JUDY HAND, BFA 1973 (Painting), now Program & Marketing Manager in Professional Development in UA’s College of Continuing Studies, writes, “My current title reflects the diversity of my work: I’m an artist doing the work of a manager. Half of my job is creative marketing and the other half is managing people and events.” After graduation she returned to the university to complete a Masters degree with a concentration in marketing but she has always worked as an artist, as well as in marketing and in management. She has shown at Kentuck Festival, held positions in marketing and advertising, taught oil painting, worked as a fashion illustrator and taught advertising at the UA before coming to her present position. Hand writes, “I started a faux finishing business ( Decorators Workshop) and had the honor of painting the focal point mural in the Alagasco Christmas Showhouse as well as many upscale homes in West Alabama. My signature faux finishing is all over the Bryant Conference Center and many of the decorators show houses. It’s truly been one door opening after another…One of my favorite ‘hybrid’ tasks was serving as Auction Chair for the Westervelt Warner Museum’s “Gala Affair” in 2005. It allowed me to talk with gallery owners all over the United States in pursuit of a donation of fine art for the purpose of fundraising.”
GREG HOPKINS, BFA 2001, MA 2003, has a solo show that opened February 9th at Sloan Fine Art in New York. His website is http://greghopkinspaintings.com/home.html.
ROGER JONES, MA 2009, had a show at ROJO in Birmingham of his drawings, Diversions, January 6 through February 1, 2011. His website is: http://rogerjones.yolasite.com/.
KAT MITCHELL O’BRIEN, BFA 1972 (Ceramics/Design), MFA 1975 (Ceramics/Photography), writes that she was glad we tracked her down “after a zillion moves around the US, then 20 years in Montreal…I was especially interested in the recent donation of the [Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art]. This is quite an amazing turn of events in comparison to the “stand in the schoolhouse door” days of the early ’60s.” In graduate school, O’Brien was the gallery coordinator (1973-1974) for what became the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art and worked for Angelo “Jack” Granata.
BRYCE SPEED, MFA 2005, teaches at Central Community College in Columbus, Nebraska. This month, his work was juried into several exhibitions including Paper in Particular, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Ephemera – National Juried Exhibition at Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville. In April, Speed will exhibit at the Nebraska Governor’s Mansion as an award recipient of the Nebraska Arts Council.
In December, Jennifer Catron and PAUL OUTLAW, BFA 2004, held Imeday Imeday Ollarday Icklenay, their first solo exhibition in New York at Allegra LaViola Gallery. The exhibition incorporated dinner parties prepared by famed Chef Yuri Hart.
BERTICE McPHERSON‘s (MFA 1992) exhibition, Seize the Clay, opened the second week of November 2010 at the Mobile (AL) Arts Council. She writes about her recent work shown there: “The alternative firing technique, a slightly modern version of ancient pit firing, gives the surface colors. I was happily surprised with the multi-colors on Weathering The Storm when I excavated the piece from the ashes in the barrel the morning after the firing.”
SUSAN ROBERTS, MFA 2007, writes that she is “alive and well in Morristown, TN.” She is assistant professor of art at Walters State Community College and she has just taught a weekend session class at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. She is planning to teach a combined Drawing I and II class in Italy in the spring of 2011 through the Tennessee State Consortium for International Studies. Her website is www.susanrobertsart.com.
MELISSA CRUM MORGAN, MA 2004, is assistant director of the Centre for the Living Arts, a non-profit organization in Mobile that promotes contemporary visual and performing arts. She is also manager of Space 301, a contemporary arts exhibition space in Mobile. Morgan recently received her master’s degree in Business Administration, Management, from the University of South Alabama.
JENNY FINE, BFA 2006, received her MFA in August 2010 from the Ohio State University. She will return to OSU this fall to teach Introduction to Darkroom Photography and work as project assistant in Ann Hamilton Studios. In October, she will assist Alison Crocetta on her upcoming film, A Circus of One, creating the still photographic images for Crocetta’s 16mm film. While in graduate school, she was awarded a competitive Ohio State University Fergus Award, was named an Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum Finalist, and was chosen to assist artists Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil with the Living Culture Initiative Visiting Artist Program. In May 2010, she presented her thesis work at Urban Art Space in Columbus, Ohio.
