“God is the Greatest”, Tarina Henry, duPont Manual

By Keith Waits

How we measure academic development has been a somewhat controversial topic for quite some time now, but when we step into the arts the range of progress can be especially difficult to determine unless you know the student. If we follow a rubric for skills in draughtsmanship or understanding of color it can seem a dry and impersonal method to summarize what is expected to be a highly personal means of expression. These students were recognized in an awards presentation at the Opening Reception for the 2021 Academy at LVA Exhibition:

Academy at LVA student Elaina Render, a senior at duPont Manual, has many still life studies in her portfolio that allow us to track her earnest growth, but it is in her “Poe” that we see the cumulative results. The B&W pen and ink drawing is almost perfectly composed, a cleanly executed graphic illustration that displays a sensibility following in the footsteps of the legendary Edward Gorey.

Elaina was accepted into a whole roster of top schools, and has decided to attend Georgia Institute of Technology.

North Oldham senior Malva Wieck’s pencil study of a wrapped peppermint shows an attention to detail and accomplished comprehension of dimension. The thought of spending a few hours looking intently at a piece of candy might sound like the epitome of boredom, but that patient observation is an instructor’s dream.

In the fall Malva will attend the “school of my dreams”: Amherst College, where she has been awarded significant financial aid and intends to double-major in Environmental Science and Art History.

“Minty Fresh”, Malva Wieck, North Oldham HS

Raegan Coots spent five years in the LVA Children’s Fine Art Classes (CFAC) and four in the Academy, all while staying on the Honor Roll and being consistently recognized for outstanding achievement at Trinity High School. His “Clipper Ship” has the straightforward narrative thrust that places us in the pages of a book; the vessel moving off the edge of the page suggesting a continuing story.

Raegan has been accepted into Indiana University Southeast where he expects to major in Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design.

“Clipper Ship”, Raegan Coots, Trinity HS

In contrast to these first three young artists, Tarina Henry has come to the Academy at LVA in just her last semester before college, but she was clearly busy at the Visual Arts Magnet at duPont Manual and being a Governor’s Scholar. Her “God is the Greatest” is a stunning expression of islamic culture that shows off a very sophisticated use of color.

Tarina has committed to the University of Kentucky’s College of Design for Architecture. She has received a Diversity Scholarship and Provost Scholarship on top of KEES, Federal Pell Grant, and other financial support.

Since 1925, LVA visual art education programs have been not only training the next generations of artists but also building an arts rich education for future leaders in all walks of life. Congratulations to all Academy at LVA seniors!

The 2021 Academy of LVA Exhibition
May 7 - 20

Monday through Thursdays 1 - 4 pm

LVA Gallery
1538 Lytle Street
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 584-8166

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“Watermelon Haze”, Tarina Henry, Academy at LVA and duPont Manual student

“Northern Lights”, Malva Wieck, Academy at LVA and North Oldham HS student

“Apple a Day”, Elaina Render, Academy at LVA and duPont Manual student

“Eagle”, Raegan Coots, Academy at LVA and Trinity HS student

Written by Keith Waits.
In addition to his work as Operations Director at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

Print Making, Painting, Drawing, Digital

Spotlight: The Academy at LVA Graduating Seniors, Part One

Guest User · May 6, 2019

“Bliss” by Madelynn Hicks, North Oldham High School

On May 10, Louisville Visual Art will open the 2019 Academy Exhibition for high school students. This is the first of a two-part look at the senior students included in that exhibit.

“LVA has made a major difference in my life” - Alexis Fromm

“Mushroom Bride” by Natalie Stastny, Atherton High School

In the work of these three graduating seniors we see a preoccupation with a deconstruction of the human form. Bodies are modified through dismemberment, the peeling of skin, or a grafting of mushrooms onto the epidermis, not for horrific effect but as metaphorical signposts for the adolescent introspection building a foundation for identity. Each of these artists is still finding themselves, searching for who they are by peeling themselves like an onion.

Whether or not the exact images are self-portraits is beside the point; all art expresses the aesthetic concerns of the individual. In “Moulting” Madelyn Hicks depicts a woman’s torso, bereft of hips, legs, or feet, stripping away skin. The piece may be inspired by a case of post-beach vacation sunburn, but it elicits feelings of discomfort in the viewer in part because the woman so casually changes her physical form without any preciousness or hesitation.

Natalie Stastny’s “Mushroom Bride” wears a garment made of the plants, or is the fungus a part of her skin? The ambiguity is compelling, but the choice of color, gesture, and expression do not suggest distress. Whatever the reality, the bride seems happy enough.

A print from Alexis Fromm is slightly more gruesome. It shows a naked female torso in which the skin has been pulled away to reveal an oversize eyeball surrounded by teardrops. The merging of vivisection and whimsy is pure surrealism. We want to turn away but we cannot.

These are arguably the more overt examples of a fascination with the physical self that might be claimed as a teenage stereotype, but the level of confident, even sardonic self-awareness and forensic examination is impressive. One of Fromm’s favorite subjects seems to be animal skulls, although she extends them into fantastical forms beyond the mundane farm inhabitants whose brains they once held. “Hellboy” imagines the horns and stretched earlobes of the comic book character.

And Hicks’ young person eating Tostitos from the bag while prone on their bed in violation of how many rules of civilized behavior is not quite “Ladylike”, but the image suggests that they could care less about outmoded nomenclature intended to restrict all natural impulses for comfort.

