About the MFA
About the MFA | Admission Requirements | Current MFA Students
For a select group of graduate students, we offer an advanced program that has been ranked among the top four printmaking programs for the past decade. Our program is comprehensive, encompassing traditional as well and new media and approaches. Additionally, our program is known for a commitment to connecting theory to practice. Each year we typically receive more than 50 applications for 2-4 openings in the program.
Graduate students are required to place a greater emphasis on applying theory to the development of a mature body of work. Our program is also intended to provide preparatory experiences for college level teaching for students on a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. Click here to see what our current graduate students have been doing.
We strongly encourage applicants to come to Knoxville to meet us and the current students and to see our facilities. The UT Printshop is located in room 241 on the second floor, north-west corner.
To see what our former MFA students are doing today, click here. Current MFA students are listed below. Prospective students are welcome to contact these individuals to inquire about the program.
Current MFA Students
About the MFA | Admission Requirements | Current MFA Students
Greg Daiker - III Year
Email: gdaiker@hotmail.com
URL : www.daikerart.com
Education: Kansas City Art Institute, BFA
"I have three main loves when it comes to art making; architecture, pattern, and a sense of the fantastical. Growing up in the suburbs of north Texas, I was bred in a society of expansion and mass production. The uniformity of the suburban life both disgusts and inspires me. The idea of repetition and pattern is ever-present in day-to-day life, visually as well as metaphysically. I look upon my interests in both architecture and pattern; simultaneously integrating the two into fantastical futuristic environments. My work integrates the ideas of overpopulation and over-expansion into an imaginary, interlinking, ever expanding futuristic society of my own creation."
Greg Daiker was born in Dallas, TX. He moved to Plano, TX in eighth grade. The land was cheap and the houses were big, which was convenient for he is the eldest of five. Greg attended undergraduate school at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he received a BFA with an emphasis in Printmaking. For the past three years he has held the position of Digital Technician in the Printmaking Department at KCAI. He has also, for the past year, been the first acting artist in residence at the Hobb’s studio building at the Center for Ink and Paper Arts, the letterpress shop in the basement.
Ashton Ludden - III Year
Email:aludden10@gmail.com
URL :http://www.ashtonludden.com/
Education:
Emporia State University, BFA
"My interest in the meat industry was sparked while listening to a man recount some of his experiences as a worker in a slaughterhouse. I realized that, up until that point, I had never given much thought, if any, to our contemporary practices relating to food consumption and was primarily concerned with price and taste. The more I thought about where my food, the more I discovered how little I knew. Through numerous readings, as well as speaking with local butchers, employees of large meat processing corporations, and local ranchers, I have gained insight into the multi-faceted process of raising, slaughtering, rendering, advertising and consuming the flesh of another species. The idea of selling the meat of another creature for profit, the taking of one being's life in order to fuel the life of another, and the displaying of beautiful packages of death are all things that I find absolutely intriguing and unbelievably surreal. This body of work is not meant to portray what I believe is right or wrong but rather is evidence of my investigation of the meat processing industry, our relationships with subordinate beasts, and the consumptive habits of our kind."
Ashton Ludden was born in Overland Park, Kansas in 1986 and has moved throughout the Midwest. Her experiences living in various locations from rural towns in Missouri to larger cities just east of Chicago and finally to east Kansas suburbia have influenced her interest in animals’ function in a capitalist nation. In the fall 2007, she created her first print, an engraving study of Albrect Dürer, and immediately fell in love with the process thus becoming a passionate printmaker and engraver. In December 2009, she received her BFA in Printmaking and Engraving Arts from Emporia State University. She has been a part of Frogman’s Print & Paper Workshop since 2008 and served as a studio assistant for the 2010 workshop. Ludden was also the recipient of the 2009 Kansas Arts Commission Emerging Artist Award Fellowship. Most recently, she was invited to participate in the “States of the State: A Contemporary Survey of American Printmaking - Mezzotint/Engraving Portfolio,” curated by Dirty Printmakers of America. She is currently a Graduate Teaching Assistant.
Clifton Riley - III Year
Email:clifton.riley@yahoo.com
Education:
Texas State University-San Marcos, BFA
"Our memories are not exact reproductions of what we have experienced. Instead, they are representations composed of certain details we perceived at a particular place and time. As we recall something, our minds must then fill in the missing information to complete the image of the event. I am interested in this uncertainty of memory. Sometimes we can recall a great deal about something and at other times very little. Details we are sure we remember can change. Colors might shift, the order of items may rearrange or perhaps time will expand or condense. Even fragments of different memories can be confused as happening at the same time. Our memory is not a rigid system of connections but a pliable network of associations."
