Truman State University Art Department

Happy Summer!

Photo Credit:  Tim Barcus (Campus Photographer)

The Art Department blog is on break until classes resume in late August...enjoy the summer, everyone, and be sure to check back again later in the summer to find out what's going on in Art at Truman!

Art History Alumna Traveling Europe

We recently heard from alumna Ruby Jenkins (Art History, 2011) who also sent us the great picture above.  Ruby is working this year for Travel for Teens (www.travelforteens.com)  traveling all over the United States doing camp fairs, school visits, and home visits talking to people about Travel for Teens;  this summer, she will return to the work she has done for the past few years leading trips abroad for teens from the States.  The picture above shows Ruby (in yellow) at the top of Giotto's bell tower in Florence, looking towards Brunelleschi's famous dome for Florence's cathedral.  Great news and happy trails!

Happy Thanksgiving (and feasting)

Photo Credit:  Sara Orel

Last year for Thanksgiving break we featured a picture of luxurious ceramic serving vessels;  this year, again thinking of feasting and celebration, and again from Dr. Sara Orel, a picture from one of her study abroad trips to Cairo in Egypt.  The picture, taken after a huge feast on a boat sailing along the Nile, shows a then-Truman student (now alumna) dancing with two of the trip's taxi drivers.

For more on Dr. Orel's work in Egyptology and travels to Egypt, see this week's great feature on her in Truman's award-winning student newspaper, The Index.

For now, have a happy Thanksgiving and visit us again here at the Art blog after Thanksgiving break for news about Gallery openings, etc.

Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom mastaba (tomb) from Saqqara showing food offerings being brought to the tomb owner;  the basket includes figs.  Photo Credit:  Sara Orel

Study Abroad and Internships in China!

Students and faculty at the Great Wall in China.  All Photos:  Ping Xu.

This past summer, Art Department faculty member Prof. Ping Xu (Visual Communication), together with Prof. Julie Minn (Classical and Modern Languages, Chinese), took a group of c. eighteen Truman State University students to China for seven weeks;  seven of the students were Visual Communications majors.  Students were in both Beijing and Shanghai.

While in Shanghai, the Vis Comm majors conducted a five-week internship at the top-ten ranked advertising agency, TBWA.

Students also visited the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Pingyao, a 3000-year old ancient town in Shanxi province in addition to many other sites;  they also saw the famous ancient terra cotta warriors of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.

Students and faculty at the Forbidden City, Beijing.

Visual Communications internships and grad news

Here's some news from our Department Chair on what Vis Comm students and alums have been up to over the summer.  Congratulations to these students on their great work.

Recent Graduate Internships

• Huyen Dinh: Walt Disney Company - 6 month internship
• Mark Misiewicz: Kansas City Chiefs - Summer 2011
• Aimee Sagaser: Paradowski Creative- Summer 2011

Current Student Internships

• Emma Dunlap: St. Louis Magazine
• Andy Doering: NewGround
• Corey Felter: Media Development
• Tim Cooper: CSI Designs
• Kristen Henry: TBWA/Shanghai
• Mike Sistek: TBWA/Shanghai
• Reina Koyano: TBWA/Shanghai
• Huyen Dinh: TBWA/Shanghai
• Shawn Griffin: TBWA/Shanghai
• Albert McCormick: TBWA/Shanghai
• Weiran Liu: TBWA/Shanghai
• Rebecca Greiner: Intaglio Creative
• Ashley Buhmann: Sports Print

If you're a Vis Comm alum and have news to share, please let us know!  You can e-mail us at art@truman.edu.  We'd love to hear from you!

Art Historians Outside the Classroom!

This evening, Tuesday, November 2, three senior Art History majors will present on their experiences last summer outside of the classroom.  Art History majors are all required, during their time at Truman, to engage in Art Historical activity outside the classroom:  a workshop, an internship, study abroad, or lots of other options.  In addition, they present that experience to the campus community as a whole in a symposium organized by the Art History Society.  This evening, Stephanie Barry, Jaime Chambers, and Michelle Kimberlin will talk about their respective internship or study abroad experiences in Kirksville, Texas, and St. Louis--5:30 p.m. in OP2210.  Hope to see you there! 

Ceramics in London

 
Missouri in London Program student Tory Baillie (Missouri State University) examines a Qing Dynasty dish while Truman State University student Carly Brotemarkle looks on.  The soup tureen in the foreground is covered with barnacles from its centuries beneath the ocean.

Dr. Sara Orel's Missouri in London "Non-western Art and Culture" class visited the home of Elisabeth Porter, of The Nanking Porcelain Company Limited, for a discussion of Chinese export porcelain.  The Nanking Porcelain Company specializes in pottery recovered from shipwrecks in Asian waters, of ships that were transporting porcelain and other luxury goods such as tea for sale to markets in Europe.  Students had a chance to handle objects that were centuries old and ask questions about them as well as what it is like to run an antiques business in modern London.

 
Elisabeth Porter discusses an example of "clobbered ware," a bowl with relatively simple decoration that was added to by Dutch artists in the 18th century, when the demand for finely-painted brightly-colored ceramics in Europe outstripped the Dutch East India Company's ability to import it.

Dr. Orel in London!

 

Dr. Sara Orel, Professor of Art History, is teaching for the Missouri in London Program this semester.  As classes only get started this week, she has been working at the Egypt Exploration Society library (shown above), where she is preparing a paper to be given at the Third British Egyptology Congress.  The conference will be at the British Museum on September 11th and 12th.  Dr. Orel will be talking about her investigation of Gebel el-Haridi, a multi-period site in Upper Egypt. 

Welcome back from China, Prof. Xu!

 
Prof. Xu with Truman State University students in Shanghai

The Art Department is pleased to welcome back Prof. Ping Xu (Visual Communications) from his trip to China this summer.  Prof. Xu spend the summer in his home city of Shanghai.  While there, Prof. Xu met with a Truman State University study abroad class led by Prof. Julie Minn, met with faculty and students from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Dalian, China (whose work will be showing in the University Art Gallery this fall), and visited Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

 
Prof. Xu (front row, middle, light grey shirt) with faculty and students from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China.

One Prof. Xu's photographs of the Expo 2010 pavilions in Shanghai.