Art Research Area

Sarah Hardesty’s drawings, paintings, and installations reference geologic and environmental happenings and incorporate personal experience with layering of time, space, and reflection. Her textural and minimal work interweaves geological structural shifts with aspects of the human experience such as strength, resilience, and change. Exhibitions include VisArts, MD; ISE Foundation, NYC; Davidson Contemporary, NYC; MPG Gallery, Boston; Wheaton College, MA; and the Tucson Museum of Art, AZ. Residencies include MacDowell, Wassaic Project, Islip Art Museum, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Vermont Studio Center. Awards include Fairfax Artist Grant, VFIC, and Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Joe Hicks’s work in the ceramics studio provides experimentation with a variety of production methods and develops new aesthetics in the creation of ceramic vessels and 3-dimensional designs. Students integrate technologies like 3D design software and 3D printing methods to discover new design possibilities, and advance manufacturing techniques related to industries and disciplines represented throughout the School of Design and Art.

Mary Proenza’s primary creative scholarship is a memoir in progress, told through visual art and writing. In the narrative, the process of making visual art is a lens for examining the past. Set in three California cities, the story traces the final decade of my mother’s life–I was ten to twenty–as the family of six coped with her disabilities and immobilizing accidents related to polio and with both parents alcoholism. From the start, the story is about creativity as a way of feeling, thinking, and problem-solving. Ultimately, it’s a memoir of resilience and finding one’s place through creativity.