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Molly Rausch, visual artist

August 30 – October 20

Rausch received her M.F.A. from the State University of New York, New Paltz (2003), and a B.A. in art from St. Mary’s College of Maryland (1997). She has taught foundation courses at SUNY New Paltz. She has served as an intern at Pyramid Atlantic, and received several graduate fellowships and the Outstanding Graduate Award. Her work has been shown in exhibitions at La Casa Roja Gallery, Hunter College Gallery, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the State University of New York at New Paltz.
During a residency she plans to work in printmaking and artist books. Molly will also teach a 1-credit half-semester studio art course, Ex Libris, which examines the parallels between text-based and image-based constructions. She will present a public lecture on her work on Monday, September 22 at 4:45 in Library 321. Molly will also interact with art students by offering individual studio critiques and participating in the SMP group critiques. She also proposes to extend the faculty interview project she carried out while a graduate student at SUNY New Paltz that addresses faculty in their roles as professor, artist and family member.

Garrett Byrnes, composer

September 2- October 10

Byrnes received a Bachelor of Music from The Boston Conservatory in 1995 and a Masters degree in 1999 from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate at Indiana University where he has served as associate instructor of composition. Byrnes’ compositions have been performed in the United States, Europe and Asia. He has received readings and performances by organizations including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, Chesapeake Youth Repertory Orchestra and CYSO Flute Choir, Aspen Summer Festival Orchestra, orchestras of Indiana University and Peabody Institute, Kylix new music ensemble, Tonus Percussion Group and the Tarab cello ensemble as well as notable soloists. He has received awards and grants from the American Music Center, National Association of Composers, USA International Harp Competition, Southeastern Composers League, Tampa Bay Composers Forum, ASCAP, The Boston Conservatory, the Deans’ Prize from Indiana University and fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Yaddo. Recent compositions include Cosmopolitan Etudes (Book 1) for piano, Five Pieces for Cello & Piano, Triptyclysm for percussion trio and Persist for eight cellos.

During his residency Byrnes will be working on the Piano Concerto commissioned by The Indiana University New Music Ensemble, which is scheduled to be premiered by pianist Ji-Hye Chang in February 2004.

Reni Gower, visual artist

October 13-24

Gower currently resides in Richmond, Virginia where she is an Associate Professor in the Painting and Printmaking Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds a B.F.A. from Syracuse University, a M.F.A. from University of Minnesota-Duluth, and a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 1974, Reni Gower has exhibited her artwork extensively throughout the country; including the Erie Museum of Art, Erie, PA; Villa Terrace Decorative Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC; Virginia Museum of Art, Richmond, VA; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY; Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, MN; A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY; Anton Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami, FL; Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA. Her work has been showcased internationally as well in Korea, Israel, Belgium, Peru, England, Moldova, and Moscow. Ms. Gower has received numerous grants and awards including a NEA / SECCA Southeastern Artist Fellowship, University Faculty Grants for Teaching Excellence, and two Ford Foundation Grants awarded through Syracuse University. Her work is represented in various collections including the Library of Congress Print Collection; Pleasant Company / Mattel, Inc; the American Embassies in Lima, Peru and Osaka, Japan; Media General, Inc; and the Federal Reserve Bank.

Gower’s paintings will be part of the collaborative exhibition between poets and painters, Pivot Points on exhibition in the Boyden Gallery, Montgomery Hall, October 20-November 15, 2003. During her residency she will work on two series of artworks on paper, which will be exhibited in two upcoming exhibitions. During her residency she will attend the Boyden Gallery exhibition, participate in the gallery talk at the opening reception on Wed. October 22, 5-6pm, and meet informally with students in printmaking and painting.

Marlys West, poet

Oct. 27 – November 6

West, a native of Louisiana, graduated from St. Mary's College of Maryland in 1988 with a BA in English. She earned an MFA in poetry from the Michener Center for Writers in Texas and an MA in literature from the University of Virginia. Her work has appeared in literary journals, anthologies and newspapers. The University of Akron Press published her book of poems, "Notes for a Late-Blooming Martyr," of which Naomi Shihab Nye has said, "Marlys West's poems do jazz with our brain. What a refreshing wonder she is! We thank her for the stunning dazzle-dare of her lines and their spiky twists of art." She is a 2002-2003 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient in poetry for 2003- 2004.

