ISSUED: 30 November 2015
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Work by one Shepherd University student and one alumnus is included in an exhibit titled “Emerge” that is sponsored by the Tamarack Artisan Foundation and is designed to encourage young people in their artistic endeavors. The exhibit features the work of 17 students and recent graduates from college and university art programs across West Virginia.
Work by Caliph Greene, a junior art major from Winchester, Virginia, and Joshua Hawkins, a 2012 graduate, was chosen for the show, which will hang in the Robert C. Byrd United States Courthouse in Charleston December 2-February 29, 2016. Greene submitted watercolor paintings, one of which includes mixed media and collage, and Hawkins submitted mixed media works.
“It’s really flattering to have that reach into the art world because I haven’t had many art shows,” Greene said. “A lot of my work is vibrant and expressive. Recently I’ve been experimenting with abstract forms, letting the watercolor just attack the canvas and just allowing everything to happen all at once in a single space.”
Hawkins said the pieces he submitted are from a body of work he created when he was in college that was inspired by visual journals he kept. They are mixed media and are intended to be displayed close together on a wall, as if they represent random snapshots, a loose narrative, or a timeline without a beginning or end.
“I consider them very loose documentation of my friends,” he said. “I would take a couple of pages from my visual journal that I found interesting, that maybe had moments people could relate to, or had some sort of drama I was intrigued by.
“I’ve always been more concerned about the emotional content of the work, like how a person will look at it and some of the things that it will emotionally remind them of,” he added. “Hopefully people will be able to walk by each one of the pieces I sent down and gather something from them.”
Sonya Evanisko, professor of art and coordinator of the painting program, encouraged Greene and Hawkins to apply to the show.
“I am not surprised to see that they were chosen to exhibit their accomplished works to represent West Virginia’s emerging artists,” Evanisko said. “The Shepherd art program offers rigorous, career-focused coursework and many professional activities for students to be involved with. Caliph and Josh were always the students who participated in these activities to build their own art practice and to ensure future careers as working artists.”
Evanisko said that many Shepherd art students are future designers, gallery owners, museum professionals, studio and commission artists, and photographers. She said one goal of the program is to prepare them for successful employment opportunities in the arts.
Listen to the interview with Greene and Hawkins HERE.
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