-of-alabama-91117-sarah-omary-designs

Anna Katherine Phipps (MFA 2016, painting) presented her thesis exhibition this spring in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery. Phipps teaches art to 2nd-5th and high school students in the Nettleton School District in Nettleton, Mississippi. In the fall of 2016, she had a solo exhibition, Levity, at the W.O. Benjamin Fine Arts Center gallery on the Itawamba Community College Fulton Campus, her alma mater.

Alli Sloan (BFA 2016, studio art: sculpture) designed bike racks for the City of Tuscaloosa in the summer of 2016. Her steel sculpture brought in $10,000 to the Nucor Charity Auction in 2015.

Kelly Shannon (MFA 2016, sculpture) is Visiting Professor at Stillman College where she teaches design, drawing, and ceramics. She has also taught sculpture and art history and serves as art education coordinator for Stillman’s art education degree. Shannon serves on the board of Tuscaloosa’s Phoenix House. She has had solo exhibitions at the Arts Council Gallery at Tuscaloosa’s Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center (Apophenia), the Sella-Granata Art Gallery (titled crescente), Harrison Galleries (reticulum) and at Montevallo University’s Bloch Hall Gallery (in situ) as well as numerous regional and national group exhibitions. Her awards include a UA Graduate Council Fellowship and a UA Research and Travel Grant. Shannon graduated cum laude from the University of Montevallo in 2010 with a BFA in sculpture and BS in mathematics.

Haylee Walker, “#PizzaRat,” 14 x 20 inch, linoleum cut, 2015.
Haylee Walker, #PizzaRat, linoleum cut print

Haylee Walker (BFA 2016, studio art: printmaking) has been working at JNJ Apparel in Northport, an automatic screen-printing shop, as an assistant press operator, since the fall of 2016. Her print, #PizzaRat, was juried into the 2016 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition at Arkansas State University. Read more about Haylee’s story here.

Heather Whidden (MFA 2016, sculpture) presented her thesis exhibition, (Re)Pair, in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center. In February, Whidden presented her paper, “Interpreting the Stitch,” at ACS Gender Studies Conference at Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX. Her art website is here.

Josh Whidden (MFA 2016, painting) presented his thesis exhibition, Intersections, in April at the Harrison Galleries in downtown Tuscaloosa.

Turner Williams (MFA 2016) presented his thesis exhibition in conjunction with several concerts by improv musicians.

Yanbing Wu (BA 2016, studio art, focusing on graphic design) was accepted to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) Atlanta for the MFA program in graphic design. As an undergraduate at UA, he served as a photography technician and held an internship with Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports.

an abstract painting featuring cross-hatch lines
Painting by Josh Whidden in Heather & Josh Whidden, Always There To Your Here, DWCAC.

2015

Katharine Buckley (BA 2015) is an MFA/MLIS candidate in the UA School of Library and Information Studies and the Book Arts program at UA. Buckley earned her undergraduate degree in studio art, focusing on printmaking. She expects to graduate in May 2022. Her website is here.

Ali Hval (BFA 2015, studio art: sculpture, drawing) is a lecturer in painting and drawing at the University of Iowa. Hval’s sculpture was part of a four-person exhibition at Ceysson & Bénétière in New York, June 11 – July 29, 2022. The Ecstasy of Saint Britney was written up in Goings on about Town in the New Yorker, with a mention of Hval’s work: “And Ali Hval’s surreal sculptures combine the accoutrements of B.D.S.M. with Barbie Dreamhouse décor. Like the exhibition as a whole, Hval’s bejewelled pieces strike a savvy balance of sugar and spice, forgoing the nice.” Hval’s 2022 solo show, Cosmetic Justice, at North Iowa Area City College in Mason City, Iowa, was featured in the New York City Jewelry Week blog. Hval is an interdisciplinary artist currently living and working in Iowa City. Her work combines painting, fabric, ceramic, sculpture, and installation. Hval received the MFA in painting and drawing with honors from the University of Iowa in 2019. She was awarded a teaching assistantship and a tuition waiver for all three years, as well as a $2,500 scholarship the first year. As a senior at UA in the spring of 2015, Hval was awarded one of only ten nationwide Windgate Fellowships. Read more about Hval’s Fellowship here. Other UA alumni awardees were Adam Hill in 2012 and Jenny Fine in 2006, both BFA graduates. Hval’s art website is here.