JARED LAURIDSEN, BA 2010, a studio major with a double minor in Computer-Based Honors Program and Creative Writing, is in Chicago about to start the Archeworks program, a one-year postgraduate interdisciplinary design program. Archeworks describes itself as “…dedicated to envisioning and advancing a better quality of life for communities through socially responsible and environmentally conscious design solutions…”
BARBARA MORGAN, MFA (Painting/Photography), participated in Heads Up Alabama! an exhibition of art juried by Anne Arrasmith of Space One Eleven, Ted Metz, professor at University of Montevallo, Georgine Clark of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and Dr. Lee Keyes, President of the Alabama Psychological Association. The project is an effort to engage viewers through accessible public art in response to a challenge by the US Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) to market health education in creative ways.
KEYSER WILSON, MFA 1978, had a piece juried into Ephemera – National Juried Exhibition at Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, which ran February 14 – March 18. The juror was Dan Keegan, Director of the Milwaukee Art Museum.
MICHAEL DUDLEY, BFA 2002, is a new father and is teaching art at McAdory Middle School in McCalla, Alabama. He recently was hired on as an instructor at UA and assisted Mark Stevenson in our woodshop, and taught drawing, 2-D design, and an Interior Design course.
VIOLA MOTEN, BA 2008, is the Curator Specialist at the Troy University Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. She curates exhibitions in the museum gallery and leads tours through the museum. She accepted a scholarship from Rutgers University to pursue a Masters of Library and Information Sciences degree in the fall through their on-line program.
BETHANY WINDHAM ENGLE’s (BFA 1955, MA 1960, and EdD 1971) colored pencil drawing is included in the Colored Pencil Society of America online exhibition CPSA Explore This! 7, viewable here: http://cpsa.org/EXHIBITION/EXPLORE.THIS/Explore7/Expl7Show/index.htm. Paintings, drawings and photographs by Engle are at Littlehouse Galleries in Birmingham; at Gallery on the Boulevard in Tuscaloosa; and at the Gazette Gallery and the Riverport Gallery, both in Northport. Engle was the featured artist in the online September-October 2010 Collectors Edition, linked here: http://www.bestofartists.com/engle.
Work by grad student DARIUS HILL and CLAYTON COLVIN, MFA 2005, was included in the 2010 winter show, Re-Wiring, at 21st Street Studios in Birmingham. Hill’s work was also in *Race*Sex*Politics*Religion* – What not to talk about at Space One Eleven in Birmingham in January, a group show that included Fahamu Pecou, Kara Walker, Thornton Dial, and JIM NEEL, MFA 1973.
BFA student REBECCA REYNOLDS exhibited new prints in the Kentuck Annex in Between Here and There, with professor SARAH MARSHALL in the main building. Reynolds states about her art,“I’m currently working with two themes. In the transition series, I create contrasting environments of safety and danger, sometimes composing womb-like settings with the subject in various stages of emergence or retreat. I’ve also recently started drawings for a series of block prints containing folklore and fairy tale elements based on my family history.” (from the Kentuck Facebook Event page). Marshall and Reynolds also exhibited and Reynolds gave a woodcut carving demonstration at the Lite Box Gallery in Birmingham in January and February. The show was in the ArtFolk space in the Young & Vann Building in downtown Birmingham. According to the press release, it is one of the largest exhibits of its kind in the state, featuring more than 30 Alabama artists who are exploring the increasingly popular medium of printmaking. Also included in that show was UA art alumnus SCOTT STEPHENS.
JAMEY GRIMES (MFA, sculpture) is making his New York debut with his exhibition Roil at Salt Space (1160 Broadway). Work will be up until May 6. The Northeastern gallery thinks highly of his work, apparently referring to him in their press release as a “mountain man,” and a “poetic, Alabamian artist.”