MFA
Table Of Contents
Welcome Curriculum IVA Community Resources & Facilities
Opportunities Contact Practical Questions
Cover Page
Welcome Hi. I’m assuming that you’re looking at this brochure because you’re interested in our MFA program in Integrated Visual Arts. I’m the Director of Graduate Education (DoGE) for the department of Art and Visual Culture and an Associate Professor (Drawing/Painting) in the department. I feel that the department, College of Design and Iowa State University have a lot to offer. The town of Ames and the nearby city of Des Moines provide many opportunities for student artists to exhibit and become involved in the greater arts community.
It’s my hope that this brochure will answer the question, “What do you mean by Integrated Visual Arts?” Our program is extremely flexible so that we can meet the diverse needs and interests of a wide range of students. Our highly skilled faculty are actively engaged artists who enjoy working with each other and with our students. We have an unusually cooperative and collegial department. I hope we have a chance to meet so that you can tour our department’s facilities and meet current graduate students and faculty.
I also look forward to hearing about your background and goals. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. Thanks for considering our MFA program and I hope you enjoy learning about the MFA in Integrated Visual Arts program from the Art and Visual Culture Department at Iowa State University. Associate Professor Barbara Walton, DoGE
Main Menu
Curriculum Program Requirements Art History & Visual Culture Potential Curricular Areas of Integration Studio Media
Integrated means that varied elements are combined in order to create a harmonious connected whole within a structure that supports cooperation between each part. This is the Integrated Visual Arts curriculum at Iowa State University. Main Menu
IVA Degree Program and Requirements The Integrated Visual Arts program requires a minimum of 60 credits. Studio Courses 39 Credits ISA (27 credits) Outside of ISA (6 credits) Thesis {ArtIS 699A: Research (3 credits) & ArtIS 699B: Exhibition (3 credits) Seminar Courses
6
Credits
(2 sections of ArtIS 571 for 6 total credits or 1 sections of ArtIS 571 with ArtIS 511 for 6 total credits) Graduate Seminar ArtIS 571 (3 credits each section)
ArtIS 571A: Seminar: Critique, Creative Process
ArtIS 571B: Seminar: Grants, Residencies, Exhibitions, Entrepreneurialism
Seminar in Teaching (ArtIS 511, 3 Credits) Art History/Theory/Criticism
ArtH 501 Seminar required (3 credits)
Art History courses (9 credits)
Related Courses (outside the IVA program)
12
Credits
3
Credits
TOTAL
Curricular Menu
60 Credits
Media Areas Ceramics
Drawing
Photography
New Media
Textiles Metals
Furniture
Painting Printmaking Curricular Menu
Ceramics Faculty
Alumni Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
www.lilligrenart.com
Faculty Ingrid Lilligren
Bio: Professor and department chair, teaches ceramics and public art. BFA – UW, River Falls; MFA - The Claremont Graduate University. Exhibitions include the Des Moines Art Center, Museum of the Hand in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Woodbury University, Los Angeles, CA. Artwork is in public collections including Grinnell College, Iowa State University, Sioux City Art Center and numerous private collections.
Artist Statement: Braille is used as a symbol for cultural blindness. Professor Debra Marquart allowed me to transform her poem “Buoy” which contains references to water, the sea, and metaphoric submergence in the fluidity of life’s decisions. Laser cut plates and porcelain slabs created the Braille. Photocopied decals of linden leaves eaten by japanese beetles were fired onto the forms.
Snow Is The Only One Of Us That Leaves No Tracks Wood, unfired clay, plexiglass, ice, Braille 72” x 39” x 39”, 2018
Ceramics Menu
www.heatherwhittlesey.com
Alumna Heather Whittlesey
Bio: Heather received her MFA in IVA in May 2015. She currently lives in West Des Moines. She served as a glassblowing studio assistant at the Tesuque Glassworks in Santa Fe. Her work was included in 11 group exhibitions since 2010 and she received awards in 4 of those shows.
Artist Statement: Heather Whittlesey is a Midwest based mixed media artist who addresses existing cultural tensions about class, gender, sexuality, race and war. Her installations employ tension as an environment to build scenes of death, irony, humor, domination, excitement and question. Her ceramic work responds to a more romantic and celebratory hybridizing of sexes and or species.
Explosive Devices Paper, skull, plastic approx. 20’ x 6” x 8’ 2015
Ceramics Menu Next Page
Student Reflection
Heather Whittlesey Ingrid Lilligren was my major professor and at that time a mentoring relationship formed. I chose her as my major professor because she exemplified all the characteristics I want to develop and implement into my own career. She is the chair of Art and Visual Culture and is a tenured professor. She is also confident, professional and a natural leader.
I chose Iowa State for my graduate degree because of the Integrated Visual Art major. As a mixed media artist it was a perfect fit because I didn’t have to specifically focus in one area and so that allowed me to have skills in a variety of mediums. I also chose Iowa State because they have a glassblowing studio that only costs $90 a semester to join and that functions as a student organization. My experience as the treasurer for ISU gaffer’s guild has helped me gain employment on many occasions. I have also traveled to visit and network with a previous visiting artist from the Ceramics department. Valerie Hennings was my Political Science/Women’s Studies professor. She also acted as a mentor to me because she introduced me to new information about politics that would ground my work and direct it towards an activist pursuit. Our mentoring relationship was also strengthened by her participation in my artwork.
Ceramics Menu
Hermaphrodite 2015 Stoneware, underglazes 13” x 6” x 5”
Drawing
Faculty
Alumni Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
www.chuckrichardsbooks.com
Faculty Chuck Richards
Bio: Drawing has always been my primary means of expression. My work has always involved narratives, which eventually led me to write and illustrate picture books for children. I have been teaching drawing at the college level since 1979, and coordinate the first year drawing curriculum for the College of Design at Iowa State University.
Artist Statement: In 1998 I began to write and illustrate my first children’s book, Jungle Gym Jitters. Since then, I have published three more books, Author Day for Room 3T, Critter Sitter, and Lulu’s Magic Wand. This art form combines talents I had pursued years ago, which include creative writing and narrative filmmaking. Along with my teaching, I have come to believe that writing and illustrating books for kids is my “true calling” as an artist. It is providing my life with a meaningful purpose. My expertise as an artist and drawing teacher are also interdependent.
Concept Art & Character Study, Grandma Budgie, watercolor & colored pencil, 15” x 112.75”,2015
Drawing Menu
http://www.rahelestudio.com
Alumna Rahele Jomepour
Bio: Rahele is from Mashhad, Iran and earned her BFA in Communication Visual Design from the University of Tehran in 2006. She graduated with an MFA in Integrated Visual Arts from Iowa State University in May 2015. She is currently a freelance illustrator living in Ames, Iowa.
Drawing Menu
Artist Statement: Through the Underground Comic Art class I became aware of character design, especially gestures and features, visual metaphor and consideration of how story telling relates to composition and point of view. Through Professor Chuck Richards I learned how the marriage of text and image and their incorporation together is so important for making a book. I cannot start to work without drawing,
Checking in at the Airport Digital Print: Adobe Illustrator 2013
Next Page
Student Reflection
Rahele Jomepour
Now that I’ve graduated, I am focusing on children’s picture book illustration and have five books that are going to be published in 2016; Tehran, Iran by Balout Books Publishing Company.
Next Page The Rabbit (Illustration for book to be published 2016) Graphite pencil preliminary illustration 8” x 17”, 2015
I did research for masters programs in Illustration and there are a few universities that offer this program but most of them are private schools and they consider illustration more as a communication design degree not fine arts. I found the illustrated picture books by Professor Chuck Richards and I could not wait to be his student. At this program I could have different opportunities to take a variety of classes and studios including painting studios, textile, drawing, Drawing and illustration. Menu
The News Digital Print: Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop 60” x 60” Selected for Bear Show, Serbia, Belgrade http:// www.medvedi.rs/
con-affetto-kiko.tumblr.com
Alumna Taylor Carlson
Bio: I earned a BFA in Graphic Design and English at ISU in 2014, and an MFA in Integrated Visual Arts in May 2018.
Artist Statement: From a theoretical standpoint, I have worked a lot on character development: specifically, how gender and character interact. What happens if you make a prepubescent girl a protagonist? What if the dark, lone-wolf antihero is actually a father figure with a stereotypically ‘maternal’ parenting style? How has gender stereotyping influenced the way we design characters, and how can we break away from gender stereotyping in a way that is genuine, not artificial? These are all questions I grapple with in writing and illustrating my graphic novel.
Drawing Mneu
Lizardfolk Pitch Graphite 17” x 11” 2015
Next Page
Student Reflection
Taylor Carlson
I worked a lot with Professor Chuck Richards. He instructed me while I was an undergrad on my first graphic novel, and was willing to continue to work with me in graduate school. ISU created a collaborative environment and the freedom to pursue my art and professional career. Additionally, I was asked to help Chuck Richards write and teach a course on sequential narrative. This was something that no other grad program would give me—the opportunity to influence curriculum in a real, tangible way. The work on this class is invaluable to my thesis and something I couldn’t have done anywhere but ISU.