Ali Jackson’s (BFA 2015, studio art: sculpture) steel sculpture brought $12,000 to the 9th Annual Nucor Children’s Charity Classic silent auction.

Kelly Konrad (BA 2015) teaches in the department of art and design history and theory at Parsons School of Design in New York. She earned an MA in the history of design and curatorial studies at Parsons Paris – The New School in 2017, where she was a Dean’s Merit Scholar.

Astri Snodgrass (MFA 2015, painting) is an assistant professor of drawing and painting at Boise State University. She had a two-person exhibition at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham with BFA alumnus Ty Smith in February 2020. Her work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group shows at COOP Gallery, mild climate, and Channel to Channel in Nashville, the Fuel and Lumber Company in Birmingham, Ala., the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and McNeese State University’s Grand Gallery in Lake Charles, La., among others. She is a Hambidge Fellow and a VCCA Fellow and has been artist-in-residence at Studios Midwest. More about Snodgrass’s art projects are here: https://www.facebook.com/astri.snodgrass.art/.

2014

detail of a gear-like artwork
Detail of work by Darius Hill.

Mark Barry (MFA 2014) is Assistant Professor of advertising and Director of the Creative Specialization in Advertising program for the Advertising and Public Relations Department in The University of Alabama’s College of Communications. Read this interview of Barry in the spring 2018 Loupehttps://art.ua.edu/loupe/alumni-profile-mark-barry/.

Darius Hill (MFA 2014), an award-winning artist, has headed the visual arts department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts since 2000. Hill and wife artist Bethanne Hill and their children were featured in the January 2016 issue of Family Circle magazine.

a woman posing in front of a building
Meredith Randall Knight at the Birmingham Museum of Art

Meredith Randall Knight (MFA 2014, sculpture; BFA 2011, studio art with a concentration in sculpture) is an assistant professor of sculpture at Alabama State University and an artist. Previously, she managed the Birmingham Museum of Art’s studio programs in the BMA’s education department. Knight has taught art through the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, co-directed the Black Belt 100 Lenses program and taught art at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, as well as taught art to middle and high school student

Ally Mabry (BFA 2014, studio art) is designer and art director for Adventure Cyclist magazine in Missoula, Montana. Previously she worked as a graphic production artist in Austin. In October 2015, she was awarded the 2015 MarCom Gold Award in the Informational Category for “Lockout Tagout – LOTO Is Not A Choice” by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. Mabry also won the 2015 Gold ADDY in the Tuscaloosa Advertising Federation Student ADDYs for Magazine Design for UA Honors College’s Mosaic Magazine.

Eric Nubbe (BFA 2014, studio art: sculpture) is a sculptor in Alabama. He recently worked as a sculptor’s assistant in the department’s foundry. In 2014 and 2015, Nubbe donated sculptures he created to the annual Nucor Children’s Charity Classic silent auction. This year’s sculpture brought in $15,000. In the 2014 Charity Classic, the winning bid for Nubbe’s steel model of Children’s Hospital was $11,000.

 an art installing consisting of screens
Installation in Woods Quad by Greg Randall.

Greg Randall (BFA 2014, studio art: photography) is a web developer for BowStern Marketing Communications in Tallahassee, Florida. He previously worked for Shelton State Community College and for UA, as an IT Technical Specialist in web development for Undergraduate Admissions and Scholarships.

Zoe Stamatelos (BA, art history, 2014) spent the year following her graduation teaching English to students in Spain. Stamatelos is now preparing applications for law school.

Shannon Thacker Cregg (BFA, studio art, 2014: sculpture, printmaking) teaches elementary-level visual art at San Antonio ISD (Texas). Thacker earned her master’s in art education from The Ohio State University and did her thesis research on inclusivity and accessibility for artists with disabilities. She has since worked as an art educator in positions including the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art, and Medina Valley ISD in San Antonio. In 2020 she was a Student Life Disability Services Award recipient at OSU.

