Tag: art department

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Campus News

Ted Murphy Legacy

Ted Murphy standing in front of Gallery wall
Ted Murphy standing in front of Gallery wall - Courtesy Kaitlyn Avery
By Evan Babbitt ('25)

UPDATED: OCTOBER 8, 2024 7:32 PM EDT | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 4, 2024 11:50 AM EDT

The Ortlip Gallery will host a reception for the Ted Murphy Legacy exhibition on Saturday at 7 p.m. 

The show is composed of 77 alumni artists and includes over 80 pieces—ranging from landscapes to abstracts, and watercolors to fabrics. It celebrates Professor Ted Murphy’s 38 years of teaching art and art history at Houghton University. 

“It means a great deal to me,” Prof. Murphy said. “It is visual evidence of not only my influence on past students but our entire department’s.”

According to the Gallery Director, Linda Knapp, about 80% of the alumni represented in the show are full time artists. Murphy also notes that 12 of the alumni shown are now professors as well. 

“Many are professional artists,” he said. “Some just manage to continue to work despite their complicated lives with family and their other work. It is gratifying to see such outstanding work from these wonderful people.” 

One of the alumni presenting work in the show, Jeff Babbitt (Class of ‘96), recalled: “It was during Painting I class with Murph when I decided I wanted to major in art. Murph was the perfect combination of hilarious and brilliant. He was a true connoisseur of the liberal arts, seamlessly blending literature, history, and culture into classroom discussions and everyday conversation.” 

Knapp noted that a flood of people wanted to be in the show when asked, which stands as a testament to Prof. Murphy’s presence in the classroom.

“[Murphy] is really adept artistically and has created a safe space for generations of students to find their calling as artists,” Knapp commented. “He has influenced people by his works, but more greatly by who he is—not flashy, but by his daily interactions and listening ear.” 

People are flying in from the Netherlands and California to come to this show, Knapp added.

“Houghton has [had] a rich art tradition here long before I arrived,” Prof. Murphy said. “The artist that preceded me fought the good fight to make Art matter.”

Prof. Murphy finished his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1980 at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and then received his Master of Fine Arts in 1983 at The Ohio State University. Before coming to HU he was an assistant professor at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine.

“[T]o be a teacher you must have students. But nowhere is it required that we like them,” Prof. Murphy noted. “Just teach them.”

Many who came into the art program were glad to be able to study art seriously and have many mediums to work with. Prof. Murphy feels blessed to have students who he loves and appreciates.

“In the twilight of a career,” he said, “every person is aware of the question Henry James said we should all ask. “Was it worth it”? I believe it has all been worth it. It has been a very privileged life here in Houghton. Nancy and I raised our children here and by their reports they each also love this place. God has blessed us beyond measure.”

Prior to the beginning of the show’s reception will be an open panel discussion hosted by alumni artists at 4 p.m. in the CFA Recital Hall. ★

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Campus News

The 35th Annual Juried Student Show

35th Annual Juried Student Show poster - Courtesy of Linda Knapp
By Rebecca Dailey ('25)

The 35th Annual Juried Student Show Exhibition will open on March 8, 2024 in the Ortlip Gallery, housed in the Center for the Arts. The gallery reception opens at 6:30 p.m. and continues until 8:30 p.m.. Students of both art and non-art majors may participate in the exhibition, and have leeway in both the subject and art form of their works. However, they are limited to the number of works they can enter. The art featured in the exhibition will be a range of ceramics, sculptures, photos, drawings, and oil and watercolor paintings, among others. The exhibition judges will be accompanied by a guest juror, who decides the pieces that will appear in the show, as well as the pieces that will receive awards.

“The Student Juried Show provides a really neat opportunity for students to demonstrate their artistic abilities to their friends, family, and all of us in the Houghton Community,” Professor Linda Knapp, the Ortlip Gallery Director & University Art Collection Manager, stated. “My role as gallery director falls under the leadership of the Art Department. I work alongside our art faculty and help them to make the gallery function smoothly. It’s so much fun to see the different works that get submitted and then solve the puzzle of figuring out how to display them in a way that’s aesthetically and visually pleasing.” 

The Ortlip Gallery has previously featured works from professors of Houghton University and outside artists. 

“The Ortlip Gallery serves to further educate our art major students by exposing them to outside artists, as well allowing our students to have the hands-on experience of displaying their own work in a professional gallery,” Professor Knapp added.

Some of the students entered in the Juried Student Show are Savannah Stitt (‘24), Hannah Smith (‘24), Aubree Niles (‘24) and Aubrey Armes (‘25). 

