CLEMSON – The Clemson Visual Arts at Clemson University is set to celebrate artistic excellence with a series of fall showcases featuring a diverse array of compelling student exhibitions. The public is invited to witness the exceptional work of rising art undergraduates showcased in various exhibits, including the highly anticipated Annual Ceramic Bowl Sale. Notable highlights encompass the unveiling of Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) senior works and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) thesis exhibits, symbolizing the culmination of extensive research endeavors.
Art Sale
Annual Ceramic Studio Bowl Sale
Date & Time: Wednesday, Nov. 15, Noon-5 p.m. Location: Lee Gallery Hallway Art enthusiasts can purchase bowls from Clemson Ceramics Association student members, with a vast selection of functional works offered at various price points. Proceeds will support student scholarships and travel to the National Council on Education for the Ceramics Arts Conference. Light refreshments will be provided with each purchase.
Exhibitions
Undergraduate Drawings of the Upstate Juried Art Exhibition
Date & Time: Nov. 6 – Dec. 14, M–F, 1–5 p.m. Reception: Friday, Nov. 10, 5:30–6:45 p.m. Location: Brooks Center for the Performing Arts – Lobby Area The exhibition showcases the foundational role of drawing in artistic development, recognizing the vulnerable yet limitless nature of this medium. It fosters camaraderie within the regional artistic community and allows undergraduates to professionally showcase their work.
The BFA Senior Art Exhibit
Date & Time: Nov. 13–30, M–F, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Artist Talk & Reception: Thursday, Nov. 16, 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m. Location: Acorn Gallery The Lee Gallery hosts the “Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Exhibit,” featuring the final creative research of graduating students. This fall, the exhibit spotlights Sydnay Greene’s senior drawing.
The MFA Thesis Art Exhibit
Date & Time: Nov. 13–30, M–F, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Artist Talks & Reception: Friday, Nov. 17, 5–7 p.m. Location: Lee Gallery “Underlying Patterns” is a two-person MFA Thesis Exhibit by Emily Collins and Nicole Weldy, exploring hierarchical relationships and the tangible experience of the unseen. The exhibition provides a space for healing and growth.
Ink Travels: MFA Alumni Selections Art Exhibition
Date & Time: On display-Apr. 12 Location: Cooper Library, Fourth Floor This print exchange between Clemson alumni honors Sydney A. Cross and celebrates the wide-reaching influence of Syd as a teacher and mentor. The exhibition features selected works from MFA alumni.
Alumni Works Art Exhibition
Date & Time: On display-Apr. 18 Location: CAH Dean’s Gallery in Strode Tower “Alumni Works” showcases MFA and BFA works created by artists during their enrollment at Clemson University, featuring photography, drawing, printmaking, and painting.
Harvey Gantt Curriculum Vitae Art Exhibition
Date & Time: On display – Nov. 17 Location: Sikes Hall Showcase, Ground Floor This exhibition, based on research conducted through an independent study, showcases the curriculum vitae of Harvey Gantt. It includes photographs taken by Cecile Williams and a graphic created by Gregg Ussery.
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Clemson Visual Arts at Clemson University
Clemson University, honoring Thomas Green Clemson’s vision, incorporates art throughout its facilities. Visitors are encouraged to engage with Clemson Visual Arts by exploring gallery spaces, public art, and attending special events. Exhibitions and events are made possible through generous support to the Center for Visual Arts.
For more information and the full event calendar, visit clemson.edu/art.
Exhibitions, artist talks, and receptions are free to the public, thanks to the generous support given to the Center for Visual Arts. To support Clemson Visual Arts, visit clemson.edu/caac/academics/art/about-us/giving.html.
CLEMSON – The Clemson Community Supported Art (CSArt) program is launching its eighth season. CSArt is a popular initiative that connects the public with Clemson art students while engaging in a unique art-shopping experience. The program is a new spin on the grassroots “Community Supported Agriculture” farm share concept, which provides fresh produce for investors who buy a “share” of a local farmer’s crop each season.
Clemson’s CSArt program aims to create the same market for fresh, handcrafted artwork. With the purchase of one share, the “shareholder” will receive five different limited edition artworks made by a selection of Clemson student artists, in a specially packaged crate. This season includes one ceramic bowl, two ceramic wall hangings – one sculptural form and one tile- as well as two photographs. Each season’s share is juried by a respected professional in the arts, with this Spring 2020 share selected by Elizabeth Goddard, Executive Director of the Spartanburg Art Museum. Ms. Goddard holds an MFA in Art Education with a concentration in contemporary museum practices. She has over 20 years of experience working in the arts education sector of multiple nonprofit organizations, including serving as Director of Education and later as Curator for the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
CSArt plans to sell a total of 15 shares this year, costing $200 per share. The CSArt program was begun through a Creative Inquiry team led by Clemson University’s Valerie Zimany, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Art, who researched with her students the strategies and successes of CSArt programs in galleries, art studios and art centers around the country.
