Department of Visual Arts

If you’ve seen the viral video Thought of You, by BYU professor Ryan Woodward, there is something familiar about Google’s home page today (May 11, 2011). A 12-second “Google Doodle” celebrating the 117th birthday of influential dancer and choregrapher Martha Graham was created by none other than Woodward.

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Designed as a way for students to bolster their portfolios and show visitors and the university their work, the 2011 juried Visual Arts Student Show in the Harris Fine Arts Center included artworks ranging from redesigned magazines to paratroopers dragging on wood.

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Seeing an opportunity to help students expand their understanding of Provo and what it has to offer, the Visual Arts Student Advisory Council (which consists of two students from each visual arts program in the Department of Visual Arts) recently organized what was known as the, “Foolin' Around Provo” project.

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Illustrations by two BYU visual arts students were recognized at this year’s Society of Illustrators: 2011 Student Scholarship Competition. “This is the most prestigious annual student illustration competition because it’s the largest,” said BYU illustration professor, Richard Hull.

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Brant Vest, an adjunct/visiting professor in the studio arts program of the Department of Visual Arts, graduated with his BFA from the “Y” in 2003. Now Vest is teaching several 2-D design and drawing classes to students not much younger than him. And his students appreciate his familiar perspective and unique insights.

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For years, the Department of Visual Arts has displayed and managed quality art galleries throughout the Harris Fine Arts Center for visitors and students to enjoy with the hopes of one day expanding beyond the confines of the facility. These dreams may have finally come true with the advent of Student Managed Art Space, or SMart Space for short.

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BYU art history alumnus Warren Winegar expanded the rhetoric and thinking of the department by simply deciding to choose his own career path after graduation. In a time when art history students only focused on the “academic” route and becoming professors one day, Winegar nixed the status quo as he jumped straight into the art market and business side of art history. Now his influence on the program and his advice are helping current art history students evaluate their post-graduation options.

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Brigham Young University alumna Jordann Siri Wood (MFA, ’06) will be recognized this coming April at the 2011 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) annual conference as one of the nation’s top emerging artists in ceramics.

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The gallery spaces in the Harris Fine Arts Center are utilized by students, faculty and other visiting artists to address the educational objectives of the Department of Visual Arts. "They are an integral part of the department, equivalent to the de Jong Concert Hall or the Pardoe Drama Theatre as venues where students can show their work to an audience," said Jason Lanegan, gallery manager for the HFAC.

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Tyler Carter‘s animation work isn’t routinely science fiction in nature. However, the Brigham Young University senior is a recent recipient of an award that several thousand sci-fi illustrators all over the world contend for each year.

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This month, Brigham Young University sculpture student Davey Hawkins is getting a lot of exposure for an undergraduate in his field. The October issue of "Sculpture Magazine", an internationally respected arts publication, is currently featuring Hawkins and 20 other student recipients of the 2010 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. Presented annually by the International Sculpture Center, the award is considered one of the most prestigious honors available to sculpture students.

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True to the faith-focused traditions of Brigham Young University, an art exhibition currently on view in the Harris Fine Arts Center explores the diverse dynamics of the family. “Nature and Nurture: Narratives of Family,” featuring the work of 10 established artists with local ties, will be on display in the B.F. Larsen Gallery through Oct. 28.

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For three months Annie Watkins lived on the Friendly Islands, working on a photography project. Watkins was just one of thirteen students on a BYU field study in Tonga. Unlike a study abroad where the students are escorted by a professor and meet for class, the field study program leaves students to their own work. Unaccompanied by a teacher, the students are required to set their own curriculum to conduct research or carry out a project in their chosen field of study.

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Standing in front of Théodore Gérecault’s “Raft of the Medusa” in the Louvre Museum, Katherine Emerick was taken aback by the emotion captured in the famed painting. Although she had studied it in class, in person the image had dimension and life that she had never noticed before. “You can see the pain and hurt on the sailors’ faces,” she said as she studied the details. At such a close range Emerick could even see teeth marks in the sailors’ legs from passing sharks. “The composition just comes to life,” she said. “You can feel the terror that they would feel and then the absolute joy and relief as they spot a boat in the distance.

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On a sunny day in May, 22 students and two professors piled into BYU vans for a field trip unlike any other. Far from a day trip, the group made their way through the Western United States and up into Canada before returning to campus. The four-week Visual Arts study abroad allowed students to enhance their skills and visually respond to the landscape using studio art and photography.
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BYU illustration professor Robert Barrett was recognized at the Society of Illustrator’s annual student art competition as this year’s Distinguished Educator in the Arts. The award is presented each year to a professor who not only represents excellence in education, but is also a distinguished illustrator on their own.

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Over the weekend the BYU Center for Animation picked up its tenth “student Emmy” in the past seven years, this time for the farce X-ing, about an ill-fated pair of lovesick armadillos at a truck stop.
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