While in residence, West will be polishing her new manuscript of poetry, and will be available to meet with students. She will present a reading of her new work to the campus community on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Charles Burmeister, Film maker and scriptwriter

Oct. 27 – November 6

Burmeister's short films have appeared at the Austin Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, San Antonio Film Festival, and the VIDEOEX Experimental Film Festival in Zurich, Switzerland. His first feature-length film, a documentary film called "The King of Sixth Street," premiered at the Independent Film Festival of Boston 2003 where it won the Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature. A screenwriter who has optioned a script, been hired for a rewrite and won several awards, he was a recipient of a Michener Fellowship in Writing at the University of Texas at Austin where he received his MFA in screenwriting in 1998. He is currently developing a feature narrative film he plans to direct in 2004.

While in residence, Burmeister will be working on the script and storyboard for his next film, and will also have time to meet with students and will present a screening of some of his films.

Laura Elrick

Nov. 13-16

Laura Elrick's poetry and essays have appeared in numerous places, including Tripwire, Combo, The Tangent, Crayon, Torquere (Canada), and Quid (UK). She lives in New York City where she is a co-curator for the Segue on the Bowery reading series. Her first book, sKincerity, was published this year by Krupskaya Press.

Kristen Prevallet

Nov. 13-16

Kristin Prevallet is a cultural worker who writes essays, translates from the French, makes videos, teaches, revolts, and collaborates with visual artists. Her recent book of poems is Scratch Sides: Poetry, Documentation, and Image-text Projects. She lives in Brooklyn.

Elrick and Prevallet will use their residency away from their busy Brooklyn schedules to compose new work.

Kimberly Thorpe, visual artist

December 1 –12, 2003

Thorpe earned an M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design (1996) and a B.A. in art from St. Mary’s College of Maryland (1994). Her paintings grow from an interest in landscape, abstraction and imaginary views of nature. She likes to paint in places where colors, shapes and lines coalesce to form images of nature. Her work has been exhibited at The Phillips Collection, Hunter Museum of American Art, School 33 Art Center, Touchstone Gallery, Georgetown University Hospital and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Thorpe has been the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards including several grants from the D.C. Commission on the Art and Humanities, Presidential Scholarship from the Rhode Island School of Design, and residency fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has taught courses in painting and drawing at Black Rock Center for the Arts, Montgomery College, Rockville Arts Place and Rhode Island School of Design. The Parish Gallery in Washington, D.C represents Thorpe’s work.

During her residency Thorpe plans to create multiple-plate monoprints and paintings directly from the landscape as well as imaginative monoprints and drawings with landscape elements. This work will also combine digital imaging to layer photographic images based on landscape with her work in printmaking, painting and drawing. She will present a public lecture on her work on December 2 at 8:30pm (MH 151) and will also meet with art students during her residency.

James Huckenpahler, visual artist

January 15- February 13

Huckenpahler, trained as a painter, now works primarily on a laptop. He is currently growing digital images that could be dermatological case studies... or LandSat photos. He is a former faculty member of the Corcoran College of Art and Design, and a former member of the Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran Advisory Board.
He is represented in Washington D.C. by FUSEBOX, and in Atlanta by Kiang Gallery. In addition to plans for solo exhibitions at both galleries, he will also be exhibiting with Joseph and John Dumbacher and Dan Steinhilber at 1708 Gallery in Richmond in the fall of 2004, and his work was recently included in Art on the Digital Edge at the Easton Art Academy Museum.

During a residency the artist will continue his work in digital imaging. He will also teach a half-semester seminar focused to the intersections between old and new technologies. He will also present a public lecture on his work and contemporary digital art, and interact with art students by offering individual studio critiques. Trained as a painter, Huckenpahler now composes most all of his creative work on a laptop and brings significant expertise in digital and time-based media to his work with students.

Christopher Moore, visual artist

January 15-30

Moore currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a B.A. from Hampshire College (1992) and an M.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design (1996). His work has been included in exhibitions at the Rotunda Gallery, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Printed Matter, Milton Hershey School Museum, and the Millennium Film Workshop. He has received residency fellowships by Galleri Stadpark in Austria, Blue Mountain Center and Pouch Cove in Newfoundland.

Moore will extend the boundaries of his work in sculpture to create new works in drawing and printmaking during a residency. His work concerns motion, function, love and amusement through an inventive use of materials that often combine painted plywood, aluminum, steel, fiberglass, bicycles, light bulbs and motors. During his residency Moore will offer a public lecture on this work.

Judith Hall, poet

February 24- March 6

Hall is the author of To Put The Mouth To, which was selected for the National Poetry Series, and Anatomy, Errata, winner of the Ohio State University Press publication award. Most recently she has published The Promised Folly (TriQuarterly Books / Northwestern University Press, 2003). Hall teaches at California Institute of Technology and has served as poetry editor of The Antioch Review since 1995. Hall is the recipient of many awards including an Individual Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Ohio State University Press Poetry Award in 1997, a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation in 1984 and the Margaret Bridgman Fellowship in Poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 1992. Hall earned her bachelor's degree (1973) from Clark University, a fine arts diploma (1976) from Corcoran School of Art and her master's degree (1979) from Johns Hopkins University. her poems have appeared in numerous publications including the New Republic, Best American Poetry, Paris Review and Yale Review and she has taught at several universities including Loyola College, St. Mary's College and UCLA.