Rachel Ann Wakefield (BFA, studio art: sculpture and painting, cum laude) has been making her living as an artist since she graduated from UA. Originally from Florence, Alabama, she based her studio practice there for several years, and recently set up a studio in Northport, Alabama. Wakefield also works as a graphic designer at JNJ Apparel, a screenprinting shop in Northport. She has had solo exhibitions at the Betak-Frangoulis Art Gallery in Canterbury Episcopal Chapel, Tuscaloosa; Kentuck’s Gallery at Hotel Indigo, Tuscaloosa; East Side Project Space, Nashville, Tennessee; Columbus (Mississippi) Arts Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center; Mountain Valley Arts Council Gallery, Guntersville, Alabama; and others. Her work has been juried into B18: Wiregrass Biennial, Dothan, Alabama; Artfields in Lake City, South Carolina; and Shelby County Arts Council’s 2020 Adult Juried Art Exhibit, where she won Best in Painting in 2020; and the West Alabama Juried Art Exhibition in Tuscaloosa, where she won the Howard & Michael Goodson and Richard Zoellner Best of Show Award. Her work has also been included in a four-woman show, Intersections of Gender and Place, at MUW Galleries, Columbus, Mississippi; and in group shows at the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts; and the Teer Gallery at Kentuck Art Center, Northport, among others. Follow her on Instagram.

2013

Anne Herbert (MFA 2013, painting) teaches in the visual arts department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. Herbert presented a solo exhibition, “Frail Shadows We Inhabit Now,” in the Leo Reynolds Gallery of the Gadsden Museum of Art in 2015. She curated a two-person exhibition at the Alabama School of Fine Arts with BFA alumnus Ty Smith and MFA alumna Astri Snodgrass in February 2020. Her art website is http://anneherbertpaintings.com/home.html.

Andy Pruett (MFA 2013, printmaking) is a press operator at Ript Apparel and artist in residence at the newly formed Locallective Gallery in Chicago.

Stephen Watson (MFA 2013, painting) is assistant to the pastor, focusing on student and family ministries, at Millbrook Presbyterian Church, in Millbrook, Alabama. Previously, Watson taught art at Samford University in Birmingham since 2014, most recently as associate professor of art. He is also currently completing seminary studies at Samford’s Beeson Divinity School and Birmingham Theological Seminary. Find his art on Instagram @stephenwatson.art.

2012

Amy Feger (MFA 2012) is a part-time instructor in foundations and art appreciation at the University of Montevallo. In September she had a solo exhibition at Parnell Memorial Library in Montevallo. Her ART 100 Art Awareness students work in The Plastic Project in which plastic pollution awareness is integrated into art appreciation, collecting plastic waste to create a collaborative work of art.

As a senior, Adam Hill (BFA 2012, studio art: sculpture) was awarded a $15,000 Windgate Fellowship from the University of North Carolina at Asheville Center for Craft, Creativity & Design. “My work as a sculptor began when I came to college, but my need to create things has been evident for as long as I could hold a pencil,” Hill told the College of Arts & Sciences, noting that he had only worked in two-dimensional art prior to his enrollment at UA. “I was never exposed to sculpture until I was given a tour of our metal shop at the University of Alabama. I immediately became fascinated with tools and the processes involving metal work.” Read Hill’s story in an issue of the A&S Collegian, page 11. (PDF)

abstract painting with colored lines on a mottled background
Roger Jones, “Not Down In It,” oil on canvas, 10″x 0”, 2014.

Roger Jones (MFA 2012) works as a youth minister at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Homewood, Alabama. He is a co-founder of PaperWorkers Local, an artists co-operative, exhibition space and the first publicly accessible printmaking facility in Birmingham, Alabama. Read the spring 2016 issue of The Loupe about Paperworkers Local!

Stephanie Brumfield Kirkland (BA 2012, English and studio art, summa cum laude) is UA Director of Communications for Advancement. As Director of College Relations in the UA College of Arts & Sciences, Kirkland won a PRCA Medallion Award. And, previously, as communications specialist for the College, she won a PRCA Award of Excellence and was a co-winner of a PRCA Award of Merit and a CASE Award of Excellence. Kirkland’s paintings can be seen here.

After graduation from the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Lindsay Jones Lindsey (BA 2012) works as a surgeon in OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK. She was a 2012 BA major in studio art, and a triple minor in biology, Computer-Based Honors and the Blount Undergraduate Initiative. Her overlapping studies in art and science, sculpture and medicine were the focus of this APT-produced mini-documentary in 2015 on the importance of supporting art education at all levels of schooling. Lindsey designed and built a sculpture, Fibonacci Spiral, located in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden on the UA campus. More photos here. Watch Lindsay’s video here.