Meanwhile, Stastny is fond of entangling her figures in organic forms that seem to bind and blind them. We assume it is not because she doesn’t like drawing eyes that she inevitably shields them from view.

All three artists are fearless in exploring the plasticity of the body, lending it malleability that aligns them with Modern and Post-modern movements.

Alexis Fromm has been in LVA classes since 7th grade. She will be attending Spalding University with a $6,000 Merit Scholarship and a projected major of Studio Arts.

“After my first class with Rodolfo Salgado Jr., I fell in love with Printmaking and have taken every printmaking class with him that was available. Before LVA I did not know what printmaking was and I didn’t know the large variety of art that was in the world besides clothing, painting, and drawing. LVA has inspired me to go to college and pursue my love for art.”

Fromm has worked as a volunteer for Steam Exchange Community Arts Center over the past four years. With Steam Exchange she attended the Mayor’s Give A Day to help clean out their building and clean up around the Smoketown neighborhood.

Madelyn Hicks has taken LVA classes every semester for all four years of high school: Studio Art with Rudy Salgado, Drawing 1 and 2 with Wilma Bethel, Painting 1 with Dennis Whitehouse and Sunny Ra, and Painting 2 with Sunny Ra, Julie Leidner, and Tenille Novinger. She was accepted into several schools and will be attending The University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program in the fall and majoring in Industrial Design

Hicks was accepted into GATES (Gifted and Talented Educational Services) for art, and the Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA) 2018 program. She also won an LVA competition to have her work featured on the 2018-19 season poster for The Kentucky Opera.

“LVA truly taught me how to make art. My teachers all taught me different techniques and styles of creating that shaped me into the artist I am today. The classes I took with Sunny Ra in drawing and painting established the foundations I needed to discover my perspective as an artist and work not only technically but also conceptually. Sunny definitely went above and beyond for me and was extremely helpful in building a portfolio for both GSA and college auditions. The different perspectives and skills I learned through LVA have provided a strong base for me as a creator.”

Natalie Stastny has taken Academy at LVA classes for three years: 2 Digital Art classes with Lilly Higgs, one Drawing and Painting class with Sunny Ra, and one Drawing and Painting class with Julie Leidner. She has been accepted at and received scholarships and/or financial aid for the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the Columbus School of Art and Design, and Eastern Illinois University.

Stastny is also involved in National Art Honors Society and the Atherton High School Art Club and earned a varsity letter in Swimming. She has represented Atherton on WLKY and the PBS News Hour talking about the school’s transgender bathroom policy.

“My favorite class with LVA has been the Digital drawing class. I’ve taken it twice mostly because the program itself helped me understand digital media but also because my teacher (Lilly Higgs) was very encouraging and helped me practice digital drawing with tablets, which at the time was a resource I did not have access to at home.”

“I loved all of my classes and think they have helped me a lot in both my personal and school related art projects. Lilly Higgs and Julie Leidner especially seemed to want to talk to me and get to know me better. I won’t forget the kindness that those teachers offered me. It also allowed me more practice time during the day and a space where I can just be creative and also learn the basics of art at the same time.”

Scroll down for more images

“Moulting” by Madelynn Hicks, North Oldham High School

“Siren Queen” by Natalie Stastny, Atherton High School

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

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Painting

Vignette: Shawn Marshall

Josh Jenkins · February 22, 2017

It may too often be seen as a Pop Culture cliché of Modern Art, but there is genuine reality to the idea of art as a direct, frequently cathartic expression of raw emotion; perhaps a means of exorcising negative and even destructive feelings. When looking at the work of Shawn Marshall, it is easy to believe that the rich plasticity of her medium is affording her exactly this opportunity; the layered build up of paint resulting in a heavy impasto that begs to be touched, so seductive is the textured surface.

“My painting is a meditative practice,” states Marshall, “an outlet to release intuitive energy and let go of preconceived notions and self-imposed rules or judgments of how I and my work interpret and portray the world. My ‘practice’ and expression are restorative for me, and often for others, as I create what I refer to as ‘Inward Landscapes.’”

*"East Side" by Shawn Marshall, 48x24x1.5in, oil on canvas (2016)*

Yet for all the rough quality, there is great subtlety in the placement of mark and color. The catharsis occurs within an artistic process of discipline developed from years of experience, and an unexpectedly schematic underlying visual structure that may point to Marshall’s training as an architect, in which she holds advanced degrees.

Marshall is the Visual Arts Teacher at North Oldham High School, Goshen, KY. In 2016 she was chosen for the 27th Annual International Juried Show, Viridian Artists Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Tumelo Mosaka, Independent Curator, former Curator at Krannert Art Museum and the Brooklyn Museum.

The next opportunity to see Marshall’s work is Inward Landscapes - a Solo Painting Exhibit by Shawn Marshall with guest sculptor Jeanne Dueber at PYRO Gallery from February 23 through April 8, 2017. There will be an Opening Reception Friday, February 24 from 6-9pm.

In March 2017 she will also be participating in Gridworks Revisited at the New Editions Gallery, Lexington, KY, and in the fall she will have work in the Contemporary Invitational Landscape Exhibit, McGrath Gallery, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 48
Education: 1992, Bachelor of Architecture, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; 1996, Master of Architecture, Minor Fine Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; 2009, Master of Art in Teaching, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
Website: www.shawnlmarshall.com