This is the third year Stitt has displayed her work in the Gallery. She predominantly works with photography, but has submitted oil paintings in the past. 

“In my experience as an artist, I have come to realize two things. I am creative in ways I didn’t realize for a long time, and inspiration comes and goes in waves,” Stitt explained. “It’s important to grab hold of those ideas when they come because they’re not guaranteed to stay.”

Niles is also participating for the third year. Her main art form is oils, but she also works in watercolor, ceramics and photography. 

“Art has been a way for me to process difficult emotions and complex life events,” Niles stated. “My current body of work is especially evident of that. I focus the most on my use of color and brushstrokes to convey emotion.”

Professor Knapp would like to express her gratitude towards being able to open the Juried Student Show and playing a role in the Gallery’s exhibitions. “I love how the Gallery brings us all together into these sacred spaces and moments,” Professor Knapp said, “granting us pause to reflect on our lives and to understand each other better. It has been a real honor for me to be a part of such a successful Art Program here at Houghton, and I just want to send out a big thanks to all the students who have submitted their work for this upcoming show!” ★

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News

New Ortlip Gallery Exhibit Reunites Alumni to Share their Experience

Article by Elise Koelbl, with contributions from Josiah Wiedenheft

The Ortlip Gallery has had many interesting and unique creations from artists displayed in its hall before. This new exhibit is no exception. The Art Alumni Show: RECOLLECTIVE is an exhibit being shown from September 4th to October 3rd. This exhibit was organized by Houghton College graduate Joshua Duttweiler (‘15). 

RECOLLECTIVE is an exhibit built on experiencing familiar places with new perspectives. The artists involved are all Houghton graduates. Each one of them has some of their most recent art on display. Many of the artists have different talents and practices put into their work, ranging from photography to quilting, to painting and much more. These artists are breathing new life into the Ortlip Gallery as artists from over the years return to the campus that helped them develop such abilities. 

Joshua Duttweiler found himself inspired when he came to visit campus last spring, saying that it was his first in almost four years since graduating. When he arrived on campus to speak at the Fine Arts Seminar he was surprised when he realized that many current students had so much they wanted to learn from an experienced artist such as himself. 

“I was pleasantly surprised how much can happen in five years and how eager the students were to hear. It was this task of preparing a lecture about my journey that made me curious about where my fellow alumni were in theirs,” he says. It was moments such as this that made Duttweiler wonder if sharing knowledge and wisdom from beyond college experience would be beneficial to current students.

It was from this idea that RECOLLECTIVE was born. “I reached out to a variety of recent alumni artists that I knew had a current art/design practice,” explained Duttweiler, “I wanted to show a range of media as well as ideas about what life after Houghton can be.” He highlights that there isn’t really one overall message other than that “each of us takes our own path and we all have a lot to learn from each other.”

The artists that have their works on display are as listed: Merritt Becknell (‘15), Amy Coon (‘14), Joshua Duttweiler (‘15), Alex Hood (‘15), Natalie Moffitt (‘14), Hannah Jennings Murphy (‘13), Brady Robinson (‘15), Lindsey Seddon (‘13), and Laurissa Widrick (‘15). Each of these individuals provided not only artwork, but also short essays to the college and its students, collected together and available at the gallery. Both the artwork and the essays are also available online at the exhibition’s website www.recollective.site, which forms a “large component of the exhibition” due to the pandemic circumstances, allowing even those absent from campus a form of access.

Joshua Duttweiler had this to add: “This exhibition would not be possible without the support of Professor Alicia Taylor who gratefully allowed me to follow my initial curiosity last spring. Special thanks Professor Ryann Cooley for overseeing the final details and installation. And of course, thanks to the Art Department at Houghton College who have inspired our artistic endeavors past and present.” 

What are your thoughts on the RECOLLECTIVE exhibit? Impressed? Inspired? Comment below or get in touch with us via Instagram, Twitter, or email (editor@houghtonstar.com)!

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Arts

Senior Art Reception Tonight

At 7 p.m. tomorrow evening, the Ortlip Gallery will open to reveal the Senior Art Exhibition. This exhibit is one that art majors steadily work toward over the course of their four years at Houghton, and it is the culmination of their learning, experiences, and artistic efforts.

Courtesy of Andrea Pacheco
Courtesy of Andrea Pacheco

This show is unique in the fact that it is entirely student-run. “They install their work, set up the gallery space, and do advertising,” said Gallery Director Renee Roberts. “I do very little except help with small incidental questions and problems.”

