AU Art Alumni News

Ashland University Art Alumnus Matthew Schiemann is featured in September 2015 issue of Ceramics Monthly- "From Idea to Finished Form".

Matt Schiemann's flask, 6 in. (15 cm) in height, wheel-thrown stoneware, natural ash glaze, wood fired, 2014.

Matthew Schiemann is a second-generation potter that grew up watching and helping his dad create ceramic works. This early exposure taught Matt to appreciate the handmade object and eventually to choose the field of ceramics for himself. He received his Bachelors of Arts in Sculpture and Ceramics from Ashland University in 2005 and his Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2009.

While in graduate school, Matt worked as Harris Deller’s personal assistant and as a Teaching Assistant for the wheel throwing and industrial design courses. During this time, he began building his own body of work focused on functional pottery fired in atmospheric kilns.

After graduating from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Matt was accepted as an artist in residence at the St. Petersburg Clay Company. Shortly after being accepted as A.I.R. Matt became an adjunct professor at Eckerd College for PEL program’s ceramics department. In October of 2010, Matt became co-owner/director of the St. Petersburg Clay Company.
Matthew is now currently the manager for the St. Pete Clay Artist in Residence Program at the Morean Center for Clay and is an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College.

Ashland University Art Alumnus -Joshua Risner Artist Talk- Rediscovering Allegory

Thursday September 10- 6:00 PM · Mansfield Art Center

Joshua Adam Risner grew up in rural central Ohio.  Following high school he pursued a career in commercial art holding jobs such as sign painter, graphic designer, creative director and business owner.  At the age of thirty he left the commercial art industry to attend Ashland University where he earned a BFA in painting with an art history minor.  After finishing his undergraduate degree Risner moved to Michigan to pursue a graduate degree.   He earned his MFA from Kendall College of Art and Design where he received a full tuition fellowship.  He has won numerous awards for his oil paintings and drawings.  He considers his artwork to be a material representation of the process within himself that seeks to understand his reality.  Risner’s work might best be described as allegorical images that appear to be from the past, but speak a language that could only come from the present.  He considers them amalgamations of the entirety of human history, not just a fragment of his contemporary situation dislocated from history.  They are objects culminating from the past and filtered through the present.  His current research interests include topics related to allegory and narrative. 

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