While in residence at St. Mary's, Judith Hall will be working on her new manuscript, which has the working title of Last Supper in Milan. She will conduct a writing workshop on campus and present a reading of her work to the campus and local community on Tuesday, March 2.

April Vollmer, visual artist

March 11-April 5

Vollmer lives and works on Manhattan’s lower east side. She received her M.F.A. in printmaking from Hunter College in 1982. Focusing primarily on Japanese woodcut, she also works in the computer, often combining traditional and contemporary techniques. She has taught workshops at the Japan Society, the Lower East Side Printshop, Pyramid Atlantic and Dieu Donné Papermill. Her prints have been exhibited at The Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin and Marshall College, Western Wyoming Community College, Ceres Project Room, A.I.R. Gallery, Marymount Manhattan College, Manhattan Graphics Center, Islip Art Museum and the St. John’s University and internationally. Her work is in numerous collections including the University of Cambridge, American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Equitable Corporation.
During a residency Vollmer plans to continue work on her project that utilizes digital and handmade printing techniques: the Insect Mandala Prints create transcendental images through the repetition of shapes derived from insect forms. The artist creates prints inspired by the complex patterns from elements in nature. Using a digital camera and scanner to document details of nature, such as insects and flowers the artist brings these images into the computer to manipulate into layered, abstract compositions. Vollmer will lead printmaking sessions for art students focused to Japanese water-base woodblock printing, a non-toxic technique she often uses in her own work. The hanga woodcut is the traditional water-base woodcut technique used by the Japanese ukiyo-e masters in the 17th century. She will also present a public lecture on her work.

Deborah Grant, visual artist

April 7-21

Grant earned a B.F.A. at Columbia College in Chicago, studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and earned an M.F.A. at Tyler School of Art. Most recently she has been one of three artists-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and also participated in the A.I.M Program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. She has lectured on her work at Hunter College, Tyler School of Art, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The New School University, Montclair State University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Her work has been seen in a number of group exhibitions in New York at David Beitzel Gallery, Knoedler Gallery, Sara Meltzer Gallery, Triple Candie Gallery, The Bronx Museum, Roebling Hall, and Arena Gallery. The New York Times, and the New York Press, and New York Magazine reviewed her work in the Freestyle exhibition curated by Thelma Golden for the Studio Museum in Harlem. The New York Times featured her work in an article about the artists in residence at the SMH in Dec. 2002. Grant explains the genesis of her RANDOM SELECT series; “This series began eight years ago while I was sitting on the floor of my studio drawing on any old paper. The memories of private school dorms, psych wards, crack and smack dwellings, dead end bars in the afternoon, and the people that I met in these places, are the catalyst for my drawings and paintings. With the chaotic noise of the world that acts as a constant talk radio station in my head. I draw and paint the realities of life as a bad Bosch and Looney Tunes depiction….I decided to call my series RANDOM SELECT. RANDOM would be defined as any subject matter that was social, political, religious, and humorous imagery. While SELECT was the actual choice of subject matter and how it was depicted. The whole point was to take these random ideas and make them be seen as metaphors for the human condition. This is the key to my Pandora’s Box.”

While in residence at the college, Grant will continue work on a series of new mixed media works on chalkboards, and explore new approaches for her ideas in digital printmaking. During a residency the artist will present a public lecture on her work, and participate in the group critiques of SMP studio students and conduct individual studio visits.

Teresa Whittaker, storyteller

April 23 - May 2

Rhythm and a mercurial voice are trademarks of Teresa Whitaker's lively and joyous performances. Using guitar, Celtic harp, percussion and improvisation she engages audiences with their own inherent creativity. Blending beauty and humor she performs both original and traditional stories and songs from many different cultures. Recordings: In Gaia's Lap and Earth and Sky Lullaby. Residencies and workshops include: Storytelling and Creative Writing; Learning to Tell Stories; Bringing Stories to Life; Story/songs from Oral Histories), Heroine's Journey.

While in residence, Whittaker will be working on methodologies for collaborative and group story telling. Her residency will also provide her some much needed time and the opportunity think about the direction she wants to move with her own work as a story teller. She will meet several times with a small group students who are interested in using and creating myth as a means of telling stories about their own lives. She will give a presentation of some of her own new work on Thursday, April 29.