This makes the display itself an integral part of each student’s vision for their work, and an added reason to attend the exhibit and experience how the work is presented.  “It has been exciting to see the show being installed this week,” said Hannah Jennings. “Getting to see everyone’s hard work in the setting of the gallery is always really rewarding.”

This year, senior art students have the additional challenge, and excitement, of an exceptionally large graduating class. “I’m looking forward to the wide range of work that will be shown,” said Jennings.

Art majors this year have had concentrations in every possible area of study, and the show will surely express variety, with everything on display from ceramics and sculpture, painting and drawing, to photography and printmaking, digital art and graphic design.  “I am proud of the work the seniors are exhibiting and think it reflects what a strong and healthy art department Houghton has,” said Roberts. “I am so pleased to be able to go and support and appreciate their work on a personal level.”

Students themselves have mixed feelings about pulling together the exhibit.  “I feel like in putting up your senior show there is supposed to be this sense of closure,” said Tricia Powles, “but I am now more excited to keep working than I’ve ever been. I am putting up my pieces and showing them to the public for the first time, and that is awesome and I’m a little nervous about their reception. I treat my pieces as if they were my children, they’re really important to me, and so I’m going to be nervous.”

Seniors have been advertising the show and inviting their family and friends to come and see their work. Jennings said, “It is always encouraging for the seniors to be supported by their fellow students for this show.”

It has been an intense and trying year for these seniors, who are excited and proud to have their work finally on display.  “Everyone should come see what we’ve done!” said Powles. “This is the beginning of everything.”

At the opening reception there will be music and refreshments, also provided by the seniors themselves.  And in the words of Roberts, “There is no reason for students to not be here! This is such an excellent show! Come!”

Categories
Arts

Student Juried Exhibition

Courtesy of Andrea Pacheco
Courtesy of Andrea Pacheco

Saturday, March 16 was the opening reception of the Student Juried Exhibition, a collection of artwork submitted by Houghton students and selected by visiting artist Kevin Shook.  Shook is an Associate Professor of Art & Art History at Birmingham-Southern College, and specializes in printmaking and digital media.  In addition to selecting which of the submitted artworks would be displayed in the show, Shook also chose at least ten pieces to be awarded with between $25 and $200.  Additional awards were given by President Mullen, the First Gentleman, and various art faculty members.

Each student was allowed to submit up to five works, and many took full advantage.  In the days preceding the show, canvases and prints could be seen through the windows of the gallery piled against walls and pedestals, awaiting Shook’s judgment and the skilled hands of Gallery Director Renee Roberts and her assistants to arrange the show.  Submission was not limited to art majors; any students on campus interested in art could submit their pieces.  The tremendous response from students, as well as the open submission policy, resulted in a full, vibrant, and incredibly diverse show.

Unlike Ortlip Gallery exhibitions in the past, including previous Student Juried Exhibitions, this year’s show possesses very few common threads throughout the pieces.  The color schemes are varied and disconnected.  The mediums range from woodworking and ceramics to painting and drawing, and from book-making and textile art to printmaking and graphic design.  And the pieces vary in size; they are sketch-pad sized and teapot-sized, they are teeny tiny and they are monumental.  So perhaps it is fitting that the central focus of the room—the movable wall containing the title of the show—is painted in flashy fuchsia, a color not found in any other piece in the room.  And that hanging upon that wall is a lovely abstract oil painting by Lindsay Burgher, which is made up of greens, yellows, blues, pinks, and oranges—representing in one work the splashes of color seen in different works throughout the room.

The medley of submissions is also accurately represented by the array of awards presented.  The Presidential Purchase Award and the First Gentleman’s Purchase Award went to pieces of two different media, Katelyn Kloos’ woodblock print Misty Morning in County Cork and Megan Loghry’s ceramics piece Great Balls of Fire, respectively.  The Moss Award for 3rd Place went to a colorful oil painting entitled Bad Company by Kelly Ormsby.  Rebecca Dygert’s sweet and wistful litho The

First Dance took home the Alumni Award for 2nd Place.  Art Gallery, the witty watercolor by Megan Tennant, received the Paul Maxwell Memorial Award for 1st Place.  And the Ortlip Award for Best in Show was presented to Alexandra Hood’s beautiful and elegiac litho, In Time.  Several other awards were given, representing a small percentage of the assortment of submissions from package design all the way to photography.

The Student Juried Exhibition will be on display in the Ortlip Gallery until April 18.  All students are encouraged to take the time to swing by and check it out.  Find out which other submissions won awards, take in the beauty of all the pieces of art, and appreciate the talent and hard work of fellow Houghton students.