“[Professors] Alecia Henry and LiFran Fort have had an immediate impact on me this year as an art student. Professor Henry, for example, will have us go to the gallery and actually try to replicate artwork there, and you wonder, how am I supposed to replicate this? This is so beautiful! But in the end, you put in the work and realize you do have the ability to create art. They challenge you as students.” Graduating in May of 2014, Georgetta is seriously debating postgraduate art programs versus medical school. “I am still going to go to medical school eventually, but if I go the med school route, I still want to teach art so my students can find their passion like I did.”
variety of mediums. Recently he ventured into woodworking, creating his lounge chair as an assignment in Professor Henry’s Women in the Arts course. It began as a pallet shaped in a female form, but then he decided to turn it into a lounge chair so it could be site-specific to the grounds outside the art department. He imagined someone sitting in the lounge chair doing art so, he explained, “I made the fingers functional so you can close them up and grasp something or open it up flat and use it to hold a cup or materials.” Impressed with his work in wood, Professor Jones and several of William’s professors encouraged him to take a woodworking class at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. The experience inspired William to set up a workshop and continue working with wood. “I love the art department and the professors here. They bring all of this imagination and creativity out of me. They are always finding opportunities and opening doors for me.” After Fisk, William intends to pursue his art at the graduate level. He’s looking into programs at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Rochester Institute of Technology and residencies at Penland School of Crafts.
Father and Daughter, 2013, Charcoal on paper, 26" x 32"
WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK William has been around art most of his life and started drawing simply because he enjoyed it. He attended Nashville School of the Arts High School and was both motivated and tested by Miss Laurie Poole, head of the art department. “I wasn’t fond of some of the assignments Miss Poole had me do, but she brought it out of me. That’s where I got my passion for doing paper cuts. It was an assignment I dreaded doing, but the next thing you know I’m staying late after school working on this assignment.” Malvin Gray Johnson, 2011, Paper cut and adhesive, 12" x 18"
In addition to paper cuts, William enjoys working in a
Lounge Chair, 2013, Wood and metal, approximately 6' x 2½'
For more information on Fisk University, visit www.fisk.edu. Nashville Arts Magazine honors the life and teaching legacy of Miss Laurie Poole, head of the art department at Nashville School of the Arts. She had a profound influence and inspired countless young people. She will never be forgotten.
NashvilleArts.com
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