I’m interested in becoming a professional graphic novelist, and I wanted the extra opportunity to study, hone my craft, and develop professional connections. April Katz met with me and helped outline how I could achieve my goals, the financial resources available to me, and professors that could work alongside me.
Drawing Menu
60 Figures Graphite 18” x 24”, 2014
The quarter-time assistantship that ISU awarded me, covered half of my in-state tuition and a monthly stipend. This was very important to me—a graduate degree is wonderful, but I wanted to minimize my debt. The assistantship meant that I was taking on little to no debt for my graduate education. It also allowed me to keep my focus on my education, as opposed to taking on an outside part-time job. It’s a privilege I didn’t have as an undergrad.
Furniture Faculty
Alumni Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
www.Chrismartinfurniture.com
Faculty Chris Martin
Bio: He received a Masters degree in furniture design from Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. He designs and produces speculative furniture pieces for both commission and exhibition. Chris served as a US Peace Corps volunteer from 2008- 2010 in Ghana and he has developed a passion for issues of sustainable development and what artist and designer’s roles can be in it.
Arist Statement: Currently Chris is developing art-work, in the form of furniture inspired by his time in Ghana. One body of work is the Tribal Stool Series In Ghana, the stool is the symbol of chieftaincy. He uses this series to explore new materials and processes and address issues in both Ghana and here he wants to express. Until just recently, Africans and other cultures were still using drums as a means of communication from one village to another. Now the cell phone has taken over. Virtually every Ghanaian has at least one cell-phone, many sporting smart phones. The cell phone towers are ubiquitous.
The New Drummer Reclaimed steel, cement, paint, LED lights 19” x 30” x 14” 2014
Furniture Menu
Facilities & Curriculum Auctioned by ISU student chapter of Engineers Without Borders to raise money to build a dam in a drought-prone region in northwest, Ghana.
Ghanaian fantasy coffin Visiting artist Eric Adjetey Anang 2014.
The Furniture Design area has separate bench and machine rooms. The machine room contains all the machinery typically found in most production wood shops. The bench room contains a wide assortment of hand tools and small power tools. The focus is on wood furniture beginning with hand tool use, all the way through bent lamination, veneering, and upholster. Though the focus is on wood and woodworking techniques, due to his personal interest, Professor Martin strongly encourages exploration of all materials. Furniture Menu
http://www.michaelstanleydesign.com
Alumnus Michael Stanley
Bio: Mike Stanley earned a BFA in sculpture with a minor in printmaking from the University of South Dakota in 2003. He focused in metal and wood for his MFA from Iowa State University in 2008. Currently he is an Assistant Professor at Delta State University in Clevelend, Mississippi. His current artistic practice includes “social issue based sculptures, large-scale public sculptures and furniture design.
Arist Statement: I believe that art should be interactive. While my primary research is in Kinetic Sculpture, I use furniture design as a vehicle for human interaction. This facilitates experimentation with structure, aesthetics, and the response to design in people’s daily lives. The integration of found material into my artwork creates a deep sense of gratification and is what keeps me making art. Next Page
Furniture Menu
Everything’s fine. Trust me. Steel, bronze, douglas fir, paint 38” x 33” x 33” 2014
Student Reflection
Michael Stanley
The education I received in the Integrated Visual Arts program gave me the skills and confidence necessary to teach on the collegiate level, and the relationships I formed with the faculty while in graduate school made me a I am really enjoying the exposure my great candidate for future positions. public work has allowed. I am very proud
that my work is being seen and enjoyed by a number of people. I have a sculpture at Jester Park in Iowa that has become one of the most popular attractions for tourists. I have a sculpture hanging from the ceiling at the US Department of Agriculture where they give tours to people from all over the world. Tourists interested in the Blues can come see my new work at the Grammy Museum in Mississippi. Knowing that my work is being seen gives me a great feeling inside. I am an Assistant Professor of Art at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. I teach all levels of Sculpture, Beginning Drawing Introduction to 3D Design, Art Seminar, Furniture Design, and have started to implement a Production in Art class. As an artist and human, I want to be known for my positive attitude and as an art advocate. I work for Number:Inc, an art publication based out of Memphis, TN, I am the President of Kappa Pi International Art Honor Society, and I am an art educator. All three of these allow me to Next Page be an activist who supports the arts and encourages a creative approach to life.
New Orleans Community Music Machine With Operators Mixed Media and Found Objects 18’ x 24’ x 11’ 2008
Furniture Menu
Alumnus Matt Obbink Bio: My name is Matthew Obbink, I am from Ames, IA. I received my BFA in furniture design and metal-smithing from Iowa State University in 2006, and my MFA in Integrated Visual Arts in 2017. I am currently a lecturer in the Industrial Design department at ISU. I have been married for 10+ years to my wife Kristen, and have lived right here in Ames for 17+ years.
Arist Statement: My work is a reflection of form and function. Wood and metal can be great mediums to tell a story, convey a message or invoke a reaction. With each piece I create I am working towards pushing the boundaries of history and humor. By using traditional techniques in my work I am paying homage to the makers that have created before me, as well as developing new ideas to push these mediums forward in my work.
Next Page
Sit and Play a Tune Brass, quartersawn sycamore, walnut, copper, brass, rubber
Furniture Menu
Matt Obbink
Student Reflection
Chris Martin (Furniture Design) and Joe Meunch (Metalsmithing) have both been incredible mentors for me from the moment I met them. I have known them both for 15+ years. Throughout school, after school and in graduate school they were both patient, understanding, driven and willing to help through all of my crazy design ideas, life choices, advice and anything else I could throw at them. With my furniture and metal work I am constantly using each (wood and metal) in each of my projects. I feel that the two different materials compliment each other greatly. I also took a history course in Industrial Design that focused on the industrial revolution. This time period has always fascinated me; I have a love for anything mechanical or revolutionary. The IVA program at the college of design truly changed my life. It opened my eyes to furniture design, metalsmithing, photography and more. It showed me that anything is possible and they truly cherish the creative spirit.
I am very excited about the opportunity to share the knowledge I have learned over the years to help teach and guide students into the field of wood design and furniture design.
Furniture Menu
Inside the Mind of a Maker, walnut, brass, steel, found objects, 120mm slides
Metals Faculty
Student Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
Faculty Joe Muench
Bio: Joe Muench holds a BA in Craft Design from Iowa State University and an MFA in metalsmithing from Washington University, St. Louis, MO. He has taught jewelry/metalsmithing at Iowa State since 2001, and frequently presents technical workshops on metalworking topics at universities and craft schools throughout the United States.
Aritst Statement: Muench utilizes traditional processes such as chasing and repousse and industrially based approaches to metalsmithing to produce work that bridges art and science and aligns the natural and the mechanical worlds that surround us. His award winning artworks have been widely exhibited and are featured in numerous books and publications.
Red Pillow Block with Bolt, Hand formed, fabricated steel, found object, paint 11” x 11” x 7” 2012
Metals Menu
Facilities & Curriculum The jewelry metals studio is well equipped for working in non-ferrous metal and related art media. To compliment their metals education, interdisciplinary students have access to other traditional studio arts facilities and newer technologies such as digital media, CNC, laser cutter and rapid prototyping (Objet 3-D printer). This studio supports processes applicable to the making of jewelry, objects, and small sculpture.
These include metalsmithing (traditional raising, anticlastic, synclastic, shell forming), fabrication, forging, chasing and repousse, lost wax casting, tool making and explorations in alternative materials.
Metals Menu
Alumnus Sunki Hong
Bio: Sunki is from Seoul, Korea where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design in 1996 and a master’s degree in the same field in 1999. She received her MFA in IVA from Iowa State University in 2010. Since her graduation she has been the furniture design instructor in Ewha Womans University in Seoul and finds it rewarding when her students learn new skills and understanding.
Artist Statment: Sunki chooses to work in metal, wood and stone because their harmonies perfectly match the intention she has for her work. Her work is built around themes of nature, inspired by the rich culture, stories and traditions of Korea.
Magnolia Box Fabricated: (chased/repousse’d) sterling silver, wood 4” x 4” x 3 2010
Metals Menu Next Page
Student Reflection
Sunki Hong
What makes me really happy is the moment that I am unconsciously into my work.
Lotus Tea Server Fabricated: (raised, chased/repousse’d, forged) sterling silver, wood 9” x 9” x 6” 2010
He [Prof. Muench] is my model for my teaching life. Lots of things from Prof. Muench guide me how to teach and how to encourage my students. He was just a great teacher and mentor to me. That is why ISU was something like my second home and had lots of meaning in my life.
Metals Menu
New Media Faculty
Student Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
Faculty
http://www.theaustinstewart.com/ http://www.secondlivestock.com/
Austin Stewart Bio: Austin received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his MFA from Ohio State University. His work has been shown nationally and internationally. He also works collaboratively on projects with other artists, musicians, landscape architects, and biologists.