“This initiative provides students with an entrepreneurial learning opportunity –many of our graduates go on to work for institutions, non-profits, galleries and more, and the real-world marketing and administration skills they acquire through participating in CSArt program gives a tangible experience to enhance their studio-based portfolio upon graduation,” Zimany said. “For those students who create the limited edition works for the share, the commission is a vote of confidence in the developing quality of their artwork, and a challenge to meet our enthusiastic shareholder’s expectations at our seasonal pickup event.”
Proceeds from the shares supports student scholarship, and allows students to present Clemson’s CSArt program at national conferences. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020 between 10 a.m.–5 p.m. shareholders can meet the artists and pick up shares during the Spring Ceramics Studio Sale at the CSArt Pick-up in the Lee Gallery hallway, located on the first floor of Lee Hall, 323 Fernow Street. To learn more about Clemson CSArt or become a shareholder-member, please visit www.clemson-csa.org and follow the directions under the heading “Purchase a Share.” To get to know this season’s selected student artists, visit the website for highlights and features of the team, “behind the scenes,” and sneak peeks of the artists’ “works in progress.”
With only 15 shares available for purchase, the community is encouraged to sign up now as shares will go quickly.
CLEMSON — The ceramics studio in the department of art at Clemson University will hold the annual Fall Ceramics Bowl Sale from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the hallway in front of the Lee Gallery in Lee Hall.
All proceeds from this popular annual sale supports student travel to the upcoming National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference as well as other professional activities that help further student research and collaboration.
A selection of bowls and other functional works by ceramics undergraduate and graduate students and faculty will be available in a variety of price points. The Clemson Ceramics Association’s hearty homemade soup will be served free with the purchase of a bowl between noon and 1 p.m. The annual Spring Ceramic Sale will be held April 24, 2019.
For additional information, contact the department of art’s associate professor of ceramics Valerie Zimany, vzimany@clemson.edu.
CLEMSON — The ceramics studio in the department of art at Clemson University will hold its Spring Ceramics Studio sale and Community Support Art (CSArt) Pick Up from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 25 in the hallway in front of the Lee Gallery in Lee Hall.
The popular annual Spring Ceramics Studio sale is a fundraiser that supports student travel to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference, as well as other professional activities to help further student research and collaborations.
2018 Spring CSArt team members and artists
The sale showcases a wide selection of both functional and sculptural artwork by ceramics undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty.
CSArt spring 2018 shareholders are invited to pick up their shares, meet the artists and celebrate another successful semester of student artwork.
The annual Ceramic Bowl Sale will be held again in fall 2018, in time for the holidays.
CLEMSON — Clemson University visual arts students will be on full display this spring in the Clemson University Center for Visual Art’s (CVA) gallery spaces.
The second half of the semester features a calendar full of student exhibitions. Both Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduating students present a comprehensive show of artwork weeks prior to graduation. These exhibits are a special time for visual art students, allowing them to reflect on the transformational experience Clemson has provided and choose pieces that best personify the student’s creative achievements.
BFA senior exhibits and MFA thesis exhibits showcase the culmination of year-long research endeavors. Visual Arts students go through a series of critiques aimed at helping build a body of work of the students’ choosing. The public is invited to join the conversation by attending the artist talks, followed by the artists’ receptions. Join the CVA this spring to see the next generation of artists.
MFA Thesis Exhibit – Statera: A Place Between
Master of Fine Arts Thesis Students, Susan Vander Kooi and Carey Morton will present an exhibition illustrating the importance of interconnected relationships between people, landscape, and the natural world. Throughout history, there has been a deep human connection to the earth and recognition of our position within space that contemporary culture is potentially forgetting. This work acknowledges the tangible and intangible attributes of human dependence on, and relationship with, the land, nature, and visceral experience. Utilizing sculpture, the artists blur boundaries, explore the need for balance, and challenge viewer perception.
BFA Senior Exhibit #1 – Take Shape
Apr. 9–13, M–F, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Lee Gallery
Artist Talks and Reception – F, Apr. 13, 6–8 p.m.
Take Shape will feature works by Mariana Aubad, Leah Brazell, McKenize Fletcher, Hannah Gardner, Amanda Hazell, Kara Lerchenfeld, Cody Miller and Anna Rice.
BFA Senior Exhibit #2 – Existence
Apr. 18–25, M–F, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Lee Gallery
Artist Talks and Reception – F, Apr. 20, 6–8 p.m.