2011

Kellie M. Hensley (BA 2011, studio art) serves as the Director of College Relations in the College of Arts and Sciences at UA. At UA, Hensley focused on graphic design as a studio art major. She served Mosaic Magazine for four years as a graphic designer, and assistant creative director and then creative director. Also as an undergrad, Hensley interned at All You Magazine, part of Time, Inc., in New York. She did freelance graphic design work while earning her Master of Science in Marketing at UA, graduating in 2015.

"Vote for Our Lives," poster design by Laci Jordan (BA 2011), for Amplifier: https://amplifier.org/march-for-our-lives/
Laci Jordan (BA 2011), “Vote for Our Lives,” poster design for Amplifier

Laci Jordan (BA 2011, digitial media) has been making headlines in the graphic design world recently.  Jordan worked her way up from a designer at Creative Campus to a graphic designer at Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles. All along, Jordan has done freelance design work and had her own company, So Laci Like, where she specializes in branding, digital illustrations, web and art direction. Her portfolio is www.lacijordan.com and she says, “you can find me creating fresh artwork at www.solacilike.com.” 

April Livingston (MFA 2011, sculpture) won a “Nappie” as Best Local Sculptor by the Mobile Lagniappe in 2021. She cast three new works commissioned for the Mobile Medical Museum in Mobile, Ala., in 2019. Motherwork is installed in the Mobile Medical Museum’s Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden, along with Livingston’s portrait busts of the Poarch Creek midwife and herbalist Bessie McGhee and Dr. James A. Franklin, Sr., one of Mobile’s earliest African American physicians. Livingston also cast the new bust of Cudjoe Lewis for the Union Missionary Baptist Church in Mobile.

2010

Catalina Bonet-Lopez (BFA 2010, studio art: painting) is enrolled in Savannah College of Art and Design’s master’s program in illustration. Bonet-Lopez paints portraits and more in a variety of media. Her work is on her website and on Instagram.

Patricia L. Davis (BFA 2010, studio art: printmaking) is curator and manager of the Art Gallery and Collections at the School of the Arts in the College of Fine Arts and Media at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. She previously worked as director of the Eisentrager-Howard Gallery and as lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She earned the MFA in studio art from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2016. At UA, Davis earned the BFA in studio art with concentrations in printmaking and sculpture, and was a Windgate Fellow in 2009 and a McNair Scholar.

Sarah Cusimano Miles (MFA 2010, photography) is included in a major exhibition at Brown University, “Dead Animals, or the curious occurrence of taxidermy in contemporary art.” Her art website is here.

2009

In 2013, Miller Mobley (BA 2009) became the youngest photographer to shoot a Time magazine cover. Mobley has taken photos for The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, ESPN, Esquire, Wired, GQ, People, Garden & Gun, A&E, National Geographic Channel, Disney, Paramount, TV Land, YouTube, CNN, Discovery Channel, History Channel, NBC, SYFY, TLC and Fox Searchlight, among others. His website with photos of Anthony Bourdain, Michelle Obama and other public figures is http://www.millermobley.com/.

2008

College student weaving hot pink tape into a human-sized maze.
Photo from “Art aims for lab-rat’s-eye view,” Tuscaloosa News, Feb. 15, 2008, photo by Michael E. Palmer.

Chelsea Lloyd (BFA 2008, studio art:sculpture) works as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Knoxville Museum of Art in Knoxville, Tennessee. She joined the KMA staff as a Visitor Services Representative in April of 2017 and was promoted to Volunteer Coordinator in July of 2018. She also paints and makes jewelry which she displays on her website. Read more about Lloyd’s experiences then and now here.

Michael Merry (BFA 2008, studio art) is a co-founder of PaperWorkers Local, an artist co-operative, exhibition space and the first publicly accessible printmaking facility in Birmingham, Alabama. He is an instructor in drawing at UA.

Photo courtesy Viola Ratcliffe

Viola Moten Ratcliffe (BA 2008, art history) has been named the director of Bib & Tucker Sew-Op in Birmingham, Ala., a nonprofit organization that teaches sewing and related skills and provides economic opportunities for participants. Ratcliffe previously served as its interim director and program manager. Bib & Tucker Sew-Op has been featured in Southern Living and on Alabama Public Television‘s Monograph, which featured an interview with Ratcliffe.

2007

sculpture that forms a mesh-like framework
Jamey Grimes installation in Don’t Fence Me In, at Stephen Smith Fine Art in Fairfield.

