The newsletter of the UA Department of Art and Art History ART.UA.EDU/RESOURCES/NEWSLETTER-THE-LOUPE/

Keeping you in...

The LoupeOur Front Page Image:Pictured above is a painting from 1965 by

UA art alumna BARBARA PENNINGTON

(BFA 1955, MA 1957) titled Selma, inspired

by voting rights protests the same year in

that city. Read the full story on page 7.

image credit: Museum purchase with funds provided by Peggy and Bob Culbertson, the Romare Bearden Society, Sally and Russell Robinson, Mary Lou and Jim Babb and a gift of the Moreland Family. 2014.79. Collection of the Mint Museum. Image © Mint Museum of Art, Inc., reproduced here courtesy of the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC.

he year 1945 was pivotal for UA and the art department. After Congress passed

the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (better known as the “GI Bill”) at

the end of World War II, schools around the country, including The University of

Alabama, prepared for a large influx of new students as soldiers returned. In 1945,

newly hired professor Richard Zoellner established a printmaking concentration in

art at Alabama, one of only two schools in the Southeast that offered it. Also, that

year, the department began to offer the professional degree for artists: the Bach-

elor of Fine Arts. In September of 1945, amidst other announcements about higher

education across the nation, the New York Times ran a short notice:

“Recognizing the growing demand for professional training in art in addition to

the art program generally offered by Southern colleges on a cultural basis, the

University of Alabama has instituted a curriculum leading to the degree of Bache-

lor of Fine Arts. The university, which plans to erect a new Fine Arts building after

the war, is setting up temporary headquarters for the enlarged department. There

will be five studios, two classrooms, six offices and a large gallery.” d

Spring 2015

Alumni Issue: 70 Years of the B.F.A.T

ART AMBASSADORSEncouraging Students by Example

This year, Martha Sears cultivated a new crop of Art Ambassa-

dors. Art and art history majors KATHRYN BORNHOFT, KELBY COX,

CHARLA DAVIS, ERIN HEIN, RACHEL JONES, KATHERINE LANGNER,

AMANDA MILLER and JULIA STEWART greeted and gave tours to

potential students, parents and other visitors. Our ambassadors

introduced themselves at the Majors Fair and Get on Board Day

and participated in Homecoming festivities on the main quad.

These students share an enthusiasm for art and a desire to “give

back” before they embark on their next life stage. Some, like

Rachel Jones, think it is important to let prospective students

know how valuable “the traditional university” experience can

be. Jones, from Knoxville, is a BFA track major with a minor in

the Blount Undergraduate Initiative program (BUI). Erin Hein, a

double major in art history and biochemistry (and a minor in the

BUI program) from Wheaton, Illinois, “loves” her experience in

the department and wants to share that with potential students.

Amanda Miller, from Cullman, is on a BFA track with a concentra-

tion in painting. Studio major Charla Davis, from Birmingham, is

concentrating in digital media with a double minor in BUI and art

history. Julia Stewart, also from Birmingham, is majoring in art

history with a minor in Spanish. Kelby Cox is a double major in

art history and studio art with a concentration in ceramics. Cox

recently added a minor in Italian and graduated this spring, in

STUDENT NEWS ~ DEPARTMENT NEWS ~ STUDENT NEWS

Spring 2015 2

three years! Katherine Langner, from San Francisco, will gradu-

ate in August with a double major in art history and public rela-

tions. Kathryn Bornhoft, from Los Angeles, is a BFA track major

with a concentration in sculpture and ceramics.

An Array of Career Choices in Art

The variety of career plans among our ambassadors is dizzying,

proof of the wide-ranging possibilities for studio art and art

history majors. Hein plans to go into art conservation. Miller

wants to teach high school art and then go into arts adminis-

tration. Davis aims to be a graphic designer. After she earns an

MFA in illustration, Jones says “my dream job is working as a

concept artist, designing for video games or graphic novels.”

Stewart says that she will “pursue a career in art galleries.” Cox

is applying to graduate school in art history and hopes to go into

museum work. Langner wants to work for an art auction compa-

ny. Bornhoft plans to go to graduate school and then into teach-

ing. Bornhoft’s words sum up quite well the driving force of all

of these young women: “art as an experience enriches life at all

levels and is something that should be accessible everywhere.”

