Bracken Library Features New Art Exhibit on Children’s Literature

Exploration of Narrative Art is on exhibit on Bracken’s first floor through fall semester 2009, thanks to Dr. Barbara Jo Giorgio-Booher, Assistant Professor in Ball State’s Department of Art. Paintings are on the wall and also featured in a display case.

In Professor Booher’s class, Drawing 3 (AFA 303), students read various classic children’s literature to learn how authors and illustrators use compositional elements in the creation of children’s books. They then select a story segment, line, or verse. Their objective is to comprehend the nature of the text and give life to that comprehension. The students used color, environment, figures, and common objects to explore how to support a narrative with art.

Dr. Arthur W. Hafner, Dean of University Libraries, developed and implemented the idea of sharing artwork with students, faculty, staff, and visitors at the University Libraries. He believes that students benefit from sharing their artistic creativity with a larger audience, and the displayed artwork in the University Libraries enhances the physical environment while also providing artists an opportunity to exhibit their work. The outreach program to students and faculty in the Department of Art as well as on campus in general has resulted in beautifying the Libraries’ walls on three floors. Artistic works include items ready to hang such as paintings, drawings, woodblock prints, and photography, in addition to handmade books and metal works measuring less than 8” high in order to fit into specific display cases.

The University Libraries invite Ball State students, faculty, and staff to display their artwork in Bracken Library. Similarly, the Libraries invite university community members who would like to provide live artistic performances. The artist or performer begins by completing an online form: www.bsu.edu/library/artwork. Dean Hafner said, “We have exhibited some spectacular artwork created by members of the University community. We have also hosted many live performances that have helped to expose our students and faculty to the performing arts.”

For more information about loaning artwork to Bracken Library or performing in Bracken Library, contact Hank Gerhart, FHGerhart@bsu.edu, 765-285-5277.

Recent Art Purchase Award Helps to Beautify Bracken Library

The 74th Annual Student Art Show, held at Ball State University’s Museum of Art, featured student artwork in all media, from painting and sculpture to video and furniture. Each year, a panel of jurors considers hundreds of student works for selection in this show, narrowing the final selection to between 100 and 125. The result is a student exhibition that showcases outstanding talent and quality artwork.

For purchase, the Ball State University Libraries selected New English by artist Michael R. Hurt, a senior from Redkey, Indiana. Originally, Professor Marilyn Derwenskus, Ball State Department of Art, started the painting. Upon her retirement this past year, she gave almost all of her unfinished sketches and paintings to students while encouraging them to reuse the canvas or paint over them, if desired. Michael chose this particular canvas for its composition and mysterious nature.

“I liked how the pillar on the left enclosed the scene while adding a sort of two-dimensional border uncommon to artworks,” he said. “I had sort of an immediate connection to this piece.”

Michael had always enjoyed the graffiti art found on railroad cars and in many urban settings. He was inspired by a graffiti artist named Heist from Toledo, Ohio. Michael commented that he had seen Heist paint whole freight train cars, from top to bottom and from side to side.

New English examines the differences and commonalities between two generations of artists – Marilyn’s generation, which covers periods of Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Expressionism, Pop Art, Op Art with influences from movements of the earlier 1900s, and Michael’s generation of graffiti artists who widely ignore the traditional artistic heritage in exchange for a self-satisfying culture.

“In the future, this style of art may be viewed as the most influential artistic movement in centuries,” he said. “Amidst this huge gap in artistic background, I think the piece holds together well while speaking volumes both conceptually and visually to the passing of the torch to a new set of artists and the remembrance of those who have come before us.”

Purchase Award Helps Beautify Library

The 73rd Annual Student Art Show, held at Ball State University’s Museum of Art, featured student artwork in all media, from painting and sculpture to video and furniture. Each year, a panel of professional jurors considers hundreds of works for selection in this show, narrowing the final selection to between 100 and 125. The result is a student exhibition that showcases outstanding student talent and quality artwork.

Ball State University Libraries selected for purchase Rooster, Guitar, Scott (oil on plywood with newspaper, 36”x36”), by senior Braydee A. Euliss.

Braydee, from Munster, Indiana, created the bright cubism-inspired artwork by starting with several sketches, one on top of the other, and manipulating the resulting image until she was pleased with the composition. The sketches were simply of a still life that contained, among several other things, a stuffed rooster, a guitar, and her professor Scott G. Anderson. She then transferred it onto the plywood, applied newspaper, and decided where to leave the raw wood showing through.

“Although the piece was created for an assignment, I feel I took it in a direction that made it my own, different from most of the examples I had seen,” she said.

Ball State’s annual Student Art Show began in 1935 and offers art students an opportunity to present artworks in a professional, juried setting. The accepted artworks were shown in Ball State’s Museum of Art through April.