2012 Emerging Artists from the College of Mt. St. Joseph

Annually, junior and senior art majors from local universities, representing the next generation of artists to emerge on the local art scene, are nominated by their professors, juried by SFC and are afforded the opportunity to exhibit their work among their peers.

A continuing partnership with the Malton Gallery offers the students an opportunity to visit a professional gallery and get a hands on Q & A with the gallery owner on professional practices.  And NEW in 2011, the Malton Gallery awarded two (2) Gallery Choice awards, presented at the Opening Reception. 

In addition to the two Gallery Choice Awards, Summerfair Cincinnati (in 2011) implemented a new scholarship of one (1) $1,000 Purchase Award.  Selected by a jury of professional working artists, the selected artwork will hang on permanent display in the SFC Gallery. 

The following three (3) students were juried in from a list of nominees presented by our second participating school;  Mt. St. Joseph - Department Head Dr. Sharon Bollen:

Brad Hudgins

Bradley William Hudgins is a senior art education major.  He first gained an interest in art during his junior year of high school while watching a video of a spray paint artist on “Youtube”. After watching this video, he started spray painting; it is what drives him to create the fun, colorful pictures that he produces in his artwork.

Artist Statement:

“When people look at my artwork, I do not want to push them and lead them into what I was thinking when I made any certain piece. I want them to create their own thoughts about my work. That is what art is all about, getting people to think creatively!”

Dana Langenbrunner

Dana fell in love with art in high school and it grew to the point where she couldn’t imagine her life without it. She is pursing a double major in fine arts and psychology. With that degree, she wants to attend graduate school and become an art therapist. Her freshman year is when she realized art could be more than just a pretty drawing and decided that art can be used to express a deeper, more meaningful emotion, without saying a single word.

While at the Mount she’s been awarded the Fine Arts Scholarship, Dean’s Scholarship, and Academic Achievement Award Scholarship. Her art has been chosen and displayed at the college’s student exhibition for the past two years.  Dana is also the photographer for the school paper.

One of Dana’s biggest influences is Mark Rothko. His use of layers and colors are so brilliant that when the viewer is about a foot away they see the piece start to dance. The layering of colors creates a very simple piece at first glance, but all of a sudden the piece becomes so complex. Dana, like Rothko, has found that she can be most expressive through mediums that can be layered. The pieces she has chosen to submit show just that. Thickened dyes on silk, screen-printing, and mixed media all require layer upon layer. Dana intends to further explore the use of layers and colors and by doing this she hopes to learn more about how to show expression and emotion in her own works of art.

Artist Statement:

When I started my art career as a freshman in high school, I believed art was just about showing beauty. So I worked on creating beautiful landscapes, or beautiful still life’s. I quickly grew bored and art was becoming just a grade instead of something I loved to do. So I took a step back and thought about why I loved to create art. Realizing that I loved to create art because I could express what I wanted to say without words was the biggest realization of my high school career. I then began my journey of using colors and layers to express emotion.

The pieces I chose to present are not all one type of medium. This was a conflict, but I decided to provide fabric and mixed media works because they all accomplish the same goal. They all show emotion through vivid coloration and complex layering. Each piece shows a different emotion, and just like Mark Rothko, the viewer needs to step closer to really see the complexity and deep emotion of each piece.

Kierstin Smith

Kiertin is a senior pursuing a Bachelors of Arts degree and multi-age licensure as a visual arts specialist.  She serves as a co-president of the campus Art Education Association.  As a member of OAEA, she has attended the three most recent conventions (Dayton 2011, Columbus 2010, Cleveland 2009) and was selected as a juried presenter at the past two annual conventions and is a member of the Planning Committee for the 2012 Conference in Cincinnati.  Creating art is also immensely important to Kierstin, so she is also working towards a a BFA in Fabric Design.  Over the last three years, her works have been selected by faculty to be shown in the annual juried Student Art Exhibit.  She is currently showing two works in a juried show titled “Gratitude Rendered” at The Coffee Peddlar in Harrison, Indiana.  Surface design media have opened the doors to many different techniques for her to explore as an artist.

Artist Statement:

With great enthusiasm, I seek to enter the art world as an artist ready to learn and as an educator prepared to teach.

I work with fibers and fabrics to create artwork that expresses my own ideas and that communicates my feelings to others.  Fabric surface design lends itself to my passion for texture as I seek to send electricity to the fingertips of my viewer, as they feel a need to touch my work and to “sense” my artistic process.  In addition, tiny stitches, integrated fibers, and the overlay of color encourage the viewer to examine my artwork at a magnified level.  Over the last three years, I have explored numerous techniques and ways to manipulate the surface of my fabric.  I have worked in the media of batik and resist dyeing, dyepainting on silk, stencil printing, monoprinting, relief printing, and currently, screenprinting on fabric.  In addition, I have used fabric stiffeners, wire mesh, appliqué, reverse appliqué, and stitchery to create more dimensional pieces.  While learning each of these techniques, I build my knowledge of the media and use them to create artwork specific to myself.  Fabric can be colored and morphed into many different forms; it is the obligation of the artist to utilize its full potential.  

Conceptually, I tend to examine societal issues and then generate my visual response.  These include views on “beauty,” diversity, “the other,” “the carnivore,” recycling, and so on.  Each piece is meant to convey my personal point of view.  I often use similar imagery and color schemes to provide a cohesiveness among artworks and ideas. 

Currently, I am trying to capture the sparkle of city life a sort of uplifting “take back the night” series using pearlescent colors and metallic threads.  I wish to stay away from a cliché cityscape and provide a richness that exists when taking a closer look.  Fabric design lends itself to my communication of ideas and expression of the world I wish to represent.