Arist Statment: Austin’s practice looks critically at human behaviors in analog and digital environments. The work manifests in a variety of different media from video to robotics, performance to software, and from violent means of seed propagation to vegetated floating islands.
Performance & Installation | 45 min | 2012-2014
New Media Menu
Facilities & Curriculum College of Design Output Center (laser cutters, 3D Printer, large format printers, etc.)
The College of Design hosts multiple computer labs, large format printers, laser cutters, and CNC machines all of which are open to IVA graduate students. Several shops are available to facilitate production of interactive artworks. Austin teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in digital imaging, programming/electronics/ robotics, 3D modeling, and video art. In independent study courses at the graduate level students have built interactive sculptures, created animations, video art, land art, and arcade games. Austin also teaches in the Masters of Design in Sustainable Environments program, a degree which can be pursued concurrently with an IVA degree.
New Media Menu
College of Design Computer Lab
Almuna Lyndsay Nissen Bio: Lyndsay A. Nissen was born in Rochester, Minnesota in 1982. She completed her BFA at the University of California Santa Cruz with a focus on painting. In May 2015 she graduated with an MFA from Iowa State University in Integrated Visual Arts. Annually Nissen organizes Art Vacancy, a ten-artist contemporary exhibit in unconventional spaces. She currently lives and works in Ames, Iowa.
Arist Statment: Nissen constructs her work using found materials and bodily presence. Her site-specific installations, social practice, and performance works combine traditional mediums and contemporary technology to create interactive environments that explore the theme of MetaRegionalism. Also see her video, Artist’s Statement https://vimeo.com/118680532
Next Page New Media Menu
Steppin Performance 2014
Student Reflection
Lyndsay Nissen
The beauty of the Integrated Visual Arts graduate program at Iowa State is the ease at which students can cross-pollinate with various departments and people of expertise. It is truly a place for innovation: a hub of technology, of community involvement, and of ground-breaking experimentation. These are all the aspects the art world is currently thirsty for; at your fingertips.
New Media Menu
Art Vacancy, 10-Artist exhibit along the Skunk River, Organized by Nissen 2015
Clean Sweep Video of this piece: https://vimeo.com/120908434 Mixed Media 2015
Painting Faculty
Student Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
Faculty
barbaraewalton.com
Barbara Walton Bio: I grew up one block away from the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa. I am the youngest of 5 children and the first-born United States citizen of a German immigrant family. I dropped out of school after my first attempt at college to vagabond around Europe. Later and more prepared, I received a BFA (1991) and an MA (1993) from Iowa State University and an MFA from Drake University (1996). I have been teaching drawing and painting at Iowa State University since 1993. Mainly a painter, in 2002, I began experimenting with encaustic painting. My paintings have been exhibited widely in juried international and national venues.
Artist Statement: Painting is the vehicle that I use to express what I have experienced. The expression of nature as the subject is poetic and not a literal interpretation. It is an idiosyncratic record of my of observations. The subjects exist within the ambiguity of space or circumstance. The intention is to evoke an inexpressible longing or memory. Next Page
Painting Menu
Falling Dream Holy Dog Microcrystalline, oil on canvas 48� x 48� 2012
http://www.studiohollandart.com
Faculty
www.facebook.com/StudioHolland
Brent Holland Bio: Professor Holland teaches all levels of painting and drawing. He holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Washington, Seattle and a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in drawing from Missouri State University, Springfield. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad.
Artist Statement: Holland’s recent work combines digital technology with highly crafted traditional drawing methods to express the underlying analog truth within his subject matter. Using both figurative representation and formal abstraction, his work is centered around the continuous struggle to overcome a myriad of visual preconceptions to see a world without identification, a world universally abstract.
Studio Plants I Hybrid Drawing – Digital and Traditional 42” x 42” 2014
Painting Menu
http://www.josianneishikawa.com
Alumna
Josianne Ishikawa Bio: Josie is an American who grew up in Iowa but lived in Japan for almost half her life. For many years she did not paint, she was an ESL and Art teacher, and mother taking care of her daughter. She started painting again in 2007. She earned her BA in Visual Arts in 1981 from Grand View University, and her MFA in Integrated Visual Arts at ISU in May 2016.
Artist Statement: My art philosophy is based on the Japanese aesthetic “wabisabi”: transience, impermanence, imperfection… nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is ideal; the natural flaws that occur in the process giving an object it’s uniqueness, beauty that comes with age, and the seasonal change of light and color are wabisabi.
Human Genome Cyanotype and encaustic 40” x 40” 2014
Painting Menu Soundwaves by Josianne Ishikawa (click for video)
Next Page
Student Reflection
Josianne Ishikawa
ISU offered an integrated arts program which is what I was interested in. The most interesting thing about the field of visual arts for me is the integration of traditional studio arts and digital arts. I integrate non-fiction video essay, traditional photo techniques, textiles and painting with digital techniques. Learning to use new techniques and tools has expanded my ability to create a new style unique to my experience and what I want to express.
3D work
I was an RA with Barbara Walton working on an experimental soy wax with the food sciences department for use in encaustic painting and a TA in Art History 280 and 281. I received the Valerie Kohnen Scholarship twice (2015, 2014), Alice Yvonne Fuhrman Graduate Scholarship (2015), ISU Focus Grant (2014), and ISU Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi membership (2015). They helped me financially, helped my status, my reputation, my confidence and my self-esteem. Encaustic
Next Page Painting Menu
http://www.annasegner.com
Student Anna Segner
Bio: Anna grew up with an appreciation for outdoor activity in Owatonna, Minnesota. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Literature with Writing Emphasis and Studio Art from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Anna took a year off and worked as a full-time newspaper reporter before beginning graduate studies at Iowa State Artist Statement: My artwork reflects an University. interest in the role that environmental literature plays in shaping human perception of the world. From an early age, I fell in love with plant and animal species living in my backyard in Owatonna and the Boundary Water Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. With the influence of family birding ventures, I learned to practice the art of observation—seeking and processing knowledge. My fascination with native ecosystems and species continues to grow, and I use ecology books, bird guides, and nature writing to inform and increase my love for natural surroundings. Literature, art, and science are fields of study that inform one another in the search of a greater truth. However, science and humanities are often perceived as separate disciplines with little overlap. Through my mixed media artwork, I seek to bridge science and art. I am interested in pairing artistic expression of the natural world with the text, diagrams, and charts that are often Next Page used to portray scientific fact. My artwork confronts the abundance of informational Painting resources available today and explores the Menu connection of theories that create a full perception of the world.
Transient Mixed Media
Student Reflection
Anna Segner
Given my background in literature and writing, I was attracted to the Integrated Visual Arts program’s emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. Classes in writing and research have helped develop the academic conceptof my artistic process. Also in this program, I have been able to strengthen technical rendering skills, gain opportunities with exhibitions, grow in a teaching assistantship, and receive the Focus grant to fund a project. Which way, warbler? Mixed Media 24” x 24”
Lovebirds and Papertrails Mixed Media 20” x 2” x 20” 2017
Painting Menu
Photography Faculty
Student Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
www.christinecarr.com
Faculty Christine Carr
Bio: Christine Carr received her MFA from the Tyler School of Art and her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. She is a twotime recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship and has work included in the 5th edition of Exploring Color Photography by Robert Hirsch
Artist Statement: Christine Carr works primarily as a still photographer, but has also worked with installation and video. Her work deals with the intersection of humans and the natural environment, with a particular emphasis on the atmosphere created by light, color and clouds.
91.15.16 (from the Monolith series) Archival Inkjet Print 24� x 30�, 2015
Photography Menu
Facilities & Curriculum Processes available • Black and white film processing and printing: 35 mm to 4 x 5 • Color digital input and printing • Non-silver printing Light table
facilities and equipment • black and white darkroom • alternative processes darkroom • 44” Epson SureColor P8000 inkjet printer • 17” 4880 and 3880 inkjet printers • 4 flatbed scanners for film and objects Photography studio crit • 4 Mac computers loaded with photography, design and film software • access to 35mm, medium format and large format film cameras • access to College of Design computer labs • access to digital cameras, tripods, and projectors Next Page
Photography Menu
http://behance.net/rohinikummitha/frame http://rohinikummitha.see.me/
Alumna Rohini Kummitha
Bio: Rohini is from Hyderabad, India and now lives in Lebanon, New Hampshire awaiting a work permit from the US. She earned a B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 2006 and an MFA in IVA from Iowa State University in 2015.
Artist’s Statement: Though photography is my primary interest, I equally enjoy the interdisciplinary approach of fusing and cross-referencing my other interests like painting and mixed-media illustrations in creating work with multiple layers and narratives. For me animation was a natural progression, it allowed me to integrate my multifaceted creative interests and find my own style.
