WPLN News Archive; Watkins Faculty Art Show (Adrienne) 2 28 01; News Archive 2/13/01-3/7/01

in an effort to boost its fine arts department over the past couple of years what can just tap the talent of local artists hiring dozens of pageant instructors and a couple of full time professors photographer george mckenzie join watkins two years ago as the director of the division of fine arts she says the visual arts department changed dramatically and points to this years back of the art exhibit is proof we have moved from a very traditional type of our work into larger concepts more aesthetic more critical analysis more conceptual mean you look around this room and you can see bonnie o'hara's photographs they're very small and very different black and white images on the wall but flowing down from the wall and onto the floor are images of water and the viewer it has a decision to make they respect the integrity of the photograph and choose not to walk on it where they have to walk on the photographs in order to see those those images as you move around you can see why durham who has a wonderfully renter painting very realistic looking of a mannequin in an extremely

provocative powers there's a wine bottle there in a gentleman who is obviously a real person playing the recording so it's it's a very odd juxtaposition of imagery there on the platform we have to read tongues kind of touching tip to tip sculptor there's terry gross been who is or department chair of fine arts the spin is also a new hire his time piece called neads reflects the edgier type of our work is introducing i encourage people to touch them and squeezed them and if you can imagine a two foot tong the taste buds are the size of gravel gravel that soft lisbon made the piece out of foam rubber he says the idea behind the work is about the physical need to make an intimate connection i care about ideas most of all i also emphasize craft anesthetics formal appeal to any work of art but that really counts is the ideas that is the thrust of my teaching style i was smart or oregon and i expect the students to be very intelligent consensus about what they're doing those ideas

are also evident in the paintings of instructor barbara fund candy yawns she has three pieces in the faculty show she titled one of them nothing ever happens which is more important than the roses it's a translation from and ecuador and poet who was talking about the women who lived in the mountains in ecuador who grow flowers and it's like they're most important thing that they do and they're really attend to it though it's layers and layers and there's a different colors on top of each other and then i ended up putting the black at the top because i wanted something that looked almost a charter her that you would have to look through it like to see what was bright and renee i feel like a lot of times that's the case younge join watkins about three and half years ago because she says she wanted to teach in a place with a serious art department most everybody in my memory would talk about how desperately we needed a serious fine arts school and in nashville and watkins really was

always potentially that and i would say that in the last few years that's maybe not been a goal that it has been reached yet but certainly it's what everybody does ayers you know so all of the intentionality of what i see the administration in fine art gallery is directing us that way to be a first ray it cutting and a liberal arts fine arts school and end the work that you see here in the faculty shower starts to reflect that right now the fire department says a two year degree fine arts chair terry gross but if all goes well the school we'll have a four year degree offer the tfa in four different areas that's one of the major changes that will be happening for the fire department that keeps me here the future is in developing this program we really have the intention of making this not only regionally known program that but nationally and worried looking forward to having a

master's degree program pairs well in the final argument probably found so it's very exciting for watkins and more so i think for mashable since there isn't a mfa program in middle tennessee at all watkins now serves about three hundred fifty students in film fine art graphic design interior design and photography while the entire school has just nine full time faculty and the fine arts division three school officials are seeking full accreditation in our planning to add more faculty the faculty exhibit continues through the end of the month at the school's temporary home one hundred powell place for national public radio oh well