profile
continued from page 3 Sunni Mercer Sunni Mercer was executive director of OVAC from 1996-1999. Prior to her appointment, she won the 1995 Artist Award of Excellence. She has been extraordinarily productive since then, working as teacher, consultant, lecturer, and exhibiting artist. Sunni’s winning project was part of a 1995 exhibit at OK Harris in New York City. It included over 350 small assemblages that evolved into her signature style of Metals, Medals, using found objects for the sculptural constructions. The OVAC award and a concurrent NEA regional fellowship enabled Sunni to afford a studio and the necessary equipment. Work done under these conditions solidified her professional sensibilities and visual lexicon. After OVAC, Sunni became director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center, overseeing its design. Sunni’s technique of assemblage evokes reflection and memory, a concept that granted her the ALCA National Merit Award for a Remembrance Garden. Her Living Room environment (2003), exhibited in Emporia and Wichita, KS, employs similar ideas of recollection, “recycling something tragic into something beautiful” according to the exhibit’s curator. Sunni Mercer’s list of national exhibits is exhaustive, including being archived in the Smithsonian Institution. (above) Sunni Mercer, Expiation, Mixed Media, 48”x48”
Sunni teaches as adjunct Professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, and remains a multi-tasking studio artist. She loves variety in her life, journals, gardens and strives to keep her creativity fresh. She currently gathers materials for a public awareness and fund raising campaign for a hospital in Swaziland, Africa. Her dedication to OVAC and all its support programs remains as strong as ever.
(below) Janet Massad, Striped Dream #4, Stoneware, 36”x18”x10”
Janet Massad Since Janet Massad received an award for OVAC’s Visionmakers in 1996, she has been most productive as a ceramicist, painter, lecturer, consultant and writer. Her professional Statement of Objectives reads: “Education in the arts, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking in a cross-disciplined atmosphere.” She has met this goal on many levels. Janet worked with regional public school projects and held a progressive education appointment at Goddard College in Vermont. She lectures in ceramics, painting and drawing courses. Janet was a resident visual arts faculty at the Chautauqua Institute’s School of Art in New York and received an individual artist grant from the City of Pasadena, CA. Exhibits and workshops have taken her to various venues across the country. Janet sees her own work as becoming progressively more sculptural. Painting informs her ceramic surfaces and serves as a visual distraction. An MFA under Paul Soldner at Claremont (CGU) still provides contact with international artists and their conceptual directions. Janet started writing about clay in 1991 and her most recent article, “Masters of Fire” in Ceramics TECHNICAL (Sydney) was hailed by the editor as ‘a new theory on an ancient puzzle.’ Other articles in Ceramics: Art and Perception (Sydney) and Ceramic Review (London), and Ceramica (Madrid) explore innovative information for artists and potters. The Daily Oklahoman named Janet among ten ‘Oklahoma artists to watch in the new millennium.’ She continues as a studio artist with teaching contracts while also researching upcoming publications. n About the Author: Christiane Faris is a retired humanities professor from Oklahoma City University. She is the author of the forthcoming book JUXTAPOSITIONS: Artist Brunel Faris and the Visual Arts in Oklahoma City, Full Circle Press. She can be reached at cfaris@okcu.edu.
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