White Summer 2012 Digital Photograph 16” x 22”
Next Page Photography Menu
Student Reflection
Rohini Kummitha
http://showmetheanimation.com/student-showcase/magic-masala/
Still from Magic Masala 2D and Stop-Motion Animation Duration: 16 min 29 sec. Aspect Ratio1.78 (16x9 video 2015
My thesis film “Magic Masala� is a mixture of 2D and stop motion animation produced using Photoshop and After Effects software. This film merges traditional painting, photography and digital illustrations, spanning themes of culinary and eating practices, cultural identity, fantasy, mythology, globalization and modernization, everyday immigrant life and Indian traditions, among others. I draw inspiration from both Eastern ideals and American values
My major professor Cindy Gould was not just my mentor but also my role model, trusted advisor, counselor and a friend. Her experiences, expertise, assistance and connections not only benefitted my professional development but My first painting project also my personal growth. The relationship during my graduate study was with my mentors extends beyond grad about my experiences living in the school and I am still in regular U.S. as an immigrant. What started as an experiment transformed into much deeper excontact with them. ploration of a sense of belonging, nostalgia, cultural displacement and identity. Coming from a country of diverse cultures and rich traditions, my work is greatly inspired Next Page by the thoughts, values and aesthetics of both ancient and contemporary India. As an outsider living in the U.S., Photography I am interested in the concepts of belonging, Menu mĂŠlange of cultural differences and issues regarding identity.
Alumna
Naomi Friend
Bio: Naomi makes art about the land and life in the Midwest. She earned a BA in Graphic Design and Fine Art from Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa in 2010 and an MFA in IVA from Iowa State University in 2013. Naomi is the exhibits manager for the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa. She is responsible for coordinating shows in three galleries, maintenance and publicity. She loves the outdoors, and lives on a small 3-acre farm where she grows flowers and food for local markets. Artist Statement: My inspiration for creating comes from my love of growing, gardening, and discovering the plants and animals around me, and recognizing my family legacy of farming. Through artwork, I explore the nature of temporary and lasting relationships in a world of fast-paced change. Images are made with the antique photographic methods Cyanotype and Van Dyke. These processes were invented at about the same time Iowa was first settled. I combine drawing and painting with photography, including digital photography. Images are printed on any organic material, including cotton, wood, and paper.
Inheritance Cyanotype toned with tea on Bristol 11� x 11� 2014
Next Page Photography Menu
Student Reflection
Naomi Friend
Life is an adventure! Running your own business, trying to sell work, traveling - it’s all exciting.
Cerulean Grace Cyanotype, van dyke, watercolor on bristol 19” x 24” 2015
I would say that since I graduated, I have had a lot of “first times:” First radio interview, first publication in a periodical, first solo show out of state, first large commission in a public space. It is gratifying to meet these milestones and I look forward to growing from here.
Heirlooms: Tamworth Hog Cyanotype and watercolor on linen 6” x 6” 2015
Photography Menu
Printmaking
Faculty
Student Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
www.aprilkatz.com
Faculty April Katz
Bio: April Katz, Morrill Professor, Art and Visual Culture, teaches printmaking. She has presented papers for many national conferences and served as president for the Southern Graphics Council. Her work is in the collections of the Fogg, NelsonAtkins and Yale University Art Museums and has been exhibited extensively.
Aritst Statement: Katz’s prints synthesize digital and traditional printmaking. Katz is part of the artist collaborative, BOKA. Roots: Veiled Observation is a hand-painted print collage with ink jet and laser-cut woodblock printing. Genetic, religious and architectural symbols combine to convey factors that shape human development.
Roots: Veiled Observation (Collaboration with JoAnn Boehmer: BOKA) Collage, digital pigmented print, CNC routed woodcut on Kozo 2013
Printmaking Menu
Facilities & Curriculum The University Print Society (print club) has hosted an international print exchange for the last 15 years and averages close to 400 participants. Whole Hog Press, a fine art, collaborative, printmaking studio located in downtown Ames, is owned and managed by ISU alum and Tamarind Master Printer Asa Wentzel Fisher. He offers internship positions for ISU students. The primary printmaking processes include relief (woodcut, CNC routed and photopolymer); lithographic (stone and plate, hand and photo-based); intaglio (copper, laser and hand engraved plastic, collagraph and photo-based); monotype, and digital. Emphasis is on experimental and creative use of printmaking for artistic expression. Equipment includes a Takach lithography press (34” x 60”), a Brand etching press (28” x 50”), two small tabletop etching presses, a print area darkroom with an Exposure Unit, several large composition rollers, leather rollers, a vertical etching tank, and a Power Hone System. The College’s 3 laser cutters, extensive computer labs, 3D printers, large format printers, and large CNC router are all available for printmaking applications. Printmaking Menu
Student Jeff Miller
Bio: Jeff Miller earned his BFA at Western Illinois University in 2012 and is currently pursuing his MFA in Integrated Visual Arts at Iowa State University. In addition to regular participation in juried exhibitions, Jeff has participated in numerous community-centered arts events during his time in graduate school. His proposal to present a demonstration on vacuum forming on relief printed plastic was accepted for the 2016 annual SGC International conference in Portland, Oregon.
Artist Statement: Jeff Miller grew up in a small town in Illinois dominated by a hog slaughtering plant. His work focuses on class issues and struggles; mixing adult responsibilities and loss of dreams with kids’ interests. He combines printmaking with different media, responding to the democratic quality of prints. He likes interactive based art and strives for that in his own work.
4th Grade Group This photo documents a 4th grade class, wearing woodcut printed costumes and masks. After printing, the masks were vacuum formed. 25” x 33” digital photo Printmaking 2015
Next Page
Menu
Student Reflection Jeff Miller
I’ve been involved in the Print Club & the Perry, Iowa Steamroller project with Jennifer Drinkwater. I worked with the community to teach woodcut. I taught an adult workshop and then several times taught high school students. Each individual had a 12” square block to carve. Then in the early summer we printed the blocks with the community using a steamroller. I would like to do similar projects in towns like the one I grew up in.
The Line Installation of 45 woodcuts on paper, each 6’ tall 2014 4th Grade Girl : When I grow up I want to be a nurse Digital photo 17” x 11” 2015
The most fun part about the program was my fellow students, the camaraderie and sharing group activities. The most useful thing has been learning about myself. During undergrad things aren’t as personal, but in grad school it’s been more about my experience.
Printmaking Menu
Textiles
Faculty
Student Facilities & Curriculum
ď ‘
www.teresapaschke.com
Faculty Teresa Paschke Bio: Teresa Paschke received her education at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (BFA, Fine Art, 1985) and the University of Kansas (MFA, Textile Design, 1998). Her artwork has been featured in numerous exhibitions as well as in American Craft; FIBERARTS; Surface Design Journal; exhibition catalogs; and several books.
Artist Statement: My current artwork combines elements of painting, printmaking, photography, and textile design. It represents a confluence of traditional techniques and state-of-the-art technology to highlight the visual impact of global perspectives on modern cultural landscapes.
Midwest Façade I Wide format ink-jet printing on cotton canvas with hand printing and embroidery; fiber reactive dyes, pigment, and cotton thread 21” x 30” 2014
Next Page
Textile Menu
Faculty
Cindy Gould
Bio: Cindy Gould, Associate Professor, received her BFA (1992) and MA (1994) from Iowa State University and her MFA (1998) from the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on the textile arts and culture of India. Her creative artworks and research papers have been shared at the national and international levels.
Artist Statement: Cindy Gould’s artworks reflect a strong interest in surface design, whether the work is created using mixed-media or textile media. Inspired by the intense colors, patterns and iconography of traditional Indian textiles, architecture and ornamentation, she creates work that are personal, yet universal, in message and meaning.
Salt Flats: Great Rann of Kutch Mixed Media 12” x 12” x 1” 2013
Textile Menu
Facilities & Curriculum As one of the Integrated Studio Arts offerings, the textile area prepares students with a strong foundation in textile design using both hand and digital techniques. Experimentation, risk-taking, conceptual development, and critical thinking are emphasized. Students pursue investigation in a variety of surface design techniques that include embroidery, resist dyeing, screen-printing, heat transfer printing, digital printing, as well as on-loom and off-loom woven structures and 3-d fiber forms. Textile students can also take classes across campus within the Department of Apparel, Merchandising, and Design in areas such as apparel design, textile science, patternmaking, textile conservation, and museum studies. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the studio arts program, textile students often combine media and techniques from other studio disciplines to create unique visual statements. Located on the ground floor, the textile studio is a large naturally lit facility equipped for most levels of textile exploration. It includes 20’ print tables, heat press, washing machine and dryer, electric stove, two large stainless steel sinkswith sprayers, four sewing machines, light table, eight 4-harness table looms and an 8-harness floor loom, Apple computer andink jet printer, refrigerators, bullet steamer, and ventilation system. The textile studio also has its own darkroom equipped with a stainless steel sink and sprayer, work counter, screen storage, and a 48� x 72� exposure unit for screen-printing.