Existence will feature works by Lainee Craft, Caroline Herring, Mary Jo May, Zoe Rogers, Michala Stewart, Heather Suttles and Samantha Trivinia.
Additional student artwork currently on display until Apr. 19 is the Next Up Invitational Exhibit, Sikes Hall Showcase, Ground Floor.
Wrapping up the end of spring semester will be the Spring Ceramics Studio Sale and the Community Support Art (CSArt) Share Pick Up, Apr. 25, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. outside of the Lee Gallery along with the Foundation Review, Apr. 27. Students who have completed their Foundation studio courses in the Department of Art at Clemson University will showcase their creative efforts in the Lee Gallery. The showcase is a review of student progress and an opportunity for the Department to share the work of these art students with a local audience. Opening reception will be 6-8 p.m.
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The Center for Visual Arts
The Center for Visual Arts (CVA) at Clemson University is where students, visitors and scholars explore contemporary perspectives in art and culture through research, outreach programming and studio practice. With a mission to engage and render visible the creative process, the CVA is a dynamic intellectual and physical environment where art is created, exhibited and interpreted. It educates through academic research and practice with art at its core, drawing upon varied disciplines to examine critically cultural issues and artistic concerns.
The Lee Gallery at the Clemson University Center for Visual Arts and the Arts Center of Clemson will host the popular and unique celebration of the arts with the signature town-gown event “Passport to the Arts” 6-9:30 p.m. March 2.
Now, in its eighth year, Passport to the Arts, which continues to see a sold out crowd year after year, remains to be an exciting and popular “Town and Gown” event. Join the Lee Gallery and the Arts Center of Clemson as they host an evening full of art, entertainers, live music, drinks and exceptional food showcased at four different locations.
This event highlights the incredible local talent housed in the town of Clemson and surrounding area. Clemson celebrates its longtime standing as one of the top town-gown relations according to The Princeton Review. Attendees and area businesses have supported the event that is truly an exceptional evening highlighting the beauty of this nationally renowned relationship.
Attendees receive a “passport” at an announced starting location, and stamp their books at several venues as they travel through Clemson on provided transportation. Many of the pieces are on sale and being debuted for the first time in the four gallery venues. Additional highlights from this year’s event will be the integration of student digital art that celebrates the intersection of art and technology in the Watt Family Innovation Center. All attendees also will have opportunity to engage with the many offerings of the Center such as creating their own virtual reality art through the Immersion Space.
At each new venue, a new batch of local food, music, art, and creativity will be on display. During Passport to the Arts, entertainment is at every turn — even on the shuttle; local musicians greet you with their talents as you travel through Clemson. This innovative combination of art and entertainment has made Passport to the Arts the “Town and Gown” event of the year.
Clemson Area Transit (CAT) offers transportation for the Passport to the Arts tour. All shuttles feature entertainment, making the ride to each venue a destination in itself. The locations this year include The Arts Center of Clemson, the Clemson Area Transit facility, Lee Gallery at the Clemson University Center for Visual Arts and Watt Family Innovation Center.
Buy tickets by visiting clemsonpassport.org. For more information, contact Center for Visual Arts Marketing and Public Relations Director, Meredith Mims McTigue, mmims@clemson.edu.
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Current event partners and sponsors
The following businesses make this event possible: Clemson Area Transit, Clemson Downs, Isaaqueena Pediatric Dentistry, PrintSmart, Watt Family Center for Innovation.
The Lee Gallery at the Clemson University Center for Visual Arts (CVA) first art exhibit of the fall semester focuses on the importance of striking a sustainable balance between nature and the current global consumer culture with Pam Longobardi’s “Drifters Project,” on display Aug. 21-Sept. 27.
Plastics are integrated with every aspect of our lives from the smallest little toy to life sustaining medical equipment and every other place in-between. Artist Pam Longobardi utilizes these discards to make installations that explore our global culture through plastics that have been transformed by the ocean then collected, documented and re-presented by the artist into the gallery context.
“I am interested in the collision between nature and global consumer culture. Ocean plastic is a material that can unleash unpredictable dynamics,” Longobardi said. “I am interested in it in particular, as opposed to all garbage in general, because of what it reveals about us as a global culture and what it reveals about the ocean as a type of cultural space, as well as a giant dynamic engine of life and change. As a product of culture that exhibits visibly the attempts of nature to reabsorb and regurgitate this invader, ocean plastic has profound stories to tell.”
The “Drifters Project” began in 2006 after Longobardi encountered mountains of plastic being deposited on remote islands in Hawaii by the ocean. Since that time she has removed thousands of pounds of material for re-examination. Visitors to the Lee Gallery will experience various installations along with select paintings and drawings.
