About
The MFA
For a select group of graduate students, we offer an advanced program which builds upon the mission of our undergraduate program. Each year we typicallly receive more than 40 applications for 3-5 openings in the program. Graduate application materials are due on Friday January 15, 2010 for review for the Fall of 2010.
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..
For more information visit the on-line graduate catalogue:
http://web.utk.edu/~gsinfo/toc.htm
We strongly encourage applicants to come to Knoxville to meet us and the current students and to see our facilities. If you are planning a visit, CLICK HERE for maps of Knoxville and the UT campus. CLICK HERE and then click on "zone 7" to see the map showing the location of the Art and Architecture Building. The UT Printshop is located in room 241 on the second floor, north-west corner. Visitors should also plan to visit Yee Haw Industries, our local letterpress shop located at 413 S. Gay Street and to visit local galleries and museums, including the Ewing Gallery, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and the student-run Gallery 1010.
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.
Leslie A. Grossman - III Year
email: eilselleslie@yahoo.com
URL: http://www.leslie-grossman.com
Education: Western Michigan University, BFA
STATEMENT:
My work over the last few years has revolved around the study of patterns and how they relate to the development and characterization of an individual. The definition of pattern is extremely broad as patterns are apparent everywhere and appear in many forms - naturally, synthetically, mathematically, psychologically, biologically, etc. They can be found in our art, our surroundings, our behaviors, religions, and daily routines. Patterns permeate every aspect of life and I believe it is important to observe and catalogue the roles they play as makers of our individuality.
Another interest of mine that is both visually and conceptually apparent in my work is process. Like patterns, processes are evident in multiple contexts; they can be seen as treatments, preparations, and developments. They also define series of actions or occurrences in a mental or physical capacity.
Recently I have developed processes that yield images derived from elements of nature. Using fire, water, or wind as a medium, I physically transfer to paper the marks made by these elements. The carbon residue from a pyrograph on a woodblock; rust caused by exposure rain, sun, and oxygen;
marks made on paper from the wind blowing a pencil suspended from a line tied to a tree branch. These are the means by which I am working presently – the physical mark made by nature through controlled yet entropic processes.
BIO:
Along with exhibiting in one-person exhibitions and many group shows around southwest Michigan and Knoxville, TN, Leslie Grossman acted as curator and organizer for an artist collective and gallery space for over 3 years and has also contributed in the conceptualization, organization, and production of various collaborative projects including screenprinted calendars, pop-up books, and craft bazaars, and DIY screenprint workshops. Currently, she is a Graduate Teaching Associate at UT and the Director of the UT student gallery, Gallery 1010.
Emmy Lingscheit - III Year
Email: emmylingscheit@gmail.com
URL: www.mnartists.org/emmy_lingscheit
Education: St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, BFA
“My work is motivated equally by my love of illustration and story telling, and my frustration with customs, practices, and power structures. The absurdities of the Western ideology to which I’m heir frequently occupy my mind and art-making practice, from the myths that sanitize this nation’s checkered history to contemporary myths that anticipate our glorious technological future. During the protracted labors involved in printmaking I build on my factual investigations and personal experiences of a subject through indulgence in the pleasures of image-making. When my work goes out into the world I want it to to absorb, unsettle, and provoke mindful self-reflection, to influence the narratives my society takes comfort in telling itself, ”
Emmy Lingscheit was born and raised in South Dakota. She earned her BFA in painting at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, and also spent an influential semester studying art in Eastern Europe. She later settled in Minneapolis, where receipt of a Jerome Emerging Printmakers Residency in 2006 cemented her devotion to printmaking. Since 2007 she has been a regular studio assistant at Frogman’s Print & Paper Workshops in South Dakota, and has had the opportunity to work with and learn from artists from around the country and world. Emmy is currently a Graduate Teaching Associate in the foundations program and continues to participate regularly in national print portfolios and exhibitions.
Guen Montgomery - III Year
Email: guenmail@gmail.com
Url: http://guenmontgomery.com/
Education: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, BFA
“The artwork I make is similar to the contemporary country-western song. It is born from a deep hereditary inclination towards unselfconscious camp. I use a mix of narration and cliché to depict the both banal and extraordinary nature of human experience. I am interested in who we are and what we look like, and want my work to reflect the pleasure that comes with carefully drawing a person’s face. Building on classic portraiture and storytelling, I investigate the undiscriminating satisfaction we get from seeing other people recreated – knowing other people’s lives, and hearing their histories. My goal artistically is to be, like country music, as simultaneously accessible to and descriptive of the people it concerns. .”
Guen Montgomery graduated with a BFA in printmaking from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Born in Denver, Colorado, her family has roots in Scott County, Tennessee north of Knoxville.
Taryn Williams - III Year
Email: tannewilliams@gmail.com
Education: Washington University, St. Louis, MO, BFA
“Like so many of my whose imaginations have grown fat on and rendered insatiable by visually saturated media, I am inherently drawn to a graphic style. My influences include American and Japanese animation, American television and cinema, a myriad of comic books and graphic novels, as well as the overwhelming web of western and eastern art history. These styles and media call to mind the blithe playfulness of youth often corrupted by crass, or risqué subject matter. I choose to create tension between the somewhat disturbing content and subject matter and the guise of a more charming style to show how adult realities can corrupt even child-like images.
Regarding process, I want to create work in which each component acts as a screen for the others; by allowing murky glimpses of neuroses and nostalgia the work becomes subtle, wary and complex. As a whole I want my body of work to read as the visual representation of a complex and imaginative personality that is ostensibly placid but fraught with obsessions and insecurities.”
Taryn Williams received her BFA degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to this she graduated from University Highschool in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a Graduate Teaching Assistant working in the Foundations Program.
Greg Daiker - II 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 - II 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 - II 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 – I 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 – I 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 – I Year
Email:mouse2cat@gmail.com
Education:
University of Georgia, BFA<br />
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.