Visiting artist demonstration in studio
Textile Menu
Art History & visual culture April Eisman Emily Morgan
Curricular Menu John Cunnally
www.legionofindecency.org
Faculty John Cunnally
Bio: Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Cunnally received his PhD in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. His publications include the book Images of the Illustrious (1999), which describes how Renaissance artists and scholars collected, studied, and imitated ancient coins of Greece and Rome. Research Statement: Cunnally’s area of expertise is the Italian Renaissance (13001600), more specifically the antiquarian activity of artists and scholars during that period. He also does research and teaching on the subject of visual literacy and the history of Sequential Art (comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels). Cunnally (2nd from left) on a panel at an international numismatic conference in Vienna, Austria in May 2015
IVA Curriculum according to Cunnally, “I’m glad to work with students interested in narrative art—whether in the form of graphic fiction, storyboards, animation or sequential images that instruct, entertain, or persuade. Sequential art is becoming increasingly important in contemporary culture and mass media, and it’s an area where our department’s faculty, curriculum and resources are particularly strong.” Art History Menu
Faculty
http://www.design.iastate.edu/FACULTY/eismana.php
April Eisman Bio: April Eisman is Associate Professor of Art History at Iowa State University. She earned her MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. Research Statement: Eisman’s research focuses on contemporary art and theory with an emphasis on East German art and its reception. Recent publications include, “East German Art and the Permeability of the Berlin Wall,” German Studies Review (2015) and “Painting the East German Experience: Neo Rauch in the Late 1990s,” Oxford Art Journal (2012). Co-founder of the Transatlantic Institute for East German Art (TIEGA), Eisman also co-organizes the German Studies Association’s GDR and Socialisms Network.
Bernhard Heisig and the Fight for Modern Art in East Germany (Camden House, 2018)
IVA Art & Visual Culture Graduate Courses Taught by Professor Eisman Art H 501 – Issues in Visual and Material Culture Seminar
Art History This graduate-level theory course focuses on Menu major thinkers and theoretical movements of the past century. It combines readings of primary and secondary texts with in-class discussions in which we work together to understand the concepts raised, their relationship to the visual and how they affect our lives today. Art H 595 - The Artworld After 1989 This graduate-level course focuses on contemporary art and artists as well as the art world they inhabit. We will begin with modernism and postmodernism, but our main focus will be on the art of today, what Terry Smith calls contemporaneity. Through readings, discussions, written assignments, and projects, we will try to come to terms with contemporary art and the contemporary art world, including key artists, works of art, institutions and collectors. We will also look at how the art of today relates to the global world of late capitalism.
Faculty Emily Morgan
Bio: Emily Morgan is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Iowa State University. She is the author of Street Life in London: Context and Commentary (MuseumsEtc., 2014). Morgan received her MA and Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on the history of photography.
Research Statement: Morgan offers special-topics courses for graduate students covering such subjects as Photography at War and Art and the Underworld.
Art History Menu
Potential Areas of Curricular Integration
Art & The Environment
Art & Community Art & Writing/ Narrative
Art & Technology
Art & Science
Curricular Menu The MFA in Integrated Visual Arts is designed to explore and expand the relationships between areas of creativity within visual art with those disciplines represented in the College of Design and beyond. It is the firm belief of the IVA graduate faculty that the next generation of visual artists will create work that not only pushes well beyond traditional art media boundaries but that represents a fusion of a wide spectrum of visual forms of expression, many of which will encompass new cutting edge technologies, research methodologies and varied conceptual and cultural concerns. We encourage students to integrate their unique interests into the program by taking advantage of the diverse curricular offerings throughout the university.
Art & Technology Iowa State University of Science and Technology’s focus on technology has led directly to many research patents and inventions including the first binary computer (the ABC). It also means there are many facilities and programs that can enhance the graduate art student’s learning experience. There are well-equipped computer and output centers available within the College and beyond that are available to all.
Resources Beyond Department Integration Menu
Campus Technology Facilities Technology & Department of AVC
Student Profile
Technology & Department of
AVC
A number of studio courses in the department of Art and Visual Culture focus on New Media. These include, Interactive Art, a course that introduces the tools required to create interactive artworks and kinetic sculptures. Students build simple mechanical artworks and control them with custom fabricated electronics. Students use CNC routers, laser cutters and other computer-assisted equipment. Additional courses include Computer Modeling, Rendering and Virtual Photography, Illustration and Illustration Software, Principles of 3D Character Animation, Principles of 3D Animation, Computer/Video Game Design and Development, Video Art, and Digital Textile Design.
College of Design CNC router
College of Design Model Shop: Power & hand tools
Additional COD Resources
Art & Tech Menu
Hua Pan Final Breking Rules Still from 2015 video
AVC Faculty &Technology
In 2012 Printmaking Professor April Katz successfully applied for an ISU Miller Grant that has enabled increased integration of digital technologies (particularly the college’s laser cutter and CNC router) into a majority of studio arts courses. An exhibit of faculty co-investigators’ works, a group installation in the College’s atrium, and increased use of these technologies within the department’s studios followed.
Next Page Expanding the Digital Matrix: Miller Grant Studio Faculty Exhibition Stools: Chris Martin, Prints: BOKA (JoAnn Boehmer & April Katz), Ceramics: Ingrid Lilligren Photographs: Emma Powell, Boxes: Paula Curran 2012-13
Art & Tech Menu
Chris Martin, Emma Powell, April Katz and multiple students completed an installation in the College and another, in March 2013 at an international printmaking conference in San Francisco using CNC router “cut-offs� destined for the trash and relief prints on fabric made from laser cutter trash.
Art & Tech Menu
Expanding the Digital Matrix: From Virtual Monitor to the Material Realm of the Studio Arts Installation in the College of Design Atrium 2014
Alumnus Matt Corones Bio: Matt Corones received his BFA from Cooper-Union in New York City in 2003 and his MFA in IVA from Iowa State University in 2012. He was selected by Laura Burkhalter, associate curator of the Des Moines Art Center to be included in the Iowa Artists 2011 exhibit. He lives and works in Ames.
Artist’s Statement: I want to look at, learn about and integrate other cultures into my artwork. My art is full of references to traditional Eastern design and architecture. In my opinion, the best way to begin an understanding of another culture is through the arts.
Art & Tech Menu
Next Page
Aqua Knight Rider medium transparency film and interference paint 40” x 40” 2015
Student Reflection
Matt Corones
I chose to pursue graduate study at Iowa State University because in addition to art, I was interested in engineering, especially HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) which is a strong field at ISU. Right now I am programming a cubist camera, which will view the world in new and unexpected ways. Students coming from smaller colleges, or from art schools, will be amazed at the very different environment of a big public university like Iowa State, where you are surrounded by thousands of talented people from a wide variety of fields, such as engineering and the sciences, a “full breadth” of experience. “It’s hard to compete with Indiana Jones, but I had a great and exciting experience studying in Rome in the summer of 2011. The Rome Program is one of the best features available in this program.”
Using photography and digital imaging as a starting point, Matt Corones works in a large variety of media, including c-prints, light boxes, fabric patterns, and video. Flowers, bubbles, and the architecture of entertainment (roller coasters and waterslides) appear in his work, digitally manipulated into Middle Eastern influenced patterns.
Aqua Night Des Moines Art Center Installation for Iowa Artists 2011, Transparency film 12’ x 16’
Art & Tech Menu
Resources beyond the Department Many students and faculty research and explore new technologies within their studio practice. Ancillary resources housed in other departments and colleges are available for students researching art and technology. IVA students may take courses by faculty in these areas, may consider “Additional Degree Options�, and may select faculty from these areas to serve as an outsidethe-department thesis committee member.
Industrial Design This department is part of the Design College. Industrial design is structured creative activity resulting in products, systems or services that meet a specified commercial objective. It requires human sensitivity, artistic sensibility, technical competence and business acumen. Industrial Design
Art & Tech Menu
Campus Technology Facilities
Virtual Reality Application Center The VRAC is an interdisciplinary research center focused at the intersection of humans and technology, aimed broadly at enhancing the Resource Hub productivity and creativity of people. The VRAC’s Engineering Boyd Lab world-class research infrastructure supports the re (VRAC) search of faculty and students representing all seven of ISU’s colleges, as well as the interests of collaborators from several federal agencies and numerous industry partners. The VRAC’s C6 is the world’s highest resolution, fully immersive virtual environment. Inside the C6 is a room that is 10 feet by Resource Hub: 10 feet by 10 feet in which all four walls, the floor and the This network provides equipment ceiling, are projection screens illuminated from outside and services for ISU students. It is a by high-resolution, interactive computer-generated collaborative effort between the College stereoscopic images that provide an experience of Engineering and the College of Design to of total immersion in a virtual environment share construction, machining and fabrication equipment and personnel. It includes 5 different labs including the Design Output Center & Boyd Lab.
Boyd Lab
Art & Tech Menu
Boyd Lab is a fabrication lab Resources that supports Mechanical Engi& Facilities neering classes and ISU student projects (personal projects are not allowed.) Boyd Lab has a variety of resources such as hand tools, power tools, milling and turning equipment, wood working equipment, metal-working equipment, MIG and TIG welders, and a plasma cutter. In addition, Boyd has several 3D printers available for student projects. Students who complete the required training can use the equipment during lab hours or they can submit job requests to have the shop complete their projects for them.