Clif Riley was born and raised in the panhandle of Texas where he began studying graphic design. Just prior to receiving his associate degree, he moved to San Marcos, Texas to continue working towards a BFA. While at Texas State University, Clif was introduced to printmaking and he quickly became addicted. He added printmaking as a second major, although it became his primary interest, and graduated in the spring of 2006. Clif interned at Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas his last semester and was hired as a printer upon graduation. In 2007, Clif was the artist in residence at Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy and also co-founded Interbirth Books, a small press dedicated to producing handcrafted books of poetry, prose, plays, and prints.
Daniel Ogletree - II Year
Email:daniel.ogletree@gmail.com
Education:
Baylor University, BFA
“My recent prints are two-dimensional ‘still life’ stage settings which I use to explore the boundaries of traditional printmaking when compared to theater - more specifically, marionette theater. Most works of art are instigated by an unseen creative force: in the case of marionette theater, hands. Usually hidden, I feature them prominently as symbols of manipulation: they imply motion and allow a sense of the passage of time. The limitations of two-dimension art are such that the end result (in this case a woodcut) is, unlike theater, frozen in time. But behind every image is a story; the visible result is the culmination of the artist’s journey, and hints and traces of this journey can be found in the artist’s marks. Jasper Johns was aware of this and in his attempt to make a truly two-dimensional drawing he intentionally left behind traces of his mark-making. Likewise, I want the unseen act of cutting to breathe life, motion, and the drama of process into the finished print.”
Daniel Ogletree was born and raised in Pearland, Texas - a leafy bedroom community south of Houston - the comfortable monotony of life in the suburbs punctuated only by an occasional family road trip into the mountains of the West. After graduating high school, he moved to Waco, TX to pursue a degree in Computer Science at Baylor University. The annual road trips continued, but it was on a lengthy and particularly introspective journey east in 2006 that he spent some time seriously considering the pros and cons of a stable career and the comfortable, monotonous life that comes with it. He switched to a BFA in studio art without much of a plan, and in due time he discovered printmaking in a course taught by Indiana University alumnus Berry Klingman. What started with flowcharts ended with woodcuts and Daniel graduated in 2010 with a BFA in Printmaking. He has worked since then in the thriving metropolis that is Waco, TX, splitting time between printmaking and working with local artists as manager of the Croft Art Gallery.
Jennifer Scheuer - II Year
Email:jenscheuer@yahoo.com
Education:
Minnesota State University, BFA
“Theories, history, and dogma - provide the origin for my work. Raised with a deep sense of spirituality and appreciation for votives and physical objects used to honor the holy, this visual language remains in my subconcious. As I became a figurative artist concerned with social and political issues, the argument that the body cannot escape objectification felt limiting and outdated, so I sought to research the contemporary contextualization of the body in art. Through this research, I came to realize the body as object fit my feminist voice and religious upbringing. My work adopts the use of hierarchy. Often, religious imagery uses the physical body as a metaphor or literal translation to complex theories of holiness; in a post-modern fashion - my work follows suit using the body to bring lightness to serious issues of spirituality,social order, and aesthetic idealism. My prints often reference the classical and medieval period, but in a contemporary dialogue in question with the values of traditional art history. The nude often appears in my work as a pun on idealism, such as in Sacryl Idyllic Plaques; fleshy fragmented Roman sculptures float in an ideal landscape on wall plaques, questioning the bridge between high and low art. My recent work explores the print as a hands-on object and installation."
Jen Scheuer comes to the University of Tennessee Knoxville after attending the Tamarind Institute's Professional Printer Training Program this past year. During the summer of 2011 she is collaborating with regional artists at the Plains Art Museum of Fargo, ND to create limited-editioned prints. Scheuer is passionate to share printmaking with artists as a printer and educator, and wants to start a contract/publishing studio. In 2009, she recieved a BFA in Printmaking and minor in Art History from Minnesota State University Moorhead. In the Fall of 2009, Scheuer offered demonstrations and tours as an intern at the Hannaher's Inc. Print Studio in the Plains Art Museum. Here, she first collaborated with regional artists as an apprentice to the printer John Volk. During the summer of 2009, she spent a month in New York City, with studio space at the New York Academy of Art. Prior to attending college, she joined the AmeriCorps to serve her community and gain experience with non-profits, where she first visited Tennessee in March 2004 to help build The Cumberland Trail.
Hannah Skoonberg - II Year
Email:mouse2cat@gmail.com
Education:
University of Georgia, BFA
URL www.skoonberg.com
“In my recent work I have been using the subject of landscape and trees to explore ideas about spirituality and Zen Buddhism. I am interested in the relationship between carving and meditation and in the tradition of eastern woodblock printmaking. My recent prints have an obsessive attention to detail and complexity. Through that obsession, carving the block becomes a devotional and spiritual process. My prints are about an emotional connection between the viewer and the forest as other.”