This innovative art collaboration is part of the Lee Gallery at the Clemson University Center for Visual Arts (CVA) commitment to support the institutions 2020 ClemsonForward Strategic Plan to provide educational activities that expose students to research through artistic means. This type of exposure encourages dialogue surrounding supporting a sustainable environment.
The Lee Gallery at the Clemson University CVA will be open for this exhibit 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays. It is located in 1-101 Lee Hall, 323 Fernow St. There will be artist talk followed by a reception on Aug. 25, 5:30 p.m. The exhibition, artist talk and reception are free to the public because of the generous support given to the Center for Visual Arts. For more information about this exhibit, contact Lee Gallery Director, Denise Woodward-Detrich at woodwaw@clemson.edu. Visit www.clemson.edu/cva to learn about exhibitions in the Lee Gallery as well as other Center for Visual Arts activities and events.
The Ceramics studio in the department of art at Clemson University will hold its Spring Ceramics Studio sale and Creative Inquiry Community Support Art (CSArt) Pick Up on 10 a.m.-5 p.m. April 26 in the Lee Hallway in front of the Lee Gallery.
The popular annual Spring Ceramics Studio sale is a fundraiser that supports students to travel to the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference as well as other professional activities which help further student research and collaborations.
The sale showcases a wide selection of both functional and sculptural artwork by ceramics undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty. In addition, CSArt Spring 2017 Shareholders are invited to pick up their shares, meet the artists and celebrate another successful semester of student artwork.
The annual Ceramic Bowl Sale will be held again in fall 2017, in time for the holidays.
Georgie Silvarole , georgie.silvarole@independentmail.com 6:43 p.m. ET Feb. 20, 2017
When public artist Koryn Rolstad sees a space, her vision for what she wants to create within that realm comes immediately to mind.
“I can look at the drawings and get the idea in a nanosecond,” Rolstad said. “It’s like a writer, when they get their idea and it just writes itself. I look at the space and I know exactly what it’s going to be in a moment.”
That was the case with her design for Clemson University’s Core Campus — she knew what the installation would be the moment she saw the drawings. With a background not only in art but also in architecture and engineering, Rolstad secured the project almost a year ago after Clemson had put out a call for artists. About a month from now, the $250,000 project will be underway.
Students involved with Atelier InSite, a Creative Inquiry program focused on bringing public artwork to Clemson University, pushed for a substantial university contribution to public art a few years ago, said Richard Goodstein, dean of Clemson’s College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities. In 2013, that became a reality when the Percent for Art proposal was approved.
The policy states that Clemson University will include and set aside 0.5 percent of the construction value of capital projects specifically for public artwork.
“It’s this notion of art and beauty and understanding the environment around you in the context of a public institution — public art is a major piece of all of it,” Goodstein said.
Rolstad’s piece “Illuminated Chroma Wind Trees” is a large-scale work that will be composed of 90 “tree forms” and dozens of “wings” that will appear to be flying away from those trees, all the way through Core Campus. The building, which took almost two years to build and was finished in the fall of 2016, is a mixed-use facility that’s home to the Calhoun Honors College, a dining hall and several study spaces.
Rolstad said she’s created projects for campuses, regional transit centers and public places across the country. Her work has changed a lot over the years, and she said she’s really looking forward to seeing her Clemson installation come to life on March 20 when students are away for spring break.
“Clemson’s going to be fun because I think you’ve got the weather, you’ve got the sun,” Rolstad said. “It’s just going to be really happy, you know? I think they’ll really enjoy it.”
Mary Michelle Baghdady, a senior visual arts major, took part in the voting process and was impressed with Rolstad’s proposal. It appeared delicate even though the design is meant to be extremely sturdy, and gave her the feeling that it would, at the very least, give people a reason to pause when they walked by.
“With Koryn’s work, knowing that I had some small touch in the process and knowing that I’m going to see it when I visit — it’s rooting me, in a way, to Clemson,” Baghdady said. “It just makes me smile to know I was involved somehow.”
CLEMSON — The Lee Gallery at the Clemson University Center for Visual Arts and the Arts Center of Clemson will host the popular and unique celebration of the arts with the signature town-gown event “Passport to the Arts” 6-9:30 p.m. March 3.
Now in its seventh year, “Passport to the Arts,” which continues to see a sold out crowd year after year, remains a popular “town and gown” event in Clemson. It is an evening full of art, entertainers, live music, drinks and exceptional food showcased at four different locations.
Attendees receive a “passport” at an announced starting location and stamp their books at several venues as they travel through Clemson and Pendleton on provided transportation. There will be an opportunity to view more than 200 works of art by more than 80 artists. Many of the pieces are for sale and being debuted for the first time in the four gallery venues.