Art& The Environment AVC & The Environment Resources Beyond AVC
The College of Design’s mission is to “educate students to become successful designers, planners, artists and scholars who enhance human experience and improve the natural, social and built environment.” Awareness of our environmental impact permeates the College and the Department of Art and Visual Culture. IVA students who wish to focus on environmental concerns within their art practice and research have many opportunities within and beyond the department.
Integration Menu
AVC & The Environment
Recycled MagazineLight
Recycled Phone Book Table
Recycled Cds Light
Art & Environment Menu
The Department of Art and Visual Culture embraces the concept of sustainable art practice in our studios. We strive to create safe working studios that minimize negative environmental impact. A number of studio courses encourage the use of repurposed and found objects. Courses such as Sustainable Design and Fabrication of Furniture deliberately focus on sustainable practices. This course explores the effect of consumers on design and how this affects our environment and our global society.
Resources beyond the Department Master of Design Sustainable Environments Landscape Architecture MFA in Creative Writing
Art & Environment Menu
College-Wide Collaboration
Master of design in sustainable Environments The MDesSE program focuses on sustainable design strategies, systems and materials for environmental and product design. Students can pursue concurrent degrees with other graduate programs in the College of Design. The MDesSE program addresses ways to envision, make and remake landscapes, communities, buildings, objects and images that conserve resources, ameliorate ecological problems and promote social, political and economic justice.
AVC Assistant Professor Austin Stewart with faculty and students from the Sustainable Environments program working on the campus’ Lake LaVerne Floating Islands project to enhance water quality with vegetated floating islands that also serves as public art.
www.facebook.com/laverneislands Resources Beyond Department Menu
Landscape Architecture IVA student Alexis Dwyer (red gloves) doing mushroom inoculation on the Casey Land with Landscape Architecture students.
http://www.design.iastate.edu/landscapearchitecture/aboutus.php
The Department of Landscape Architecture in the Design College at ISU is a nationally ranked and internationally recognized program that helps you learn to change the world by re-imagining and re-shaping the landscape to enhance its ecological health, its cultural significance and its social relevance. The department has a strong commitment to learning outside of the classroom through traveling and off-campus studios, as well as learning design through community engagement. Resources Beyond Department Menu
College-Wide
Collaborative Work In 2014 an extensive, collaborative installation, coordinated by AVC Professor April Katz was created in the College of Design’s Detritus: A Collaborative Transformation, atrium for the A2ru national conference hosted by Iowa 2014 State University. The final list of participants for Detritus: A Collaborative Transformation included 116 students and 12 faculty from College of Design departments Art & Visual Culture, Landscape Architecture, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, and Interior Design. The theme was to “build awareness of sustainable art practice through repurposing of waste and neglected resources through purposeful aesthetic intent.” This type of interdepartmental research is encouraged within the College of Design.
Detritus: A Collaborative Transformation (Included video installation of the City of Ames Resource Recovery Plant recorded by IVA student Mat Greiner and edited by AVC Assistant Professor Austin Stewart) 2014
Resources Beyond Department Menu
MFA in Creative Writing & Environment This program emphasizes study in creative writing—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama—that encourages writers to identify and explore in their stories and lyric impressions the complex influences of place, the natural world, and the environmental imagination. The program sponsors an annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness & the Environmental Imagination and manages the Everett Casey Nature Center & Reserve, a field site encompassing 76 acres, 20 miles from campus that is available for student field research. Program Link
Resources Beyond Department Menu
IVA student, Aleixs Dwyer (artist) Regenerate, 2015 braided grass (installation at the Casey Land
Caseyland Collaboration Project: Mapping the Trail was a shared project with IVA students Josianne Ishikawa and Alexis Dwyer for their graduate seminar course. The “Caseyland” link below is Josianne’s documentary video of Alexis and Associate English Professor Barbara Haas at the Caseyland site. Caseyland Video
Art& The Community As part of a land grand university, an essential component of the College of Design’s mission is to “serve as a resource for Iowa and beyond through research, creative endeavors, extension and outreach.� We strive to enhance the social and built environment and to have a positive impact on communities within the state of Iowa. IVA students interested in pursuing socially engaged artwork and research have many opportunities for this within and beyond the department. Opportunities Menu Faculty Profile
Student Profile Design on Main Gallery Community Outreach Projects Integration Menu
http://jenniferdrinkwater.com
Faculty Jennifer Drinkwater
Bio: Jennifer Drinkwater is an Assistant Professor, in Art and Visual Culture (Painting) and a Community Art Specialist, with ISU Extension & Outreach. Her personal work and teaching have both evolved from an object-based art practice into one that seeks to explore how we bring artwork from the studio into the world, and accordingly, how this work can both build and shape community.
Intertwine installation yarn, wood, cable, hardware, chicken wire Ames, IA 2016 El Puente mural Perry, IA 2018
Integrated Community
Community Menu
Drinkwater has helped to organize a community-wide steamroll printmaking event in Perry, Iowa, created installations in restored prairies in Nebraska, collaborated on public art projects in vacant sites on Iowa main streets, and painted murals with middle school children on a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta. Her work has been exhibited nationally in juried and group shows and she has participated in several artist residency programs throughout the US.
Student Alexis Dwyer Bio: Alexis Dwyer is a printmaker, painter, land artist and art educator currently working towards her MFA in Integrated Studio Arts at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. She received her BFA in Photography and Printmaking at Columbia College in Columbia MO. Her prints have been exhibited in national juried exhibitions as well as internationally in Hong Kong.
Synergy Relief prints, wood, Plexiglas 30” x 10” x 12” 2014
Artist Statement: Her work centers around experiences in nature and how they reflect on the human psyche, including response to personal experiences in the outdoors. She hopes to give the viewer a deeper sense of the introspection that can be felt in nature. Community Menu
Next Page
Moss Cubed Relief, wood cubes 8” x 8” x 2” 2014
Student Reflection
Alexis Dwyer
My favorite thing about Ames is I feel I have a supportive community. There’s a link between the studio downtown and the College on campus. I appreciate their proximity to each other as well as the integration of multiple design programs within both spaces. I dialogue I had the pleasure of meeting with the students from the other programs April Katz while I was the underand enjoy the sense of community, the graduate assistant gallery manager at sharing of stories and ideas and of course sharing the kitchen is important too. I Columbia College. We met to discuss the have had great response from the hanging of Katz’ show and we discussed my work faculty within the Design College as well. I enjoyed her work; it was intriguing. Second, when I want to learn something it is an integrated program. I had had a double major as an new. Faculty are very willing to help and share their undergrad and was interested in exploring how I could knowledge. combine different media in my work. Finally, I saw that ISU has a Seminar in Teaching course. Other programs I looked at didn’t offer this and I was interested in teaching. I’ve been a teaching assistant for Fundamentals of Printmaking and will have done that for a total of 4 semesters before I graduate. Teaching has been a rewarding experience. Learning to communicate with my students as well as how to support and inspire them in their work is exciting every day. I have sole responsibility for the classes I teach.
Moss Cubed Relief, wood cubes 8” x 8” x 2” 2014
Community Menu
Community Outreach Projects Jennifer Drinkwater, Community Art Specialist and faculty member within the Art and Visual Culture Department, organizes and supervises arts-related projects that connect the university with Iowa communities. Here’s a sampling of some of those projects. IVA students can work with her in a variety of capacities.
Intertwine
Portraits of Perry ImaginArts in the Alleys Community Menu
Intertwine Intertwine was a collaborative, large-scale yarn-bombing of the façade of ISU Design on Main, a community gallery in the Main Street Cultural District in downtown Ames, Iowa. Over 1200 1’ x 1’ panels were designed and created by the public: knitters from 14 states across the country to collaborations of existing knitting circles in Iowa and groups located in Ames. Throughout the year, Design on Main hosted free workshops and fiber circles to support the project and encourage community building. Post-installation, the panels will be transformed into larger 4’x8’ blankets to be donated to local shelters in central Iowa. This project was supported in part by grants from Burning Man, the Iowa Arts Council and National Endowment of the Arts, as well as funding from ISU’s College of Design.
Project Menu
Portraits of Perry
IVA Students Jeff Miller & Our students also Alexis Dwyer giving a worked with a Perry carving/printing High School drawing demo to Perry high school class for four sessions to students teach them the process of
relief printmaking. Each participant received carving tools along with a block of MDF, which was donated by the local lumber company. The participants each created an image that depicted their interpretation of a “portrait of Perry.� In May we all gathered together in a downtown park to participate in a steamroll printmaking event to create the prints. In total we had over 30 people create prints. Each block was printed twice: one was given to the artist while the other was collected for a city archive. Thus far the prints have been exhibited in La Poste.
Portraits of Perry was a collaboration among Perry community members, Perry High School students, and ISU printmaking students. Perry is a small railroad town in central Iowa that has struggled with both an evolving cultural identity and a changing demographic due to an aging population and an increasing Hispanic and Latino population. ISU students hosted a free relief-printing workshop at La Poste, a local community art center and music venue.
