The Ashland University Art
Department will host a retirement reception for Charles Caldemeyer in the
Coburn Art Gallery, on Thursday, May 1 from noon to 1:00 p.m. Faculty, staff, students and friends are
welcome to come and wish him well.
Caldemeyer has been a professor
of art at Ashland University since 1990, teaching all levels of painting as
well as color theory and drawing courses. He
leaves behind a lasting impact on the Art Department. Caldemeyer served as chair of the Art
Department from 2003-2006. In the early
90s he designed the university’s digital art coursework and created the review
process which is used to track the overall artistic development of art majors. He was responsible for creating the
department’s Computer Art and Graphics Programming degree in conjunction with
the Math & Computer Science Department in the 1990s. He was also instrumental in creating and
advocating for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
However, Caldemeyer's real
love is painting. His studio work has
won numerous awards at the regional, national and international levels. In his current Structures series he employs a
variety of artistic media to create a series of detailed
panels arranged along a central axis. Each panel provides a rich layer of
stories, icons, and connections to the other scenes depicted, creating a
complex whole work worthy of study at length.
His Grids series emphasizes pattern and color with large oil-on-canvas
abstractions, as well as landscape forms.
Samples
of his artwork can be viewed at the Pittsburgh-based “Box Heart
Gallery” (www.boxartgallery.com).
Caldemeyer received a B.A.
in painting from the University of South Florida in 1986 and an M.F.A. from
Washington University in St. Louis in 1990.
While at Ashland University, he also served four-terms as a faculty
senator from the College of Arts & Sciences, and he has served on numerous
committees, including seven years on the Budget Committee, two academic review
committees, the College of Arts & Sciences Tenure and Promotion Committee
and the Core Advisory Council.