At each new venue, a new batch of local food, music and art will be on display. During “Passport to the Arts” entertainment is at every turn. Even on the shuttle local musicians entertain guests as they ride.
Clemson Area Transit provides transportation for the “Passport to the Arts” tour. The locations this year include The Arts Center of Clemson, the Clemson Area Transit facility, the Center for Visual Arts Lee Gallery at Clemson University and Clemson Little Theatre in Pendleton.
Buy tickets by visiting clemsonpassport.org. For more information, contact Center for Visual Arts Marketing and Public Relations Director Meredith Mims McTigue at mmims@clemson.edu.
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Event partners and sponsors The following businesses and individual sponsors make this event possible: Clemson Area Transit, Clemson Downs, Clemson Home, Clemson Little Theatre, Duke Energy, Edward Jones-Lee Woods and Jim Hill of Clemson, Greenville Hospital Systems, Greg Shelnutt and Family, Isaaqueena Pediatric Dentistry, PrintSmart, Upstate Orthodontics.
CLEMSON — The Center for Visual Arts (CVA) at Clemson University has hit the ground running in 2017, having already opened four new exhibits, hosted an artist talk and celebrated the sale of the spring 2017 shares of Community Supported Art (CSArt) student-created work.
The CVA’s calendar continues to unfold and reveal more events to attend, including new artists and innovative workshops. From visiting artists to student exhibitions and seminars, the CVA calendar has unique and transformative experiences for all. Thanks to generous supporters, the vast majority of CVA events remain free for the public. Check out the ongoing and upcoming opportunities the CVA is offering this spring. For more information and to access the full calendar of events, visit clemson.edu/cva.
Clemson National Print and Drawing Exhibition Feb. 15–March 15 • 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday • Lee Gallery
Artist Reception • Feb. 7, 3:30–4:30 p.m. • Lee Gallery
Exhibition • Feb. 15–March 15 • 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday • Lee Gallery
Since the beginning of our time on Earth, we have responded to the impact of change in every aspect of our human experience. In the ever-expanding social, technological, biological and digital era, change is taking place at unprecedented speeds while the world is becoming a much smaller place. The 2017 Clemson National Print and Drawing exhibition explores change in a wide range of approaches to unpacking this idea.
Passport to the Arts March 3 • 6-9:30 p.m. • Order tickets now at clemsonpassport.org
Now in its seventh year, the “Passport to the Arts” continues to be an exciting “town and gown” event. Join the Lee Gallery at Clemson University and The Arts Center of Clemson for an evening of fine art, entertainers, live music, drinks and exceptional food showcased at four different locations.
The Clemson Area Transit (CAT) shuttle will take you on a visual arts tour of Clemson for a fun-filled evening. All shuttles feature entertainment, making your ride to each venue even more enjoyable. Our locations this year include The Arts Center, the CATBus Terminal, the Lee Gallery at Clemson University and Cox Hall at Clemson Little Theatre in Pendleton.
Jeff Beekman artist talk March 2, 5:30–6:30 p.m. • 2-301 Lee Hall
Jeff Beekman is a multidisciplinary artist whose artwork since early 2000 has explored the interrelationships between land, memory and human activity. His work has been exhibited at venues across the U.S., as well as New Zealand, Australia, China, Vietnam, England, Hungary and South Korea.
Ink Travels March 31–Oct. 4 • 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
Sikes Hall Showcase, ground floor
“Ink travels” refers to the constant challenge of keeping an active print shop clean. In the context of this exhibition, the term also refers to the wide-reaching influence of Professor Sydney A. Cross’s teaching and mentoring. Similar to how “ink travels” this exhibition showcases Cross’s legacy as an educator and illustrates the positive impact she has had on artists across the nation. The exhibition is a thoughtful tribute to the quality of Cross’s teaching and a reflection on the Clemson family in the visual arts.
Sense of Place: Picturing West Greenville Exhibit April 3 – July 28 • 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday-Friday
Center for Visual Arts-Greenville, fifth floor, 1 N. Main St., Greenville
This exhibition examines the people, places and the cultural life of West Greenville in a project organized by the Center for Visual Arts- Greenville. Artists invited to participate in the project demonstrate relevant experience in creating a collection of works using environmental portraiture or storytelling. The goal of the project was to build community, convey and bring together a significant exhibit meant to honor West Greenville residents and the surrounding community. The artists selected to participate in the project and exhibit are Dawn Roe of Asheville, North Carolina, and Winter Park, Florida; Dustin Chambers of Atlanta; Kathleen Robbins of Columbia; and Leon Alesi of Asheville and Austin, Texas. Works in this exhibition are not for sale as they are part of the CVA Art Collection. No lectures or receptions are planned for this exhibition.
SmART Series Seminar 7 with Jeffrey Baykal-Rollins
April 3 • 5:30–6:30 p.m.
