On a warm, sunny day last October, hundreds of high school students filled hallways and classrooms in Potter Hall for the annual Department of Art’s Visual Art Day. For the fourth year in a row, more than 900 students from throughout the region spent the day on campus, exhibiting their creations and crafting beautiful works of art under the guidance of Missouri Western art professors and students.
Pete Hriso, chair of the Department of Art, works with a high school student on digital animation at the Visual Art Day in October.
The day was a perfect opportunity for the Department of Art to showcase what they do best – provide a foundation of knowledge and skills so that graduates can become professional artists, teachers, graphic designers, art historians and more.
The high school students had the opportunity to check out the department’s facilities, including painting, ceramic, photography, sculpture and printmaking studios, computer labs for graphic design and digital animation, a foundry, and an art gallery.
Pete Hriso, associate professor of art and department chair, said the studios and labs see a lot of use.
“Art is an applied field; you’re always learning and discovering techniques, and you have to practice those techniques to master them,” he said. “It’s very much about doing, so students spend a lot of time producing.”
But Hriso said that hard work pays off for students when they graduate, as Missouri Western art alumni have high placement rates. Those who have earned art education degrees can be found teaching in schools throughout the state and beyond, and the graphic design program has a long history of placing students nationwide. Kansas City is one of the top advertising cities in the nation, Hriso said, so many alumni don’t have to go very far to find a great job in their field. Many alumni are also able to earn a living as professional artists.
“There are a lot of opportunities for art students,” Hriso said. “It’s a competitive field, but if you have drive, talent and ability, there are opportunities out there.”
Every year, the department hosts international artists who exhibit in the gallery and conduct workshops for art students. There are also study away trips to New York to visit museums and galleries, and art faculty members have taken students to Belgium, Italy, Russia and France in past years.
The department has 10 full-time professors and approximately 50 art majors who continually garner recognition for their works, earn awards and are selected for exhibitions and competitions nationally and internationally.
Hriso joined the department in 2008 and was tasked with developing an undergraduate degree in digital animation and to recruit for the new graduate degree in digital animation. He noted that there are only three or four institutions in the state with digital animation degrees, and enrollment in both the department’s undergraduate and graduate programs continues to grow.
Art has been part of Missouri Western’s curriculum since the University’s earliest beginnings as St. Joseph Junior College. When Missouri Western became a four-year college and moved to its present campus in 1969, Potter Hall was under construction. When the building was completed in 1971, the Department of Art moved in.
Space was at a premium almost from the start, but a two-story addition on the northeast corner of Potter Hall in 1986 gave the department some growing room. The new space contained offices, studios for sculpture, ceramics, photography, painting and lithography, and an art gallery.
Prior to the addition, ceramics classes had been held in a farmhouse on the east side of campus, off 50th St. Spring rains could always be counted on to bring leaking walls, a muddy road leading up to the house and an occasional snake inside, so the new space was welcomed with much excitement from both students and faculty members.
An entry from Missouri Western was one of four pieces of canoe-themed art that was installed in Ann Arbor, Michigan last summer. The Missouri Western entry, “Turbine,” won a public vote to be part of the Canoe Imagine Art installation. The entry was designed by students Heather Lafromboise, center; Jake Proffit, right; Neil Lawley, assistant professor of art and director of sculpture, left; and construction professional Dustin Lafromboise, not pictured.
Hriso said today, space in Potter Hall is again at a premium. He noted that the number of art majors has doubled over the past 20 years, and more classrooms, computer labs and larger studios are needed. Potter Hall has been listed as one of the priorities in the Centennial Capital Campaign, and extra space is in the plans.
“It’s all about accommodating our students,” Hriso said.
Gov. Nixon’s recent Building Affordability initiative earmarked $4.8 million for Missouri Western, and some of those funds will be used to upgrade Potter Hall, especially its infrastructure and heating and cooling systems.
But for now, Department of Art students will use the space they have to create, paint, throw, draw, design and sculpt as they work toward their bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Patrick Larsen ’15: Mad potter
When Patrick Larsen ’15 graduated from Missouri Western last May with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art, he fulfilled a long-time ambition of his and opened up Mad Potter Studio, a working ceramics studio in Weston, Missouri.
Larsen, a native of Weston, enrolled at Missouri Western in 2011 with no college credits, but with a solid goal: “to put a degree behind 30 years of carving and sculpting to propel me into a life as an artist.”
He considers himself a hands-on person, so he thrived in the studio classes.
“I liked most of my professors, but a few that really stand out are David Harris in ceramics, Eric Fuson in 2D design and drawing, Teresa Harris in graphic design and Kathy Liao in printmaking,” Larsen said. “They present themselves as genuine people with an enormous knowledge base and a passion for teaching.”
He did enjoy two non-art classes, he said, chemistry and geology.
“I found that they both applied directly to ceramics. I was already using chemicals and elements that I learned about in chemistry and geology, so it was interesting to learn how the elements naturally occur and to understand the reactions I was observing by mixing chemicals and elements and introducing to the temperatures of the kiln.”
For three years, Larsen volunteered to demonstrate his skill with a potter’s wheel at the MWSU Foundation’s appreciation reception, and he was a big hit with attendees.
His studio opened in May 2015, and so far, he said business has been good. Although he is not on Main St. in Weston, his studio is close by and can be seen from the main thoroughfare.
“I am a bit of an entrepreneur and enjoy working for myself,” Larsen said. “I enjoy being an active participant in creation.”
Art Achievements
Department of Art faculty members, students and alumni are recognized nationally and internationally for their work. The following are some of their accomplishments in the past year:
- At the ADDY Awards, the world’s largest advertising competition with over 50,000 entries annually, Jeremy Todd ’13, from Design Ranch, won a Gold Addy for Best of Show; Brandon Todd ’06, from Bic Media, won two Gold Addys for Tre Point Agency; Katie Roebling Pearson ’11, with Salva O’Renick, won two Gold Addys and one Silver Addy; and Dana Rudolph ’11, with Hallmark, won a Gold Addy.
- Jeremy Todd also had his work published in HOW magazine, an award-winning design periodical. His poster series for the Unicorn Theatre was also displayed on the HOW website and in Communication Arts, the largest international trade journal of visual communications.
- Debra Potter ’13 placed first in the Off the Table National Ceramics Exhibition.
- Dana Rudolph ’11, who is also an adjunct instructor of design for Missouri Western, had her restaurant identity system selected to be included in the blog, “Best Design Option.”
- Student Shaina Mixon’s poster design was selected from over 60 entries to advertise the international soundscape Festival in Italy.
- Mark Bush Jr., a sculpture student, was accepted into four juried exhibitions. His sculpture, “Scribble,” was the only sculpture selected to be displayed in front of the Brookings, South Dakota Art Council for one year in a national competition.
- Associate professor of art and department chair Pete Hriso’s film, “Argentina,” was selected to be part of the film screening of the 3rd International Motion Festival in Nicosia, Cyprus. Seventy-four films were selected from more than 583 entries from 48 countries.
- Teresa Harris, associate professor of art, had two mixed-media pieces accepted into the 30thAnnual International Exhibition at the Meadows Gallery in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Tyler. The university also purchased one of her pieces for its permanent collection. Another one of her works was accepted into an exhibit at the Shirt Factory Gallery in Glen Falls, New York.
- Kathy Liao, associate professor of art, exhibited at the 28th Annual McNeese Works on Paper Exhibition at McNeese State University in Louisiana.