AROUND THE QUADWoods Quad Dedication In the 1870s, Woods Quad was a drill field; in the 1970s it was

a hangout for students and faculty. Since the mid 1990s, Woods

Quad has been home to a growing number of outdoor sculptures,

some definitely temporary, some possibly permanent. This past

summer, Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Olin officially dedi-

cated the quadrangle as the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden. Billy

Lee’s Homage to Brancusi has made the southeast corner of the

little quad its home since the sculpture won the 1993 Alabama

Biennial Purchase Award. Since then, alumni artists Joe McCrea-

Our 2015 Art Ambassadors reflect the wide variety of career choices open to art majors, both history and studio. They are, from left to right: Erin Hein, Kelby Cox, Katherine Langner, Amanda Miller, Julia Stewart, Rachel Jones, Kathryn Bornhoft and Charla Davis.

The Loupe, published since 2002, is the newsletter of the NASAD -accredited Department of Art and Art History, in The University of Alabama’s College of Arts and Sciences, for students, alumni, facul-ty, staff and friends of the department. Please send correspondence to Rachel Dobson, Visual Resources Curator, rachel.dobson@ua.edu.

(loop), n. 1. a small magnifying glass used by jewelers or watch-makers, or for viewing photographic transparencies.

Ceramics graduate student Sydney Ewerth’s work was recently

accepted into a national juried exhibition, Graphic Clay: A Sur-

vey of Illustrated, Printed, and Innovative Surfaces, at Balti-

more Clayworks (MD) with juror Jason Bige Burnett. Ewerth’s

ceramic work was also accepted into a new national juried

competition: the First Annual Dirty South Mug Competition at

the River Oaks Square Arts Center in Alexandria, Louisiana. More

about Sydney Ewerth here: http://wp.me/p4Zowu-2xe

MFA candidate Claire Lewis Evans has been a whirlwind of activ-

ity. Lewis Evans was awarded Best Three-Dimensional Artwork

for her paper and bamboo sculpture Messenger and for her paper

and reed sculpture Satellite in the online exhibition Chasing the

Light (Finding the Shadow) at the virtual Still Point Art Gallery.

She presented her MFA exhibition, Passages, at Northport’s The

Grocery in April. The sculptural works featured in this show

reflect Lewis Evans’ interest in material, process and time. Her

explorations of form and space allow her to help create the uni-

verse, shaping matter and experience as the work unfolds. While

her work can be approached by the viewer simply as abstract

ry’s Goldie 1971 and Lindsay Lindsey’s Fibonacci Spiral have

been ensconced in the two north corners. Associate Professor

Craig Wedderspoon’s Montgomery Marker sits in the southwest

corner at Manly Hall. His Vessel Series #3, part of his solo exhi-

bition at the Birmingham Museum of Art, is the latest sculpture

at the quad’s center. For more about the sculpture garden, go to

http://art.ua.edu/gallery/public-sculpture/.

MORE STUDENT NEWSUA’s art historians hosted the 20th Annual Graduate Symposium

in Art History this year.

Amy Williamson, UAB ARH

graduate student and Shane

Harless, grad student from

Tulane (and Alabama native)

shared the inaugural prize

for the Best Paper. This

new award, funded by Jim

Harrison III, was presented

March 6 at the symposium, held annually since 1996 by UA and

UAB’s joint program for the MA in Art History. More info about

our symposium here: http://wp.me/P4Zowu-2a

Two photographic works by graduate student Sarah Austin were

accepted into the 2015 SPE Combined Caucus Juried Exhibition

at the Society of Photographic Education Conference, Ogden Mu-

seum of Southern Art in New Orleans this spring. The jurors were

Deborah Willis, acclaimed artist and chair of the Department of

Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU,

and Carol McCusker, eminent scholar and Curator of Photography

at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. More about

Austin here: http://wp.me/p4Zowu-2xs

3 Spring 2015

CONTINUED ON PAGE SEVEN

above left: Yummy symposium cake designed by Dr. Rachel Stephens; bottom left: Sarah Austin, Fortune Teller, archival injet print, 11X16" one of the two works in 2015 SPE; top: Sydney Ewerth, Mind the Gap, ceramic, at Baltimore Clayworks; middle: Claire Lewis Evans, Passages: installation view featuring Mayflies and Suchness. Art images courtesy of each artist.