ISU printmaking students and Assistant Professor Jennifer Drinkwater posing by steamroller, Perry, Iowa
Project Menu
ImaginArts in the Alleys
IVA student Alexis Dwyer, left, with her Marion high school collaborator
One proposal was so well received that the city included it on another grant application to the Iowa Arts Council. The project will transform the alleys through a combination of infrastructure improvements and the installation of creative projects.
The city of Marion was awarded Iowa’s first ArtPlace America grant for ImaginArts in the Alleys project. Interior Design faculty member Lisa Bates and Jennifer Drinkwater traveled with a group of eight CoD students (GD, ID, and AVC/IVA) to conduct a creative brainstorming workshop with community members and local high school students. Each ISU student partnered with a high school student to collaboratively interview local business owners and then develop sketches for possible public art interventions to help business owners redirect foot traffic and retain clientele during an upcoming facade renovation. These were presented to city council members for discussion and review. Artist group looking at Marion alleyway
Project Menu
Design on main Galleries
Opening Reception for juried New Media Exhibition at Design on Main Gallery
An extension of Iowa State University’s College of Design, Design on Main aims to share the artistic practice generated within the university with the larger community. It is our belief that conversation and collaboration can bolster Ames’s vibrant culture. Each semester, the Design on Main gallery hosts a variety of events geared toward community interaction, including Through an internship open artistic forums, workshops, exhibitions, and program and graduate asmusical and literary showcases. All events sistantships, students are integral are free and open to the public. in coordinating and curating the gallery. These opportunities provide our students a unique experience to gain profesNext Page sional expertise and to engage in Community community collaboration and Menu outreach.
Gallery Use
Lyndsay Nissen, an Integrated Visual Arts student, won Best of Show for Clean Sweep a work that featured a claw machine in which the usual stuffed animals or other prizes are replaced by trash (discarded plastic grocery bags, etc.) and live prairie plants. Participants can choose either to try to pick up trash with the claw or to rescue a plant.
Clean Sweep Video of this piece: https://vimeo.com/120908434 Mixed Media 2015 IVA students
can apply to the Design on Main Gallery to show their thesis exhibitions or special exhibitions such as the two-person show above.
Community Menu Nature vs Nurture Exhibition (IVA students Heather Whittlesey & Alexis Dwyer) Summer View out of Design on Main gallery window (painted for the exhibit) onto Main Street, Ames, Iowa
Art & Science The name Iowa State University of Science and Technology reflects the importance that science has had within the institution. Not surprisingly, the Department of Art and Visual Culture (AVC) participates in a 30+ year-old, nationally recognized interdepartmental undergraduate major in Biological/Pre-Medical Illustration (BPMI). The major is designed for students who want to combine their interests and aptitudes in science and art. Students take a mix of courses concentrated on the natural sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with studio art courses in AVC.
There are a variety of scientific illustration studio courses for this program offered by the AVC Department. Integrated Visual Arts students can work with faculty in the program independently or concurrently in classes with the undergraduates.
Resources Beyond Art & Visual Culture There are numerous departments related to the sciences throughout the university, particularly in the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine that are available for students researching art and science. IVA students may take courses by faculty in these areas, may consider “Additional Degree Options�, and may select faculty from these areas to serve as an outside-the-department thesis committee member.
Next Page Integration Menu
Faculty Kimberly Moss Bio: Kim Moss has an extensive background in science and art and within the higher education publishing industry. She has been integral in orchestrating collaboration among multiple talent groups from conception through development, design, and delivery stages for a range of subject matter and educational presentation types. Her current research interests involve testing the efficacy of various STEAM presentations, scientific visualization, biomedical-related public art, instructional design, game-based learning, synchronous online collaboration, and more. Artist Statement: Medical models, illustrations, interactive networks, data depictions, animations, augmented reality, and more–these are some examples of how one can visualize science–and new ways are being developed even still. Yet, all can encapsulate a type of story-telling, exemplify visual problem-solving, influence decision-making, and provide the ability to engage us, allow us to predict, understand, and marvel at the beautiful complexity around us.
Response to Stimulus
Transitional Cells
Integration Menu
Faculty Johnny DiBlasi
Bio: Johnny DiBlasi is an Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University specializing in scientific visualization and digital media
DiBlasi received an ISU Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities research grant to begin production of “Oscillations,” a large-scale, sitespecific, interactive installation that will investigate the ramifications and aesthetics of the landscape’s electronic infrastructure and data network and translate environmental data into an artwork. He also has been selected for the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2019) global residency program in Gwangju, South Korea, and will exhibit “Oscillations” there in June.
Array LCD monitors, multi-channel video & sound, custom software
Integration Menu
Art & Writing narrative
The Department of Art and Visual Culture embraces writing as a crucial complement to visual studio research. We expect students in the IVA program to perform directed research and writing from the time they There is growing interest by the deenter through the completion of their thesis. partment’s students and faculty in narraAll faculty within the department work tive art. Professor Chuck Richards, a successwith students as their writing and ful writer and illustrator of children’s books offers ideas evolve. a course, Sequential Narrative Drawing. Applications include concept art for graphic novels, children’s books, comic strips, video games, storyboarding for live action and animated films including instructional and marketing applications, plus character and scene development. The focus on narrative work is also evident in the department’s animation, video and illustration courses. Students and faculty have incorporated narrative components into everything from prints and paintings to 3-D forms in ceramics, metals and furniture. Professor John Cunnally teaches The History of Comics and is available to discuss related research with students. Integration Menu
Next Page
Rahele Jomepour Smart Donkey (Illustration for book to be published 2016) Graphite pencil, watercolor and Adobe Photoshop 8” x 17” 2015
Resources beyond the Department Ancillary resources housed in the following programs are available for students researching art, writing and the narrative. IVA students may take courses by faculty in these areas, may consider “Additional Degree Options”, and may select faculty from these areas to serve as an outsidethe-department thesis committee member.
Casey Land Map, Collaboration with IVA students Alexis Dwyer & Josianne Ishikawa, 2015
MFA in Creative Writing and Environment This program emphasizes study in creative writing—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama—that encourages writers to identify and explore in their stories and lyric impressions the complex influences of place, the natural world, and the environmental imagination. The program sponsors an annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness & the Environmental Imagination and manages the Everett Casey Nature Center & Reserve, a field site encompassing 76 acres, 20 miles from campus that is available for student field research. Next Page Program Information
Art & Writing
MA in English (Specialization in Literature) This two-year Master of Arts program focuses on four primary concerns. These include literary traditions, literature in its cultural and historical contexts, critical reading, and critical writing. Courses of interest to IVA students might include Poetry, Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Workshop: Writing The Long Project, Autobiography, Biography, Memoir, Drama and literature. English/Lit Information
MA in Art and Design and the MFA in Graphic Design The Department of Graphic Design within the College of Design College offers courses in Publication Design: Books, Photography and Narrative Message, Typography, and Visual Communication that students would find helpful for their research into narrative art.
Brie Alsbury: What I Could Do (instead of go to grad school) - Learn to Polka Ink and digital artist’s book 8” x 17”, 2015
Art & Writing Next Page
Integrated Visual Arts
Community Graduate Studios Integrated Student Support
Main Menu
design on main
Graduate Studios Integrated Studio Arts grad students are allocated studio space for up to three years. The studios encourage IVA students to create a tightly knit and supportive community, provide space for students to freely explore their work and enable students to connect more with the local community and regional artists. The College of Design occupies about 7,000 square feet of the of the more than 130-year-old brick building that was the former Antique Ames Mall in the Main Street Cultural District in downtown Ames. The facility provides studio space for graduate students in the graphic design, industrial design, integrated visual arts, sustainable environments and urban design programs as well as the Design on Main Gallery.
IVA Community
Integrated Student Support On a department level, Art and Visual Culture fosters a sense of community and provides ongoing support, mentoring and guidance for students within the IVA program. The College of Design and the Graduate College offer support for the varied needs a graduate student might face.