1-100 Lee Hall
Jeffrey Baykal-Rollins is an American multimedia artist and educator now based in the greater New York City area after living in Istanbul for more than a decade. His “art as social practice,” combines drawing with performance, alternative education, institutional critique and cultural studies.
Two Cents: BFA Senior Exhibit April 17–26 • 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday • Lee Gallery
Reception: April 21, 6-8 p.m. • Lee Gallery
Artist talks: April 21, 6:30–7 p.m. • Lee Gallery
Artists explore how humans relate to themselves, experience the world, and examine their history. Two Cents is an exhibit of works by graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts students in the disciplines of drawing, painting and photography.
A Sense of Place: Clemson • Drawings and Watercolors by James F. Barker April 24–Oct. 11 • 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities Dean’s Gallery • 101 Strode Tower
As an architecture student, alumnus, dean, president emeritus and now professor of architecture, James F. Barker gives a unique perspective. His exhibit captures a sense of community that portrays a richness, depth and love for the Clemson campus. Reception to be announced at a later date.
Spring Ceramics Studio Sale and CSArt Share Pick Up April 26, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. • Lee Gallery Hallway
Student ceramic work will be on sale in the Lee Gallery Hallway for purchase. In addition, Community Support Art (CSArt) spring 2017 shareholders are invited to the annual CSArt Pick Up to receive their shares and celebrate another successful semester of student artwork.
CURRENTLY ON DISPLAY
Pliable Instance: Paintings by Todd McDonald On view until March 28
8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
Center for Visual Arts–Greenville, fifth floor, 1 N. Main St.
Through abstractions of architectural structures, Todd McDonald’s images explore the contemporary visual rhetoric where the virtual and material collide. Throughout history, painting is used as a vehicle to describe spaces and locations that do not actually exist. Now society is confronted with new digital tools that are shaping the character of visual culture.
Foundations I: Department of Art Student Exhibit On view until April 17 • 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday • CAAH Dean’s Gallery
101 Strode Tower
The Foundations exhibit features students who have completed the Foundation level studio courses in the department of art at Clemson. The showcase is a reflection of explorations with visual expression and problem-solving.
Gathering Lines: Drawings by Kathleen Thum On view until April 27 • 1–5 p.m. Monday-Friday • Brooks Center Lobby Showcase
Kathleen Thum’s exhibition of drawings, paintings, collages and large-scale wall installations abstractly reference pipeline infrastructures to bring awareness and a visual presence of our society’s dependence on petroleum.
Todd Anderson, assistant professor of art and printmaking at Clemson University, displays one of his reductive woodblock prints in “The Last Glacier”, an artist book of 23 image plates of glaciers in Glacier National Park, Montana, by him, Bruce Crownover and Ian van Coller. Image Credit: Ken Scar / Clemson University
CLEMSON — With a heavy mug of coffee in one hand, Todd Anderson moves through his personal studio like a chef moving through a four-star kitchen: fluidly, efficiently, among the tools of his trade: neatly stacked cans of paint sorted by color, saws and drills tucked away without a hint of sawdust, brushes hanging neatly, chisels gleaming. Every label of every can and jar and bottle faces outward, lest confusion disrupt the rhythm of his work.
Anderson, an assistant professor of art at Clemson University, is a printmaker, skilled at transferring beauty and wonder from landscapes onto paper to share his experiences with the public.
When guests arrive at his studio, which used to be his garage, Anderson slips on a pair of shoes, turns off a stream of classical jazz and begins to tell a story about his latest project, which recently gained national attention.
“I think we all understand that the world is changing in sweeping and dramatic ways,” Anderson says, his voice quiet and earnest. “My belief is that those places need to be seen, they need to be experienced and they need to be creatively documented.” It’s a holy trinity that guides his work.
Since its founding 100 years ago, Glacier National Park has lost more than 80 percent of its glaciers. Over the past six years, Anderson says, he hiked more than 500 miles through that park for a project called “The Last Glacier.” He and two collaborators, painter Bruce Crownover and photographer Ian van Coller, recently finished the project, resulting in original artwork that includes 15 specially bound 25- by 38-inch books with Anderson’s original prints, Crownover’s paintings and van Coller’s photos.
“My intent as an artist is to share the beauty of a changing world,” Anderson says.
In demand
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the New York Public Library are sharing the work; they each bought a book on the spot. The Library of Congress bought another. Clemson’s Emery A. Gunnin Architecture Library, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yale, and several private collectors have also invested in the artistic, historical records.
The Last Glacier quickly garnered the kind of attention artists dream of. But Anderson couldn’t look lighter, more carefree. He says he spent a great deal of his life camping, hiking and climbing his way through the Rocky Mountains, sleeping with the stars overhead. It’s easy to picture him on a mountain in a three-day beard and a worn flannel shirt, accidentally hip.