STUDENT NEWS ~ DEPARTMENT NEWS ~ STUDENT NEWS

GRANATA~GALLERY SELLA-GRANATA ART GALLERY~SELLA

Spring 2015 4

Spring semester in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery...After an interactive exhibition by video artist Erin Colleen Johnson, Master of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts shows and the BA Senior

Exhibition, EXIT 2015, dominated our spring semester schedule in the Woods Hall gallery. See more: http://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/

top row, l-r: Josh Whidden, elemental; Sarah Austin, Through; Turner Williams, work in Twang of the Void; Ali Hval, Together, Apart; middle row, l-r: Sarah Austin, Retreat; Anna Katherine Phipps, Stretch at the First Blush of Morning; Installation view, Twang of the Void. bottom, l-r: Heather Whidden listens as Associate Professor Craig Wedderspoon and graduate students critique Whidden’s installation piece, Who Could Hang a Name on You, during her MA exhibition with Josh Whidden, Bilateral: Memory & Experience.

5 Spring 2015

top: Angie Brown, Cathy Pagani and Martha Sears (left) give out awards at Department of Art and Art History Honors Day ceremo-nies in the SGG. 2nd row, l-r: Ali Jackson, Snuffles, at the Annual BFA Juried Exhibi-tion in the UA Gallery downtown; a painting by Ali Hval in her BFA exhibition; a visitor to EXIT 2015 BA Exhibition. 3rd row: view at the BFA juried show; visitors discuss Things That Fall Apart by Ali Jackson at her BFA exhibition Degeneration; Jackson, detail of External. bottom left: Claire Lewis Evans and friend at her MFA exhibition, Passages, at The Grocery in April.

...and in galleries around West Alabama.The UA Gallery in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, Harrison Galleries in downtown Tuscaloosa and The Grocery on Main

Avenue in Northport (started by three of our alumni) are frequent venues for exhibitions by our students. More photos here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/uaart/collections/72157623555959241/

GRANATA~GALLERY SELLA-GRANATA ART GALLERY~SELLA

New Curation Area for the Permanent CollectionThe new curation area for the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art’s Permanent Collection opened in the fall with an open house and re-

ception sponsored by the Office of the Dean. With the support of the College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Alabama and

the Farley Moody Galbraith Support Fund, 1,880 square feet of curation and storage facilities have been added for our expanding

collection of Modern and Contemporary art. Both flat file and vertical storage capabilities have been enhanced with state-of the-

art storage and updated climate control systems. Future developments include enlarging the area where the gallery staff prepare

works for exhibits and service works in the collection to add to their stability and safekeeping. A recent addition is the William and

Sara Hall Collection (see page 11). Read more about the Permanent Collection here:

http://art.ua.edu/smga/past-present-and-future-the-smga-permanent-collection/.

S A R A H M O O D Y 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 5E X H I B I T I O N H I G H L I G H T S

Spring 2015 6

FACULTY-STAFF NEWS~ FACULTY-STAFF NEWS~ FACULTYPERMANENT~SARAH MOODY GALLERY OF ART~COLLECTION

Walker Evans, Office Building Vicinity Tuscaloosa, 1935, gelatin silver print, 7¼ x 9¼", P74.9

above left: Visitors tour new curation facilities at the Open House held by Dean Robert Olin in December 2014. center: Gallery Director Bill Dooley gives Dean Olin a tour of the space. right: Among the visitors were Associate Dean Tricia McElroy, Chair Cathy Pagani and Paul R. Jones Collections Manager Emily Bibb.

clockwise from top left: Exhibitions coordinator Vicki Rial (left) gives a tour of Redefining the Multi-ple: 13 Japanese Printmakers in September; Richmond Burton, Architectural Yellow in Alabama Oval; Susanne Doremus, Body, in Urban Virtue with Cora Cohen; Astri Snodgrass, in a moment of temporary blindness, with detail inset, from her MFA exhibition VERSO | RECTO; Minor White, Sc-hoodic Point, Maine, 1967, donated by Pamela and Michael Murray, from Contemporary Treasures (our annual Permanent Collection show); and Richard Ross, three works from Juvenile-in-Justice.