Hannah Skoonberg grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She discovered printmaking in high school and immediately fell in love with the medium. She continued in college and earned her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2009. After gradating she became involved with an Atlanta based community studio, The Atlanta Printmakers Studio. There she was engaged in community outreach, collaborative projects and was the recipient of the Emerging Artist Residency in 2010. She has continued to show her prints in solo and group shows in private and commercial galleries, including Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville.
James Boychuck-Hunter - I Year
Email: jboychuk@utk.edu
URL:jamesb-h.blogspot.com
Education: University of Alberta, BFA
“I am intrigued by uninhabited sites and discarded objects. I wonder about the histories of these spaces, and if an inanimate object or a location can be imbued with a lasting impression or character as a result of an interaction with a dramatic moment. I am curious about how one continues to interact with those ephemeral moments through environment and artifact. My work aims to address and explore a space of deductive reflection by cultivating a relationship between memory, space, object and intuitive assumption. My process involves photographing objects and spaces. This documentation is followed by a contemplation of how the character of a site affects us, what impact does it have on our physical, mental and emotional state?, how do we function, or interact within that space. There is a sensitivity and an awareness toward the assumptions we make about the histories of those spaces as well as the objects/ artifacts that have been left behind; what kinds of events, personal interactions or inhabitations have occurred throughout the existence of a now vacant site and how do we relate to that history as contemporary viewers.”
James Boychuk-Hunter hails from the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. He was raised in a Ukrainian Socialist Feminist Housing Cooperative in Edmonton, Alberta. In his youth he was known in the neighborhood for his skills in raft building and having good luck in games of chance, specifically those involving dice, cards and coins. In 2009 he earned a BFA from the University of Alberta specializing in printmaking and drawing. Since this time he has lived in the city of Montreal, Quebec and has produced artwork independently as well as having participated in an artist residency at Ateliers Graff, an artist run center devoted to the facilitation and promotion of print based artwork. Boychuk-Hunter has exhibited in group shows, traveling exhibitions, and printmaking biennials in western Canada and Montreal.
Raluca Iancu - I Year
Email:iancu.r@gmail.com
Website: www.ralu.ca
Education: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (BFA)
“Just what is it about a car crash that makes it impossible to look away? Is it a case of morbid fascination? An obsession that has as much to do with fear of death as with blatant curiosity? Crashes, of all kinds, are trivialized by their frequent appearances across the spectrum of information mediums. The constant overexposure to images of collisions is desensitizing and leads to a lack of understanding of the damage caused as well as a loss of empathy for the victims. As the comprehension of these events shifts from a mature viewpoint to a childish one, cars and other vehicles become toys for adults rather than machines with serious consequences. My recent work is presented in an unexpectedly joyful and upbeat manner, in such a way as to attract the viewer. Through the use of bright primary colors and coloring-book line work, the subject matter becomes easier to digest as it is relegated to the context of childhood. At a glance, the crashes look like candy, inoffensive until the viewer casts a second look. Upon that closer look, they turn out to be traumatic events with potential casualties and, just as on television, the difference between truth and fiction is ambiguous. The aim is to show the viewer the trivialized nature of these events and to facilitate their coming to terms with their own potential desensitization.”
Raluca Iancu would like it known that she has never been involved in a horrific crash - that tumble on her bike while riding in Montreal notwithstanding. Nevertheless there’s something about vehicle collisions that she can’t look away from, returning to them as inspiration time and again. She finished her BFA in Fine Arts, Printmaking, at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in December 2011, with a double minor in Art History and Ceramics. In April 2012, Raluca was the Visiting Artist of the month at St. Michael's Printshop in St. John's, Newfoundland, and in June 2012 she completed an International Artist Residency at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City.
About the MFA | Admission Requirements
In order to become a candidate in a degree program, the applicant must be admitted by the Graduate School upon the recommendation of the School of Art. Both the Graduate School and the School of Art have specific requirements and application procedures which must be satisfied by the application.
School of Art Graduate Admission Links
MFA Information
MFA Application
MFA Assistantships + Financial Aid
School of Art Graduate Handbook
UT Graduate Admission Links
Graduate School
Graduate Admissions
UTK Catalog
Questions or comments should be directed to:
Amanda Hauman
Program Resource Specialist
School of Art
213 Art & Architecture Bldg.
1715 Volunteer Blvd.
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-2410
(865) 974-3407
FAX: (865) 974-3198
E-mail: ahauman@utk.edu