On being outside, Anderson says, “If you’ve felt frost on a sleeping bag, or seen dew on cobwebs in the woods, you can understand the value of that experience.”
Rock climbing shaped his arms and hands; they’re strong, purposeful. His blue eyes sparkle with an infinite appreciation for wonder, reflecting a scientist’s curiosity and exacting patience. There are stories in those hands and eyes, and a quiet urgency to tell them.
An Anderson woodcut print of the Grinnell glacier in Glacier National Park.
In the late oughts, Anderson heard the Rockies’ glaciers were melting. “My first thought was, this is the environment that I love, these alpine environments, the beauty of these places. I felt sad, first and foremost. And then I thought, ‘Well, who is documenting these places?’”
When months of searching for someone recording the glacial recession turned up empty, Anderson decided to do it himself. “It was really out of a sense of responsibility,” he says.
The three collaborators are currently wrapping up a second project, documenting glaciers in Rocky Mountain National Park. Anderson is also waiting to hear about a grant from the National Science Foundation that would send him to Antarctica.
The Last Glacier is a compelling and invaluable work, said Gary Machlis, the University Professor of Environmental Sustainability and scientific adviser to the director of the National Park Service for eight years until early January 2017. “Climate change is the environmental challenge of our age, and responding to this challenge requires a constellation of voices — including those of artists like Todd.
“Art can be a portal for understanding in a visceral, emotional way what science attempts to demonstrate through theory, data and analysis,” Machlis said. “Todd’s work is powerful, and his collaborative team is unique and so committed to their task. Viewing the images in ‘The Last Glacier’ is a reminder of what is at risk and what might be lost if we do not act.”
In 1910, there were 150 glaciers within the new 1 million-acre Glacier National Park in Montana’s Rocky Mountains. When Anderson started his work, in 2010, all but 25 had melted.
Glaciers, the marvelous remnants of the last ice age, are made from the bottom up by layer upon layer of snow that melts into ice, the accumulating weight pressing the earth, picking up and setting down boulders as they slide incrementally. For the past 7,000 years, the glaciers in the park have stretched for miles, like giant beached whales caught between mountains and frozen by time.
Melting ice, rising seas
Lakes dot a valley in Glacier National Park that a glacier once filled. Photo courtesy Todd Anderson. When glaciers melt they don’t simply disappear, they become water. Increasingly, they’re adding to rising sea levels.
Melt from all the glaciers and ice sheets in the world are responsible for two-thirds of global sea level rise (the rest is attributed to warming seas), according to Andrew Fountain a glaciologist at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, who agreed to write a scientific note about the next project by Anderson and his colleagues.
Twenty years ago, Fountain said, alpine glaciers, like the ones in Glacier National Park, were the first to melt. “Now Greenland is beginning to melt,” he said.
By 2040, with a 2-degree Celsius increase in global temperature, sea levels will rise significantly along 90 percent of the world’s coastlines, affecting hundreds of millions of people, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Fountain has introduced many artists to the wilderness in Antarctica, where he conducts some of his research. When Anderson asked him, out of the blue, to contribute to an artistic project, Fountain considered it a way to tell more people about the melting glaciers.
“Getting this information out to people is super important,” said Fountain. “It’s a gateway to science. I might be attracted to the subject by graphs and plots, but others might be attracted by art.”
It’s a symbiotic relationship, Anderson said, as scientists wrap the art in a scientific context.
“Working with scientists is very critical to my projects. We’re trying to bridge gaps and we’re trying to connect with as many folks as we can,” Anderson said. “What the scientists provide is things that we can’t provide – analytical analysis and whole, unique perspectives of what’s going on with the landscape.”
There is also common ground among artists and scientists, and aficionados of each. Science, Fountain said, can be incredibly creative, like when it’s time to choose the right approach to finding a solution. And when looking at Anderson’s art, the glaciologist sees clues to the glacier’s life, such as whether it’s advancing or retreating.
Democratic medium
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Anderson found work at Tandem Press, an international printing house affiliated with UW’s School of Education. Tandem has a tradition of attracting famous artists to experiment and print in its studio. David Lynch, Chuck Close, Art Spiegelman and Judy Pfaff are among its alumni.
Essentially, Anderson worked with artists accustomed to producing singular pieces of art and helped them create prints that “would be totally and wholly unique, but you could make 20 or 30 of these things and more people could have it.”
Printmaking, he said, “is an inherently democratic medium, and for me that was really what grabbed me.” “The Last Glacier” project is similarly intended to be shared with the masses, Anderson said. “Our mission is to get the work into the public sphere,” he said.