7 Spring 2015

-STAFF NEWS~FACULTY-STAFF NEWS~FACULTY-STAFF NEWS

FACULTY-STAFF NEWSIn November, Rachel Stephens

received one of two “Educator

of the Year” awards from the

Tuscaloosa County Preservation

Society, for her efforts to teach

students about the importance

of nineteenth-century architec-

ture. The society’s president,

Ian Crawford, recognized her

for her work educating students

about the history of architec-

ture both in Tuscaloosa and the

state of Alabama. In 2014 she

organized field trips to historic

structures, led research proj-

ects about local architecture

and organized a digital database of historic Alabama structures

to which her students contributed. Stephens was also selected

by the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) as the 2015 recipient

of the President’s Faculty Research Award for Arts & Sciences –

Humanities for excellence in her field.

This fall, Bryce Speed’s mixed media paintings were exhibit-

ed with works by sculptor Jack King in a two-person show at

Valdosta State University. Works by Speed and Matt Mitros were

featured in Paper or Plastic? at The Grocery in Northport this fall

and new works are featured there in May.

Tanja Jones recently published “Ludovico Gonzaga and Pisanello:

A Visual Campaign, Political Legitimacy, and Crusader Ideology,” in

Civilta mantovana. Forthcoming is “Crusader Ideology: Pisanel-

lo’s Medals in the Guantieri Chapel in Verona,” in the 2015 issue

of The Medal 66. Jones’ collaborative course project (ARH 373)

with the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Alabama Digital

Humanities Center was featured in the March issue of Dialog:

http://dialog.ua.edu/2015/03/the-art-of-collaboration/

In October, Lucy Curzon, director of education and outreach

for the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at UA, spoke to

students from Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary and Westlawn

Middle schools at the PRJ Gallery as part of the gallery’s inau-

gural K-12 Fellows program. After a ribbon-cutting by A&S Dean

Robert Olin, Curzon talked to students about how to look at and

think about the art in the gallery before they went back to their

classrooms to make their own art. More photos here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/uaart/sets/72157648130194349

“Whether students go on to become curators, engineers or ad executives, in the ‘real world’ one needs to know how to research a problem, analyze rele-vant data and present findings in a clear and cogent way. This project is designed to aid students in building those skills,” — DR. TANJA L. JONES in Dialog

sculpture, it is deeply informed by her longstanding interest in

spirituality and the environment, as well as more recent reflec-

tions on the fragility and resiliency of art and life in the face of

the unknown. More here: http://clairelewisevans.com/

. . . FACULTY-STAFF NEWS ~ CONTINUED ON PAGE ELEVEN

STUDENT NEWS ~ CONTINUED FROM PAGE THREE

Read about our

Honors Day Awardees online:

http://art.ua.edu/resources/newsletter-the-loupe/

Spring 2015 8

~ ALUMNI NEWS ~ ART DEPARTMENT HISTORY ~ ALUMNI

top: Barbara Pennington proofing a lithograph print with Professor Richard Zoellner. In 1945, Zoellner founded the printmaking pro-gram in the art department, the same year that the BFA degree was introduced. Photo by Laurens Pierce, a photographer in Montgomery who made a number of photographs of UA subjects in the 1950s. Photo from the collection of Barbara Pennington; reproduced here courtesy of Vicki Moreland.

An Exceptional Painting

While living in New York City in the 1960s, Pennington made

at least three figurative paintings about the tumultuous and

horrifying events going on in Alabama during that time. In Selma,

painted after the 1965 voting rights marches, she contrasted the

solemn demonstrators emerging from a church with the violent

police beatings of citizens in the streets and a giant, ghostlike Ku

Klux Klan figure menacing over all. The painting’s monumental

size and the stylization of its figures enhances its iconic charac-

ter. Pennington painted a slightly smaller canvas, Riot, about five

feet wide, after the Watts Riots in Los Angeles that occurred just

a few months later. At the time, they were the worst race riots

the country had ever experienced. She also made an abstract

painting titled Selma March and at least one drawing after a

bombing in Birmingham.

Recently, we exchanged emails with Pennington’s niece, Vicki

Moreland, a freelance writer and the executor of Pennington’s

estate. This is an excerpt from our questions and her responses in

which she says more about her aunt’s art:

loupe: Do you know if [your aunt] was making abstract work at

the [same] time that she painted Selma and the painting, Riot?

