As you may or may not know I was invited to return to my old alma mater, Young Harris College, to serve as Juror for this years 2011 Juried Student Art Exhibition.
Young Harris College is located in the most scenic area of the North Georgia Mountains. It is almost at the North Carolina line and is surrounded by Lake Chatuge on one side and Brasstown Bald on the other side. It currently has approximately 850 students. When I attended it had 150 students. It is where I began my life as an artist in 1970. I bought my first sketchbook there. It's where I learned how to draw.It's where I learned how to see and to speak up and to sit and listen. It's where I became independent. It's where I began to be less insecure because I knew I had finally found something I loved doing. Art. It's where I first fell in love and where I found a group of kindred souls who also loved art. My tribe of artist, musicians and theatre majors. It's literally where I grew up. It's where I got my first cash drawing award and over the past 40 years I've continued to return to YHC to be a part of it's continuing growth. I've donated artwork to different alumni events and lectured to students about art and design. It's also been a place where I could just go and sit on campus and hear the echo of my own footsteps that are a part of it's history. Don't get me wrong I love my life at GSU with each of you. Both campus' are very different in atmosphere and aesthetics but it is remarkably similar in the talent of the art students. Great art and design has no campus.
That small little Methodist college nestled in the Appalachian Mountains is where I shed all my high school stigmas and started the voyage to who I am today. I hold it dear to my heart. We all have those Polaroid moments, an epiphany, when we know why we were put here. YHC was the place where I began my life long trek as an artist. I learned the respect for my chosen career there and had one of the best teachers anyone could ever have, Ezra Sellers. It was his belief in me as an artist that gave me the encouragement to continue.
Perhaps you can imagine just how much it meant for me to return to that familiar campus this spring, when the campus is laced with tulips and dogwoods and mountain laurel, to go through the almost 100 pieces of art and choose what would be included in this years students exhibition.
I told the Chair of the Art Department, Ted Wisenhunt, that I wanted this year's exhibition to be inclusive of as much great work as possible. In the fall of 2012 YHC will officially become a 4-year art program (BFA) whose curriculum will include photography, graphic design, painting & drawing, sculpture, and foundations. The Art Department recently moved into an old elementary school across from the main campus and it's gorgeous. Complete with a renovated cafeteria turned in to studios, a foreshortened auditorium with a stage and curtains and numerous other classrooms and those familiar tiny elementary restrooms. It's like a 1950's movie set.
I just wanted to share with you my experience with being a juror and tell you that picking out art for an exhibition is more difficult than you think. You want to encourage those just starting out in art (freshman and sophomores) while also including students work that might be potentially be a powerhouse one day. It's about seeing the potential in the work. Much like when many of you applied to get into the graphic design program. It was about choosing students whose work showed dedication and commitment and passion. I chose "Best of Show," second place, third place and 5 Honorable Mentions. The final show included close to 50 various art pieces. Last night was the opening and it was great fun for me to see the students arrive to the gallery to receive their awards and to see whose work was actually selected. The students didn't know if their work selected until they got to the opening. I was reminded of of the juried student exhibition here at GSU when many of you were long overdue for some recognition and some type of award. Any teacher worth their weight is happiest when a student of theirs is singled out with an award or recognized in front of their peers.
It might be inside the classroom on a particular project or in front of a large group at an art opening. It's all the same to me. Getting to see each of you stand tall and grow into the designer and artist you were meant to be. I love seeing each of you become more secure in yourself and embrace your creative self.
You are about to move into your Senior year. One group moves out and you move into their place. I hope you fill this next year with as much enthusiasm and care as you've done this past semester in my Film/Television class. Don't loose your edge nor your gift for sharing with one another. You are building a legacy amongst yourselves as a class to be reckoned with in the days ahead. Stay on message. Stay focused and each of you will sail through the next year with wild abandon as you make new art and creative designs.
www.yhc.edu
Best in Show
"Like a Pinball Machine"
Jacob Rhodes
Second Place
"Shot of Love"
Jill Tuttle
Third Place
"Dreams Unfulfilled"
Kyle Honeycutt
Selected Drawings
My first Art Instructor, Ezra Sellers.
