Sunflower Murals are Up!

Photo of the WeekNine enormous colorful acrylic paintings created over the past few weeks by MFA student Sarah Weinstock and her team of painters -- including Katie Niewierski (left) and Carly Glisson -- were mounted last Friday on the exterior wall of the new Sunflower Market at South Campus Gateway. The Minneapolis-based organic and natural foods market contacted the Department of Art over the summer, offering funding to commission a one-of-a-kind, student-created artwork to spruce up the outside wall facing 9th Avenue. Sarah came up with the plan of creating ultra-close-up views of fruits and vegetables, which focus on the intricate, circular growth patterns on plants like (above) sunflowers, pomegranates and mushrooms. The paintings, completed on 4 by 8 foot birch panels, were permanently installed in three building-size windows at the market. For more on Sarah's summer painting project see Sarah's blog.

Here is a photo of the paintings being installed last week:



Notable News

Two alums from Music -- Kerri Marcinko (BM and MM) and Maureen McKay (MM) will debut this fall with the New York City Opera, reports Robin Rice (Music). Both will perform major roles; see details on the opera's website:
Marcinko
McKay

Kevin Tavin (Art Education) presented a talk Sept 11 at Bowling Green State University about "The Terr(or)itorialization of Art Education: Visual Culture in the Age of Permanent War."

Three OSU MFA alumni in theatre design were recognized for their outstanding designs at the 2006 U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology Design Exhibition (USITT). They are Linda Pisano for her costume design of Doctor Fautus for the Utah Shakespearean Festival; Dennis Hassan for his co-production design for Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris for Utah State Theatre; and Madeleine Sobota for her set design of A Mouthful of Birds for Butler University Theatre.

David Frego (Music) completed a gig last week with Cirque du Soleil. Frego was in Florida working with singers and actors from the troupe and the University of Central Florida to help syncronize their movement and music.

Terry Barrett (Art Education) and grad students Valora Blackson, Vicki Daiello and Megan Goffos recently had an article, "God, the Taboo Topic of Art Education" published in The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 26(1), 58-84.

Alumnus Geary Larrick (B Sc, Music, 1965) of Stevens Point, Wis, has authored his ninth book, An Autobiographical Bibliography of Percussion Music, published by the Edwin Mellen Press. He performs regularly in central Wisconsin on percussion and piano.

Ann Hamilton (Art) will participate in a series of contemporary art exhibitions at the Luang Prabang National Museum in Laos in October. The event, The Quiet in the Land, includes exhibitions, workshops, celebrations and visits to the 24 monasteries in the area, and coincides with the end of the rainy season there. Hamilton's work -- The Meditation Boat -- will be launched Oct. 9. In addition, Hamilton recently received an Ohioana Citation for art from the Ohioana Library as part of its 2006 awards.

If you have news to share about faculty, staff, student or alumni activities, please send them to Victoria at osuarts@osu.edu