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

THE HUMANITY OF ART As part our 70th anniversary commemoration of the Bache-

lor of Fine Arts degree, we are recognizing some of our alumni

who have received the degree. Stories and images from our BFA

alumni are found on pages 10-12. Following is a compelling and

timely story about one of them.

Barbara Pennington (BFA 1955, MA 1957) dedicated her life to

painting and art education until her death in 2013. From teaching

art therapy to Bryce Hospital patients to her provocative paint-

ings of the Civil Rights Movement to her later intensely colored

abstract works, Pennington always expressed compassion for

humanity through her art.

Pennington grew up in Tuscaloosa and attended Tuscaloosa

High School. She won a four-year full scholarship to UA from the

National Scholastic Art Awards and received her BFA and MA in

painting and printmaking. After graduation, she taught in public

schools in Alabama, lived in New York from 1960 and then moved

to Connecticut in 1968 where her high school students received

many state art awards. In 1977 she returned to Alabama and set

up her studio and an antique business in Gordo. Pennington was a

member of the Crossroads Arts Alliance, a group of artists in and

around Gordo that included the late GLENN HOUSE, Sr. (BFA 1957)

(see The Loupe Back Page).

In 1957, while working on her master’s degree, the Tuscaloosa

News ran a story on April 23 about her work teaching art to Bryce

Hospital patients “44 hours a week.” Pennington’s Bryce students

mirrored widespread attitudes about abstract and non-figurative

art at the time: “At first they thought it was ridiculous,” she said

in the interview, “and now they won’t do anything else.” The

article explained the students’ change of heart: “With abstract

art, they paint emotionally rather than technically and therefore

are not imposed upon by the restrictions of realistic art.” Later

her writing about her own work revealed a similar approach for

herself, “My aim is for the work to be experienced in an uncon-

scious way, bypassing the analytical and going straight to pure

feeling—to a sense of beauty and joy.”

Abstract art was Pennington’s purview and her preference.

However, a few times, she felt strongly enough about her subject

to change her nonfigurative approach. When she passed away

at the age of 81, she left behind a studio full of paintings and

a legacy that has become more than she ever imagined. After

Pennington’s death, her niece, Vicki Moreland, and Moreland’s

husband found previously unknown and rare figurative works by

the artist. The largest painting, Selma, 9 feet wide by 6 feet

high, has become well regarded in the short time since the Mint

Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced its acquisition

of the work (see page one).

Did she change to a figurative style because that was the best

way she found to express her ideas; or was she painting in that

style and changed to abstract later on? Have you ever found any

other figurative works from that same time?

moreland: There are a few other figurative works from that time

frame, such as the self-portrait on her website, but she worked

primarily in abstract before Selma and Riot. My mother [Penning-

ton’s sister] and I believe that Selma was painted first and Riot

later. I also know that she did an abstract representation, Selma

March. That painting was found in New York and [was] believed

to be rent payment for an apartment she had there. It is distinct-

ly different from Selma and Riot. I can’t speak to the reasons she

chose a figurative style for these paintings, but I suspect it

was the best way to clearly represent her feelings on the

subject. In the ‘70s she started painting impressionistic land-

scapes inspired by her travels to the Southwest and Midwest,

her garden, and the landscapes of Alabama. But she returned to

abstracts in the ‘80s with a series of mixed media works, water-

colors (her Earth Auras), oils and oil pastels. I believe in time she

began to prefer abstract to other styles because it allowed her to

express freely her feelings about art.

loupe: Have you ever found any

writing by Barbara about her early

paintings? Did she ever talk to you

about her feelings about the Civil

Rights Movement?

moreland: Unfortunately, I don’t have

any writing by her about her early

paintings, nor did she ever talk to

me about the Civil Rights Move-

ment. I have heard from others

though that to discuss her painting Selma was sometimes a som-

ber experience. She also talked about the Freedom Riders, and I

believe these events saddened her. I have a rough sketch she did

entitled Birmingham Bombing, of a cross, buried in the rubble of

the church, and a body on the ground. I do not believe that she

ever painted this scene. We did discuss Riot and she commented

that subconsciously she created the buildings without windows or

doors and believed it to be a commentary on the lack of oppor-

tunity for the young men in the painting. They were “trapped”

figuratively and literally on the campus. d

9 Spring 2015

~ ART DEPARTMENT HISTORY ~ ALUMNI NEWS ~ CAMPUS

ALUMNI NEWS

BFAers Since 1945

Here are a few more of UA’s BFA graduates in art: WILLIAM O.