Bethany Collins (BA 2007) had a solo exhibition at Patron Gallery in Chicago in March and April 2022. Watch a video of Collins talk about her work, which has been featured in the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, The Center for Book Arts in New York and many more museums across the country.

Jamey Grimes (MFA 2007) is assistant professor of art for sculpture and museum studies in the UA department of art and art history. Previously, Grimes served as a full-time instructor at UA since 2008. His sculpture was installed in the Montgomery Museum of Art Caddell Sculpture Garden. Grimes was named the 2019 South Arts State Fellowship recipient for Alabama and awarded $5,000The South Arts State Fellowships are awarded to one artist each in nine southern states whose work reflects the best of the visual arts in the South. His art website is here.

Zack Underwood (BFA 2007, studio art: painting) teaches art at Austin Middle School in Decatur, Alabama, and has an active studio practice. His work was juried into the 2020 Red Clay Survey. He received his MFA in painting from the University of South Carolina in 2013. Underwood exhibits his work regionally, including Artfields in Lake City, S.C., the Huntsville Museum of Art and Arts Alive Gallery at the Kennedy Douglass Center for the Arts in Florence, Ala. He teaches art at Austin Middle School in Decatur, Ala., and has taught painting for the City Art Gallery of Columbia, S.C. He received the BFA in painting from UA in 2007 and the MFA in painting from the University of South Carolina in 2013.

2006

Jenny Fine (BFA 2006, studio art: photography) was awarded the 2022 South Arts Fellowship for the state of Alabama. An exhibition featuring all nine South Arts Fellows (from nine southern states) will be held at the Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus, Georgia, from September 2 – December 10, 2022 and will tour to additional locations across the region in 2023. As a senior BFA student, Fine won a National Windgate Fellowship from the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design. She has exhibited her photographs, installations and performance pieces nationally and internationally, including her project, “Flat Granny and Me: A Procession in My Mind.” Her art website is here.

Tom Wegrzynowski (MFA 2006, painting) has been a full-time instructor in studio art and art history since 2006. In 2019, he had five paintings selected for the 23rd Annual No Dead Artists International Juried Exhibition Of Contemporary Art. Wegrzynowski is currently also enrolled in the graduate program in art history at UA.

2005

Bryce Speed (MFA 2005) is associate professor of art in the UA Department of Art and Art History, where he has taught painting since 2014. His art website is here. His solo exhibition, Bryce Speed: The Floating World, at Venvi Gallery in Tallahassee, Florida, was recognized by ArtNet.com as one of their 13 favorite virtual gallery shows in the US (and the only one not in NY or LA)! Tour Speed’s exhibition here or view it on ArtNet.com.

2004

Martha M. Hopkins, “WAVE,” selected for the Johnson City, TN Founders Park Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in 2021.

Martha Hopkins’ (BFA 2004, studio art: sculpture) sculpture, Wave, was selected for exhibition from June 2021 through May 2023 as part of the Johnson City Tennessee Founders Park Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition. The sculpture made from three-inch aluminum tubing has a powder coat paint finish and a cast iron base. Hopkins is a sculptor and painter based in Fairhope, Alabama. Her works are in the collections of the City of Fairhope; Eastern Shore Art Center, Fairhope; University of Alabama at Birmingham; Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, Gadsden; the Meridian (Miss.) Regional Airport and others. After studying languages in college, she taught high school English, Spanish and French, and began her art career at age 40. Hopkins also holds a BA in art from the University of Montevallo and a BA in Spanish and business from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her website is https://mahopkins.blogspot.com/.

Patrick O’Sullivan (BFA 2004, studio art: sculpture) works as a theatre technician at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa. He served from 2012 to 2021 in the UA Department of Art and Art History as arts technician and senior arts technician, teaching the use of power tools and safety procedures in the woodshop, metal shop, and foundry to hundreds of studio art students over the years. He assisted in numerous projects around the department as well as on campus, including the renovation and refurbishment at the historic Bryce Hospital. O’Sullivan participated in upper-level training at UA and at Duke University.

Terrell Nicholson Taylor (MFA 2004, painting) has taught art at Meridian Community College in Meridian, Mississippi, for eighteen years. She is currently the curator of exhibits for the Casteel Gallery and Collection at Meridian Community College. Nicholson Taylor exhibits her paintings and photographs in regional, national and international shows. She was an alumni exhibitor in the memorial exhibition, Butterfly Effect: Honoring the Legacy of Gay Burke, in 2018, and has been a studio artist at Kentuck Art Center. Nicholson Taylor studied under Al Sella, Gay Burke, Bill Dooley, Craig Wedderspoon, Henry Betak and Mindy Nancarrow.

