Art Academic Honors Awarded

Congratulations to the Ashland University Art Department Academic Honors Convocation Recipients - Senior Award : Alicia Jones, Junior Award: Danielle Smith and Sophomore Award : Sage Haines .

 Sage Haines

Danielle Smith

Alicia Jones

Senior Art Exhibition Awards Announced

The 2017 Senior Art Exhibition awards were presented by Daniel McDonald, chair of the art department, on Thursday April 20 at the Coburn Art Gallery opening reception.

Alicia Jones was selected as the senior art award recipient by the AU art department faculty. Alicia's’s artworks bring light to the stigmas of difficult topics that many face or fear facing and the taboo nature of the individuals going through them to talk about them. Through discussing topics like depression, drug abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, self-harm, suicide and eating disorders in her painting and ceramics installation, she focuses on the impact that families have on one another and the struggle to be honest about our problems with the ones we hold closest. Alicia's work highlights the behaviors of the parents and the often forgotten children who are watching and learning from them. The use of a dinner table setting 

Jones' shows the gathering of friends and family which is used within her work to suggest that a more open and honest atmosphere needs to be created.  

Jones, from Bellevue, Ohio, will graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting Concentration), a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Art History. Jones attended Bellevue High School where she graduated with an Honors Diploma. She is the daughter of Florence and Jeffery Jones. At Ashland, she is a member of Art club, Knitting club and President of Psych Club. Her honors include being inducted into Psi Chi Honor Society, Omicron Delta Kappa and receiving Outstanding Sophomore and Junior of the Year for the Art Department. She has been a part of three Student Juror Shows and has displayed her work twice at URCA (Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity). She is extremely thankful for the opportunities of studying abroad with AU in Germany in 2015 and for the art department trips to New Year City and Chicago to view famous works. After graduation Jones plans to receive her master in clinical health counseling to become an art therapist.

Honorable Mention Senior award recipient was Ahmed Bondagjy, a Sadi citizen living in Ashland, Ohio. Ahmed is the son of Hussain and Sana.  Ahmed will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Commercial Art-Graphic Design and Fine Arts. Bondaigy was awarded a scholarship from the government of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for his study at Ashland University. Originally, art was a challenge for Ahmed until it became his passion and he began embracing life to the happiest level. Ahmed is interested in art as a form of making an idea to come alive through design or sculpture. Ahmed was also the recipient of the sculpture award at the 2017 Juried Student Art Exhibition.

The Senior Art Exhibition runs from April 20-May 6, 2017.

AU Art Majors Participate in URCA Symposium

Spring 2017 Ashland University College of Arts & Sciences URCA Symposium featuring the following art majors: Dana Reed, Kiana Ziegler , Isaac Waterman, Abigail Nye, Emily Minns, Alicia Jones and Anamarie Coors. #URCA #AUART

Visiting Artist -Ron Hill April 6th

The Coburn Gallery is sponsoring the visit of illustrator and commercial artist Ron Hill to campus on April 6 as part of the Ashland University Art Department visiting artist program. Hill will be presenting a special artist lecture at 2 p.m. in the Ronk Lecture Hall located in the Dwight Schar College of Education Building. The event is free and open to the public.

Hill is known for his works as an illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist. He has been creating illustrations for books, newspapers and magazines since 1982. Hill was a vocational commercial art student in high school and earned a bachelor’s degree from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1982. He worked in art studios and ad agencies until 1993, when he went freelance as an illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist.

Beginning in 1999, his editorial cartoons have appeared in the Chagrin Valley Times, The Solon Times, The Geauga Times Courier, West Life, The North Ridgeville Press and The Avon Press. In 2008, one of his cartoons was selected as the best non-daily cartoon in Ohio by the Cleveland Press Club. He has illustrated 15 books in Westminster John Knox’s Armchair Theologian series, which is published in English, German, Japanese, Korean and Italian.

From 2002 until 2015, Hill taught a Career-Tech Program in Interactive Media at Alliance High School, while he continued to accept freelance illustration, design and cartoon commissions. Recently, he has begun the process of partnering with a local designer and illustrator to provide area businesses with print and web solutions for their advertising and promotional needs.

Hill also continues to provide quick-sketch, caricature entertainment for private, corporate and institutional events, and estimates he has easily drawn over 100,000 faces in 33 years.

He is a member of The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, The National Cartoonists Society and current president of the Northern Ohio Illustrators Society.

For more information, events and programming for the Coburn Gallery, call (419) 289-5652.