PARDUE (1951), WILLIAM WALMSLEY (BFA 1951, MA 1953),

BETHANY WINDHAM ENGLE (1955), FRANK GUNTER (1956), GLENN

HOUSE, SR. (1957), SYDNEY HAUSER (1967), DANIEL MOORE

(1967), EDITH FROHOCK (1968), WILLIAM HALL (1973), LARRY

NEWBERRY (MFA 1977, BFA 1975), LEE ANN LUTZ (1979), DAVID

BETAK (1990), PAT SNOW (1990), MICHELLE MCKNIGHT DAVIS

(2003), MARTHA MARKLINE HOPKINS (2004), PAUL OUTLAW (2004),

LIZ WUESTEFELD (2009), JOE STALNAKER (2010), MOLLY BROOKE

THREADGILL (2010), JACOB DAVIDSON (2011), JEREMY K. DAVIS

(2011), AMBER JONES (2011), MICAH CRAFT (2012), ADAM HILL

(2012), BROOKE HOWELL (2012) and ERIC NUBBE (2014). There

are many more BFA alumni than we have listed here. Following

are a few post-BFA stories. Please send us yours!

BILL HALL (BFA 1973) has already made an impression on the

SMGA’s Permanent Collection (Loupe Spring 2011). As Master

Printer at Pace Prints in New York

for almost 30 years, he has had

unparalleled access to renowned

artists making exquisite work.

Over the years, he built a col-

lection that he and his wife have

now donated to the Sarah Moody

Gallery of Art’s Permanent Collec-

tion, already a formidable gather-

ing of the work of internationally

acclaimed artists. Selections from

the William and Sara Hall Collec-

tion of Contemporary Prints will

be on exhibit through June 10 in the UA Gallery downtown in the

Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center.

JENNY FINE (BFA 2006) has come back home to Alabama with

her latest installation performance project, Flat Granny and

Me: A Procession in My Mind. Its latest incarnation was a lecture

and performance in January at the Wiregrass Museum of Art in

Dothan.

Fine uses performance, photography, installation to create and

tell stories about her family and her childhood experiences. Flat

Granny and Me has been more than a yearlong project with Flat

Granny, a life-sized photographic costume of her grandmother.

CONTINUED ON PAGE TEN

above: Bill Hall talks to visitors about collecting at the recent exhibition Selections from the William and Sarah Hall Collection downtown at the UA Gallery in the Dinah Washington CAC.

Spring 2015 10

& CAMPUS HISTORY ~ ALUMNI NEWS ~ TOWN & CAMPUS

top left: Jenny Fine at the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, 2015. bottom left: Jeffery Byrd, Symphony #4 (Beautiful Notes for SLC), photo by Kristina Lenzi. top right: Martha Markline Hopkins, Pink Moire, 24’x24’x3”, shaped acrylic painting. bottom right: Larry Newberry, photo, detail. See the original photo in the spring/summer 2012 issue of The Loupe (page 9). http://issuu.com/uaart/docs/loupespg12email?e=3441389/9263148

Fine writes, “A Proces-

sion in My Mind is a col-

lision of the agricultural

history of my hometown

of Enterprise (“City of

Progress” and home to

the Boll Weevil Monu-

ment) with my family’s

present day relationship

to the landscape of our

south Alabama farm. This

live theatrical perfor-

mance and room-sized diorama began as a re-imagining of the

year my grandmother was named Enterprise, Alabama’s ‘Woman

of the Year.’”

After receiving the MFA from The Ohio State University, Fine

served as studio assistant for Ann Hamilton, artist-in-residence in

Dresden, Germany, and at the The Wellington School in Colum-

bus, Ohio. She has also taught in China and worked at an orphan-

age and women’s shelter in Nigeria. She lives near Enterprise,

where she keeps a studio.