Emily Stewart Thomas (BFA 2004, studio art: photography) is the head of learning and programs for the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama. Previously she led the Booker T. Washington Magnet School Photography program in Montgomery since 2009. Read more about her work with the next generation of photography students here.

2003

The performance and installation art of Paul Outlaw (BFA 2003, studio art: sculpture) and partner Jennifer Catron has been recognized by Art in America, the Wall Street Journal, TIME, the New York Times, Hyperallergic, Vogue, Flavorwire and other national media venues. Mobile Bay magazine wrote a feature on Outlaw (a Fairhope native) and Catron in 2014.

Jules Trobaugh (MFA 2003, photography; she/her) is a working artist and serves as Diversity and Inclusion Manager at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Boston. Trobaugh writes a monthly column for Pulse Magazine for the LGBTQ community in the central Massachusetts region. Read more about all her work on her Wikipedia page.

2002

Wanrudee Buranakorn (MFA 2002) is professor of photography and book arts in the department of Art & Design at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she has taught since 2007. Buranakorn uses a variety of alternative printing processes in her work including archival pigment inkjet print, traditional gelatin silver print, silver liquid emulsion (Liquid Light), cyanotype, van dyke, kallitype and platinum. She has exhibited her work in Thailand and in galleries and museums around the US including Luhring Augustine Gallery and Sara Meltzer Gallery in Chelsea, N.Y.; ARC Gallery and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, Il.; Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, Ga.; Janet Carson Gallery, Wis.; and the Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, Gadsden, Ala. Her artist page is here: https://www.facebook.com/Re-enactment-by-Wanrudee-449852628517264/.

Mario Gallardo (MFA 2002, sculpture, performance) is chair of the Division of Fine Arts at Gadsden State, where he oversees the departments of art, music, and theatre, the Wallace Hall Performing Arts Center and the Meadows and Mezzanine Art Galleries. Gallardo is co-founder and executive director of the Walnut Gallery in Gadsden, and, since 2024, a member of the governing board of the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

2001

Montgomery native Ty Smith (BFA 2001, studio art: painting) is an artist based in Birmingham, Alabama. Smith earned the MFA from the University of Tulsa in 2009 and attended the summer program at the Chautauqua School of Art. Juried exhibitions include the Bowery Gallery and Blue Mountain Gallery in New York; and group shows at Biggin Gallery, Auburn, Ala.; and Ground Floor Contemporary in Birmingham. In 2022, he and MFA alumna Astri Snodgrass held a two-person exhibition at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. He also serves as adjunct faculty at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University.

2000

Man holding an electric guitar he is making.
Mike Eddins holds the electric guitar he is making from found wood. He will add strings and electrical parts to complete it.

Mike Eddins (BA, art, BA New College, 2000) works as the senior electronics technician in The University of Alabama Department of Physics in 2022, where he installs, troubleshoots and repairs lab test equipment, computer and audio visual equipment. Previously, Eddins worked as senior arts technician in the UA Department of Art and Art History since 2013, where he began part-time in 2012. As senior arts tech, Eddins was involved in specialized projects such as renovating the historic sculpture of Bryce Hospital and upgrading safety equipment in the UA Woodshop. Chair Jason Guynes thanked Eddins for his years of dedicated work in the department, keeping everything running. “He has worked diligently behind the scenes to make sure that our students and the instructional staff were well supported and that we were all operating in a safe manner,” said Guynes. Eddins is an expert woodworker, and, among other things, makes electric guitars from scratch in his spare time.

Raymond Gaddy (MFA 2000, painting) is assistant professor of painting and drawing at the Armstrong campus of Georgia Southern University and director of the Armstrong Fine Arts Gallery in Savannah, Ga. Recent exhibitions of his were at Wallkill River Center for the Arts, Montgomery, NY; and Savannah (Ga.) Cultural Arts Center Gallery. Previously, Gaddy taught at the University of North Florida for 14 years. In 2017, Gaddy was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Gaddy writes, “The funding came as a result of Hurricane Matthew. I live in Savannah and we were hit pretty hard. A tree fell on my studio, destroying the building and most of my work. The funding for both grants was to support a rebuild of the studio.”

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