And he wants future masses to experience the work, which makes acquisitions by the Met, the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress special.
“One of the things I want to do as an artist is to talk about the immediacy of things going on in the world. But art, as I understand it and the way I approach it, it’s a multigenerational conversation,” Anderson said.
In museums, “when we look at a painting from the 1800s it helps us understand what people’s values were, what people thought about.
“It’s just as important when future generations who go to museums and get to see this work. It’s not just saying, ‘Oh, there used to be a glacier here,’ but it’s also saying, ‘This is a little bit about us.’ In a very, very small way. Of what we valued as a society and what we thought about, the challenges we were trying to face and engage.”
Working with collaborators also amplifies the message and grows the audience. Anderson initially planned to work alone, but the glaciers were so vast and distant – 10 to 15 miles from an access road – that he enlisted Crownover and van Coller to help cover the territory.
The result, Anderson said, is “three very unique artistic visions of essentially the same thing. The hope is that by presenting the viewer with three different versions of three different artists, that folks might be able to latch on. If they don’t like my work, maybe they’ll really like Bruce’s. Or if they don’t like Bruce’s, maybe they’ll like Ian’s.”
Todd Anderson, assistant professor of art and printmaking at Clemson University, carves out a “stamp” to create a reductive woodcut print of a glacier for “The Last Glacier”. (Photo by Ken Scar)
Mirroring the glaciers
If you’ve stood on a glacier, or on a mountain two miles high, standing in front of Anderson’s finished prints will stir a familiar chill in the air, as if someone opened a window 10,000 feet up. The prints reveal scars from the violent upheaval, subduction and collision of the Earth’s crust. You’ll feel the cool blues of the ice, the ancient gray of the rock and yellow, purple, pink and blue of sunrises and sunsets seen through thin air.
Anderson spent weeks each summer working in situ, researching the glaciers – which ones to document, how to access them, seeing them at different times of day as the sun shifted shadows and revealed new details. He hiked, sketched and photographed, getting to know each one before it ceased to exist.
Back in his studio, where the prints come to life, a mixture of fluorescent bulbs balance the blues, reds and greens to shine as white as possible.
In the middle of the space sits a printing press, perched atop tiny feet, perfectly level. The press is new; at least it’s new to Anderson. It arrived recently by freight to his home in one of Clemson’s leafy neighborhoods. The press is his six-burner gas range, where the ingredients of his art – science, nature, light and the wonder of the Rocky Mountains — mingle and fuse.
Slowly, they develop as reductive woodcut prints in a process involving time, pressure and the deliberate carving of a landscape until nothing is left but a picture, a life cycle that mimics his subjects. Anderson chose to recreate the glaciers as woodcut prints because, he says, he wanted “an organic, visual language,” and woodcuts, by their nature, provide a “visual texture.”
Both glaciers and prints are constructed of layers, but while glaciers are built from the bottom, prints begin at the top. They require the artist to complete the piece in his mind, then work backward.
Anderson transfers a sketch to a rectangular block of basswood, imported from Japan, then begins working in negative space – using fingers and hands that once routinely clung to rock to slowly, expertly, carve away wood, creating an image by removing what he doesn’t want in the print. The first layer he carves away, from the top of the block, will be the first image on the paper, the bottom layer of color.
“I might do that 10, 15 or 20 times. So I’ll have 15 or 20 sheets of paper that look the same,” he says. “Once I’m done doing that, I’ll take that same block of wood, clean it off, carve it out a little bit more, I’ll ink it up with a new color this time, then I’ll print it on top of what I printed before.”
He has to print light colors first, and he’s constantly calculating “the value of the color and the opacity of my ink, so that I can make a whole image look right. At least in my mind how it looks right.”
One layer, one carving, one color, one pressing at a time, all the while thinking backwards, or upside down, removing negative space from the top that becomes the bottom. Eventually, the full image appears. But, at a cost.
“By the time I get done making these artworks, the blocks themselves are really exhausted, and there’s no way of going back and remaking the artwork,” Anderson says. “The process is mirroring the fate of the glaciers themselves.”
Anderson said he doesn’t create “message” art. He’s not delivering a political statement. Not directly, anyway.
“There’s a complexity to these ideas” of art, experience, climate change, he said. “What I’m trying to present as an artist is visual complexity. But there’s moments where, when it works right, you can get lost in these things and you start seeing the cobwebs. You start seeing things. There’s an experience that art can give you, which is just wonder, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Anderson received funding from the South Carolina Arts Commission, the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts for this work.
For more information, and to see the work by Crownover and van Coller, go to TheLastGlacier.com.
Anderson’s print of Salamander Glacier in Glacier National Park. Image Credit: Todd Anderson