JEFFREY BYRD (BFA 1987) is pro-

fessor and chair of the Depart-

ment of Art at the University of

Northern Iowa. A video and per-

formance artist, he exhibits and performs around the world, from

Lincoln Center to Beijing. This year he performed in Berlin, Salt

Lake City and a little town

in Poland. He writes, “My

recent work is inspired by

my job as an administra-

tor. This piece [pictured

this page] attempts to ele-

vate the mundane tools of

office work (Post It Notes)

to the level of visual po-

etry. In the performance,

I write beautiful words

from many languages on

the notes and hang them

on a glass surface (in this

case it was a glass eleva-

tor at the SLC Public Library). Viewers are invited to share their

beautiful words as well. I’ve done this piece in Toronto, Boston

and Helsinki, so I’ve collected a great list of words!”

The prolific MARTHA MARKLINE

HOPKINS’ (BFA 2004) painting

Corinthian White was chosen

for the online gallery exhibition

Dark sponsored by Arc Gallery,

San Francisco. Her Pink Moire

was chosen for the exhibition

Voices: An Artist’s Perspective,

Women’s Caucus for Art, NYC.

She lives in Fairhope.

In the Spring/Summer 2012 issue, we published a photo by LARRY

NEWBERRY (BFA 1975, MFA 1977) of a group of art students in

Woods Quad. Only one person remained unidentified - until

now! JAN HOLLAND KIMBROUGH (BFA 1974), then known as JAN

HURSTON HOLLAND, was that person and she sent us an update:

Holland came to UA in 1970, like Barbara Pennington, on a 4-year

scholarship from Scholastic. “It was kind of a big deal because

there were no fellowships,

foundations or endowments for

art students like there are to-

day. Art was not a mainstream

field of study and art students

were understood even less! I

have had an exciting art career working for Occidental Petro-

leum Corporation in Tulsa, as assistant art director for Horizon

Magazine (a national fine arts magazine published in Tuscaloosa)

and a free-lance business, Holland Studios. In 1990, I began work

for a degree in medical social work and earned an MSW from the

university in 1992 and had a 10-year career as a hospice social

worker with Montclair Hospice and a case manager at Lakeshore

Rehabilitation Hospital, both in

Birmingham.” Holland emphasizes

the value of an education in art: “It

taught me to think ‘outside the box’

and to creatively problem solve even

in a totally different work setting.”

In late breaking news, BFA graduat-

ing senior ALEXANDRA (ALI) HVAL was

awarded one of only ten nationwide

Windgate Fellowships this year. Her

“[Art] taught me to think ‘outside the box’ and to creatively problem solve even in a

totally different work setting.”— JAN HOLLAND KIMBROUGH, BFA 1974

CONTINUED FROM PAGE NINE

11 Spring 2015

ALUMNI NEWS ~ FACULTY-STAFF NEWS ~ ALUMNI NEWSsculpture, Genesis, is pictured above. Other UA alumni awardees

are Adam Hill in 2012 and Jenny Fine in 2006, both BFA gradu-

ates. More in the next issue and online.

We have more alumni stories on our website. Read them here:

http://art.ua.edu/loupe/spring-2015-more-alumni-news/.

FACULTY-STAFF NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE SEVEN

The Arts Council of Tuscaloosa awarded Jamey Grimes Visual Arts

Educator in its Druid Arts Awards for 2014, recognizing his many

contributions to education in the community. Past awardees in-

clude Virginia Rembert, Al Sella, Gay Burke and Robert Mellown.

In November, Sky Shineman exhibited new works in the exhibi-

tion Seismic Shift at the Arts Council Gallery downtown. Shine-

man was awarded a research grant by The University of Alabama

to investigate new painting materials including powdered pig-

ments and organic mediums. She said these works are “a product

of this inquiry, serving as a record of elemental relationships and

physical processes.” In the spring of 2014, Shineman’s work was

included in 51st Annual Juried Competition at the Masur Museum

of Art in Louisiana. The juror was Kelly Shindler, associate cura-

tor at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. Shineman also

was juried into 20”x20”x20”: National Compact Competition and

Exhibition at LSU’s newly renovated Student Union Art Gallery,

juried by Shana Barefoot, exhibitions and collections manager

for the Museum of Contemporary Art Atlanta.

