| BGSU artists take top awards in Toledo competition |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by David Dupont/Sentinel Staff Writer | ||
| Saturday, 27 August 2011 05:18 | ||
TOLEDO - Tom Muir's metal work has been exhibited around the world, including the White House. Being honored close to home in the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition is a still an honor that the distinguished professor of art at Bowling Green State University cherishes. The talent on display here, he said, is as great as in many national shows. Friday night Muir received Best of Show honors, as well as two other awards, at the 93rd area exhibit. The show continues in the museum's Canaday Gallery through Sept. 25. He led a field dominated by artists from Bowling Green State University. Artists affiliated with BGSU, including students, faculty and graduates, won 16 of the 24 awards presented Friday. That included Camille Isaacs, Portage, a senior art major who won a second award for her self portrait "Glowing." "This only re-enforces my belief that the BGSU School of Art is a gem," said Katrina Ray, director of the School of Art. Also, winning a second award was Sandra Jane Heard, of Perrysburg, for her fiber work "Vestiges of Emancipation." Muir shared the spotlight with Toledo painter Leslie Adams. Both received First Awards. Muir also received the Reder Memorial Award for Sculpture. Adams was chosen to present a solo exhibition at the museum. This is the first year the solo exhibition honor has been presented. Muir, explained his wife, Sharona Muir, created the silver tea pot despite suffering tendinitis in both arms. "It shows the dedication of the artist to realize his vision no matter what it takes," Sharona Muir said. The piece is not only shaped as a teapot, but works as one as well, she said. And yet it also stands as a piece of sculpture. Muir said he has been submitting work for 21 yeas to the area exhibit. In the first decade of that period, his work was accepted in alternating years. He quipped that the Best of Show Award was the museum's way of making up for those early omissions. While Muir has a long history with the exhibit, Isaacs was unaware of it until her mother, Beth Genson, who is also an artist, and her painting professor Dennis Wojtkiewicz at BGSU suggested she enter. Winning an award "means a lot because everyone else is so accomplished," the Elmwood graduate said. Heard, who studied in her native England and California, said that her Second Award was a validation of her decision to return to art after taking a 15-year break to raise her two sons and caring for her dying parents. She constructed "Vestiges of Emancipation," four rib-like structures, from antique measuring tapes. Museum Director Brian Kennedy, who juried the exhibition also with the museum's associate director Amy Gilman, said that the exhibit is "an incredible tradition ... something rare indeed in American art museums." Kennedy and Gilman reviewed more than 750 works submitted as digital images to select the 66 pieces by 65 artists included in the show. Kennedy, who was appointed director about a year ago, said seeing all this art "makes me very proud to be here." Marcell Dupay, of Bowling Green and a BGSU faculty member, received two awards, the Athena Art Society Award and the Toledo Federation of Art Societies Purchase Award. Others with ties to BGSU winning awards in the show were: Paul Geiger, Second Award; Ronald Jacomini and Spencer Cunningham, both Bowling Green, Third Awards; Thomas Marino, Third Award. Also honored were: Nicholas Althoff, Nadine Saylor and Janet Ballweg, all of Bowling Green; and Seder Burns, Debra Buchanan and Robin Schultes. |
||
| Last Updated on Monday, 29 August 2011 10:12 |
Front Page Stories
| Photographer finds picture perfect career 05/18/2013 | JACK CARLE Sentinel Sports Editor  Elizabeth Lee. (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune) A passion for photography ha [ ... ] |
Pemberville woman fights incurable disease 05/18/2013 | PETER KUEBECK Sentinel Staff Writer  Karen Williams talks about scleroderma with her husband Charles at their home in Pemberv [ ... ] | Other Front Page Articles | ||
