Exhibit brings alumni back to town

by Yvonne Teems
Staff Writer       

As third-year graduate student and artist Elizabeth Robinson contemplates her own life after graduation, she ponders how OU artists before her fared after college.

As curator of the “Source: OU Alumni Artists” gallery exhibition, Robinson found the opportunity to compile works from OU graduates who now live around the country and the globe.

“I was curious about what people were doing 20 years after the fact, or 10 years, or even two,” she said.

Two pieces from each of 30 alumni artists were revealed Tuesday at the OU Art Gallery, 5th floor Seigfred Hall. A wide range of media and art such as ceramics, pottery, drawings, paintings, videos, photos, sculptures, a quilt and mixed media will be displayed 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, ending Feb. 23.

Several alumni artists have received prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships during their careers, which are grants given to individuals in many fields, including the arts. The grants allow recipients creative freedom for a block of time. In 2001, 231 out of 3,500 people were granted fellowships. Kevin Everson and Jo Ann Walters have received fellowships during their careers and are featured in this exhibition.

Dan Williams, who was a full-time professor at OU from 1969-99, taught the Guggenheim fellowship winners, along with other artists at the showing. He said the artists fulfilled the potential they showed as students.

“No matter what approach the student had, there was always someone on the faculty who could accommodate them,” he said.

One artist and former professor featured in the exhibition, Karen Larson Watts, said her time at OU still affects her.

“That experience secured the foundation of my visual art career,” she said.

With OU faculty guidance, Larson Watts discovered what she calls inter-art, an artistic collaboration between a visual artist and another type of artist, such as a dancer, musician or actor, to satisfy her creative drive.

After several medical problems, Larson Watts began doing autobiographical work similar to the pieces she submitted to the OU show. In one series of photographs, she digitally superimposed ancient Chinese and Japanese poetry onto black and white photographs of her operation scars. The poetry, written in black , seems to depict flashes of the subject’s thought.

Her body, occasionally framed in a starch white gown but sometimes nude, leaves the viewer sensitive to the pain, although the images are not graphic.