Assistant Professor MATT MITROS, instructor and alumna VIRGINIA

ECKINGER and representatives from Crimson Clay (and grad stu-

dents) SYDNEY EWERTH and JOANI INGLETT (all pictured above)

attended the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts

(NCECA) conference in Providence, Rhode Island, in April to re-

cruit students. As we go to press, Mitros has just left for Ljublja-

na, Slovenia, to attend the opening reception of III International

Ceramic Triennial Unicum at the National Museum where his

work was accepted. His Rubble Trouble Mug won Best in Show in

the new juried exhibition MUG Shots at the LUX Center, Lincoln,

Nebraska and his work was juried into the 7th Annual Beyond

The Brickyard Juried Exhibition at the Archie Bray Foundation in

Helena, Montana. His Pre-Columbian Rave was featured in the

February 2015 issue of Ceramics Monthly. Currently Mitros and

BRYCE SPEED have a two-person exhibition, Paper or Plastic?, at

The Grocery on Main Avenue in Northport, Alabama.

Enthusiastic reviews for PETE SCHULTE’s one-person exhibition

Build a Fire at Atlanta’s Whitespace Gallery in March included

Matthew Terrell for Burnaway.org (“a new door in the mind for

seeing art”) and Faith McClure for Artsatl.com (“Zen draughts-

man”). Schulte will be at Yaddo artists’ retreat this summer.

above: Ali Hval, Genesis (detail), 2015, silk chiffon, muslin, panty hose, plastic wrap, piping, paracord, 6’x10’x12’. top right: Matt Mitros, Virginia Eckinger, Sydney Ewerth and Joani Inglett at the NCECA conference. Photo courtesy S. Ewerth. bottom: Pete Schul-te, Build-A-Fire, installation view. Art images courtesy the artists.

The Loupe

Back PageEarlier this fall, Glenn House, Sr., passed away. Besides being

a BFA alumnus of our department and creator of a Tuscaloosa

icon (the Moon Winx neon sign in Alberta), House was at the

hub of a vibrant network of artists centered in Gordo and

reaching far beyond, especially book artists and printmakers,

as well as many others. In memory of Glenn House and in hon-

or of his former professor, Gay Burke, who retires from UA in

August, we reprint his recollection of his time in Gay Burke’s

photography class (and events leading up to it):

In 1989...I received a call from my old bottle-digging psy-

chiatrist-buddy and photographer. Dr. Jim Morris got right to

the point, “You need a hobby.” He prescribed that I join him

in Gay Burke’s Thursday evening black and white photography

class.

I showed up at a following class to check it out. Dr.

Jim met me at the door and introduced me to Barbara

Lee Black, whose first question made me feel right at

home, “Is that your mother who has the museum at

Gordo?” Then I met a host of other nice folks. It

turned out that Gay Burke (whom I had known

for years) had made a practice of accompa-

nying her classes to my mother’s museum to

photograph the weirdness. Also in that first

class was Kathy Fetters.

I sold a binding press for $250, bought a 35 mm

camera, and signed up for an audit. I am not re-

ally claustrophobic, but I do need more elbow

room than Gay provided for double-left-hand-

ed people to download bulk film from canister

to cartridge.

Being smarter than your average Alabama redneck,

and being fully funded as a college assistant professor, I

learned to save a lot of film by paying other students to

download my film. I then made the terrifying discovery

that my long-suffered darkroom chemical allergy was

about to reclaim its former territory, so I paid to have my

negatives and prints done as well. When I realized that my

continuing to force a total lack of photographic skills onto

the photographic world was causing more harm than good,

I quietly laid aside my camera.

Gay Burke recognized that I was capable of somehow

plucking a positive viewpoint from the most mundane pho-

tograph and, being the super-human being that she is, al-

lowed me to continue to participate in classroom critiques.

Then, with that certain twinkle and grin, she asked, “Well,

Glenn. When are you going to bring some work?”

—GLENN HOUSE, Sr., BFA 1957, MLS 1978, Ed.S. 1983;

Assistant Professor Emeritus, Book Arts

In Memoriam: Glenn House, Sr.

Glenn House, Sr.,

at the Kentuck

Festival of the Arts,

Northport, Alabama,

October, 2013.

Read more about our notable alumni and faculty online: http://art.ua.edu/alumni/notable-alumni-faculty/