Timeline
Program of Study Committee
IVA Community Graduate Admission
IVA Program Of Study Committee The Major Professor serves as chair of the POS committee and primary mentor to the student. The Program of Study Committee consists of at least three members of the graduate faculty. It must include two members, including the major professor, from the major or program. The committee must include a member(s) from different fields of emphasis so as to ensure diversity of perspectives. Major Professor (Chair) Responsibilities: The major professor’s relationship with the student: • Provide needed guidance without hampering creativity. • Be accessible within a reasonable schedule for discussions with the student. Research and thesis responsibilities: • Guide the graduate student doing research by conferring regularly to review and evaluate progress. • Guide and constructively criticize the visual components of the thesis. • Guide the student in development of communication skills. • Criticize constructively the written draft(s) of the thesis before it is circulated to other members of the POS committee. Work with the student in editing the written draft(s) of the thesis. POS Committee Member Responsibilities: Committee/Student Relationships: • Review periodically the progress of the student. • Advise the student during development of the visual and written thesis work, either individually or in conference with other committee members. • Critically evaluate the visual and written components of the thesis and suggest corrections. • Conduct a comprehensive oral examination and recommend whether the degree should be granted. Student Support
Next Page
IVA POS Committee Continued Student Responsibilities Procedural matters: • Submit all forms requiring signatures in a timely manner. • Identify appropriate members to serve on the committee. Meet with them to verify availability and interest. Relationship with the major professor: • Meet with the major professor periodically, as often as possible or necessary, to discuss research progress and/or problems and to review the written and visual thesis components. • Develop and, if necessary, regularly revise an agenda with the major professor. • Provide copies of thesis to the major professor in time for adequate review before submission deadlines to the Thesis Office. Relationship with the POS committee: • Schedule all POS committee meetings for discussion of research proposal, research progress, and final oral examination. • Be accessible periodically and within a reasonable schedule for discussion with members of the POS committee. • Submit the complete written thesis in its final form to the committee members at least two weeks before the final oral examination.
Student Support
IVA THESIS TIMELINE The Art & Visual Culture Department has developed a Timeline to guide students through the MFA in Integrated Visual Arts degree program. The Timeline provides guidance about:
Advisors (Director of Graduate Education (DOGE) for the first 2 — 3 semesters.
Program of Study Committee for the last 3 — 4 semesters)
Courses
Thesis Development (Students in the first 3 semesters of the program present preliminary writing and research to the grad faculty and all IVA students in Mid-Semester reviews. They present their current studio work to the same group at the end of each semester in a gallery setting. The entire community shares their responses and suggestions to each student. Once students have formed their Program of Study Committee, they attend these reviews and provide responses but no longer show their research and work. The committee members be come their primary reviewers.
Professional Activities: In addition to courses, the program encourages each student to develop a set of skills that will enable IVA alumni to work professionally as artists. We encourage students to set professional goals and to deliber- ately develop the needed skills and experience to reach them.
Graduate College Procedures
Student Support
Arts Opportunities Exhibitions
Main Menu
Grants
Internships
Community Engagement
There are many opportunities available for IVA students to enhance their experience in the program. Many of our students take advantage of local and regional exhibition venues to increase their visibility and expand their professional skills. Support of art-related research is available through numerous grant sources. The College of Design provides opportunities for graduate students to pursue internships, international study abroad and become involved with community engagement. These options often improve our graduates’ chances of finding personally meaningful employment after graduation and help students establish a significant professional network.
Exhibitions There are numerous venues for IVA students to exhibit their work both locally and regionally. These include galleries, coffee shops and temporary art events. A number of the locales that our students typically show their work in are described here.
ISU Memorial Union Exhibition Octagon Center for the Arts Des Moines Arts Festival
Design on Main Gallery
Opportunities Menu
ISU Memorial Union Exhibitions Opportunities Menu
IVA alumna Paula Streeter’s 2010 exhibition Contained Within in the Memorial Union Pioneer Room
The Gallery and the Pioneer Room, located on the third floor of the Memorial Union, display art exhibits that include regional and local artists, as well as student and juried exhibits. New exhibits are rotated every four to six weeks.
2015 Call for student juried art exhibition, Memorial Union
The Octagon
center for the arts
The Octagon Center for the Arts is a non-profit community art organization located in downtown Ames Main Street Cultural District. The Octagon has been a cornerstone of the cultural scene in Ames since 1966. The Octagon serves more than 30,000 people annually through education classes and outreach programs, rotating exhibits, retail gallery shop, and special events such as the annual Octagon Art Festival. The gallery has hosted an annual All Media National Juried Exhibition for 48 years.
IVA alumnus Eric Robinson’s 2015 oneperson printmaking exhibition Like the Flowers and Tares of a Thousand Hills at the Octagon Center for the Arts
Opportunities Menu
Des Moines arts festival
Iowa residents currently enrolled in or recently graduated (within one year) from a university, college or art school anywhere in the U.S. are eligible to apply to the Emerging Iowa Artists (EIA) program. This program provides individuals the opportunity to promote their talents and sell their artwork at the Des Moines Arts Festival, one of the top-ranked in the country. It also provides opportunities to artists beginning their careers. There is no charge to submit images for the jury or for booth space, once the jury accepts the work.
Sodam Lee, in her booth at the Des Moines Art Festival in 2014 while she was an Iowa State University graduate student in the Integrated Visual Arts program. She won the $1,000 Award for Best of Emerging Iowa Artists two years in a row.
Opportunities Menu
Grant Opportunities Focus Grant Focus is an organization that fosters ISU students in the visual, literary and performing arts. Individuals or groups of students may apply for creative project grant funding. Completed visual projects are exhibited each spring in the Memorial Union. Focus has been funding projects at Iowa State since 1972. Students -- undergraduate and graduate in any major -- are encouraged to apply for up to $600 in funding for projects to be displayed. Focus Grant Info
Perception Change Textile/Mixed Media IVA alum Sodam Lee, Focus Grant Project 2012
The Iowa Arts Council
Professional Development Grants Professional Advancement Grants (PAG) are provided to graduate students by the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) to help defray expenses related to professional meeting and conference travel. PAG Info
The Iowa Arts Council is committed to recognizing the impact that individual artists have on the vitality of the arts in Iowa. The Artist Fellowship provides support to individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity in the arts and the capacity for continued contributions to the excellence and innovation of the arts in the State. The Artist Fellowship Program seeks to elevate the arts in Iowa by advancing the artistic careers of Iowa artists through funding and professional development. IAC Info
Opportunities Menu
Resources & Facilities Regional Art Venues Campus Facilities
College of Design Resources
Main Menu The College of Design building, which opened in 1978, features five stories of studio classrooms and offices wrapped around a public atrium capped with a vaulted skylight. Outside are expansive lawns, native prairie plantings, and several display areas for public art. Inside are a 250-seat auditorium, a flexible gallery space that may accommodate one or more exhibitions, branches of the university library and university bookstore, model shop, Design Cafe, a full-service output center, and several computer labs. The College of Design is the only Iowa State University classroom building open 24 hours per day, allowing convenient access to workspaces and intensive development of studio work.
College Of Design
Computer Labs: The college supports three public labs with a total of 80 machines. These labs are open to students from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. during the week and additional hours on the weekends. Output Center: The Output Center, located near the computer labs on the fourth floor, includes black-and-white printing, color printing, 3D printing, wide-format color and blackand-white printing and three laser cutters. Output Link The Design Cafe: is located on the first floor, near the main entrance to the College of Design. It serves coffees, teas, sodas; custom-made sandwiches, salads and soups; a variety of fresh-packaged sandwiches and salads; snacks and desserts. CafĂŠ Link
Design Store: A branch of the Iowa State University Book Store is on the second floor of the Design building. It carries basic art supplies and is open Monday – Thursday from morning through evening. Resources & Facilities
1st Floor Atrium, College of Design, Iowa State University
Model Shop: Payment of a $20 semester fee and enrollment in a orientation/safety class provide students access to a range of fabrication hand and power tools. CNC Router. Resource Link Reading Room: This facility houses books, journals and other resources that support the needs of students and faculty throughout the college.
Regional Art Venues
G-Nome Project, Molecular Biology Building Public Art Project
Ames is situated along I-35, the major interstate connecting Minneapolis (3 hours from Ames) to Kansas City (3.5 hours from Ames). Des Moines is 40 minutes away. Omaha is 2.5 hours away and Chicago 5.5 hours away. These cities, easily reached by car, supplement the art resources in the Ames/Des Moines area.
Iowa State University • Brunnier Art Museum • Christian Petersen Art Museum • Farm House Museum • Art on Campus Collection • Anderson Sculpture Garden Ames • Octagon Center for the Arts • Ames Progressive
Studio Affinities exhibit of Art and Visual Culture Faculty
Next Page The University Museums collect and exhibit works of art in order to enhance higher education by exploring creative interactions in arts, sciences and technology and to foster integration of the arts and cultural heritage as a central part of peoples’ lives. The museums include those above, and on the next page.
Resources & Facilities
Venues Continued
John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpure Park
Des Moines • Des Moines Art Center • John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park Minneapolis • Minneapolis Institute of Arts • Minneapolis Sculpture Garden • Minnesota Museum of American Art • Walker Art Center • Weisman Art Museum (University of Minnesota)
Resources & Facilities Next Page Walker Art Center
Venues Continued Omaha • Bemis Center for Contemporary Art • Joslyn Art Museum Kansas City • Grand Arts • Blue Gallery • Leedy-Voulkos Art Center • Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Resources & Facilities
Practical Questions Financial Info Grad-related info Tuition and fees
Ames, IA Campus Services
Contact Info Barbara Walton, Director of Graduate Education Meredith Foley, Graduate Recruitment and Student Services Coordinator
University/College/ Department
Main Menu
Housing Info
Application info Grad College CoD Admission Application
AVC Faculty