• About
  • Advertising
  • History
  • Staff
  • Contact

The Andersonian

The Anderson University Student Newspaper

Anderson University’s Student Newspaper

  • Campus News
  • Audio
  • Features
  • Arts & Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Video
  • COVID-19
You are here: Home / Arts & Culture / Wilson Gallery displays faculty work

Wilson Gallery displays faculty work

February 7, 2021 by Jacey Crawford

Until Feb. 26, the Wilson Gallery in the Krannert Fine Arts Center will be displaying works from four faculty members within the communication and design arts department.

These faculty members have juggled full-time teaching positions while maintaining their professional practices outside of the classroom. The exhibition boasts published books, paintings, photographs, videos and even 3D design work.

Instructor of Art Tai Lipan, Professor of Communication Dr. David Baird, Associate Professor of Visual Communication Jason Higgs and Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Arts Jack Lugar have their works of various media on display. 

“Universities celebrate the work that their faculty do in terms of research or book-writing,” said Lipan, who serves as AU’s director of galleries. “In our field, exhibiting our work is the way that we stay engaged with what faculty do in their professional development, so it’s important to make that space for faculty to do that.” 

Lipan, who joined AU faculty in 2002, is a working studio artist who has exhibited her work nationally. On display in the gallery are her recent paintings, which use hand-cut and painted layered wood to symbolically depict “the dramatic collisions of weather, light and the landscape.”

“I think it’s important for students to see the work and see where we’re coming from,” said Lipan. “It’s important for us to be transparent about where we’re coming from and I think it’s important for students to see it—for them to know [and] see that that we’re still making time and space to do professional work; maybe it’s not evident to students how hard that is to balance things—to exhibit your work while you’re trying to make work, exhibit work, have a full-time job and have a family.”

Lugar, who joined full-time faculty in 2016, has several items on display in the gallery—several photographs and a collection of his published books.

Lugar has seven published books, which range from children’s fiction to nonfiction comedy: “The Starving Artist’s Diet,” “Hollywood Break-In: Launch your Entertainment Career,” “Sessi and the Gate to Hel,” “Sessi and the Race to Odin” and the chapter book series “The Katz Pajamas.”

Prior to becoming an accomplished book author, Lugar was a television writer and producer, with writing credits including “Wanda at Large” and “From the Top.”

“When I was a kid… I did a lot of theater and then I did commercials and had an interest in that, especially film and television.” said Lugar. “ Freshman year of college, I had to write a paper and… I wrote it and the teacher liked it. Then, I took a creative writing course I think my junior year and just started getting a lot of positive feedback to what I was writing. It was like, ‘Oh, actually, I kind of get it. I understand these concepts of timing and flow.’” 

According to Lugar, this love of writing merged into his career of sitcom-writing and screenwriting. Upon leaving Los Angeles, he still found himself wanting to write and decided to explore the route of self-publishing.

“I was like, you know what—I don’t have a publisher to publish my books. I can do it on my own,” said Lugar. “Because I could do it on my own, that gave me the control. I started writing books and merged into doing the children’s books to the young adult novels. It was just this process—the freedom to be able to create and publish and have control and ownership.”

Higgs, who joined the department in 2015, is displaying his studio design pieces that were created with a 3D printer and laser cutter, a medium that he has been mastering over the course of his career.

“I’ve been doing this off and on not with my own stuff for 15 years or so,” said Higgs. “When I was at Ball State, I went to their engineering department to use their stuff there, and when I came here, Engineering moved in downstairs and they got a laser cutter. It’s just pretty much whenever I had access to it.”

Higgs explained that the most time-consuming aspect of these projects are the design process.

“You watch any YouTube video and think, ‘Oh, in three minutes, I can make something like this, obviously’—which is not the case,” said Higgs. 

To illustrate the process of trial-and-error that goes into each art piece, part of Higgs’s display in the gallery features his “failed” attempts at creating a commissioned piece.

“I mean, literally, this is a portion of all the failures that happened along the way to get to that,” said Higgs.

Baird, who has been at AU since 1990, serves as the chair of the department. His display consists of a collection of videos displayed on a computer screen in the gallery. 

While Baird’s interest in video is somewhat new, he has worked with visual media for much of his life.

“I’ve been interested in photography since I entered a sixth-grade photo contest at school. I submitted an unremarkable snapshot of my friend’s puppy,” said Baird. “I got more serious about it in college—learning how to use a darkroom and so on. I ended up doing a fair amount of work-related still photography for a decade or so, and then I continued to shoot for fun.”

However, as the field of communication began to dive into the worlds of audio and video production, Baird wanted to grow his knowledge.

“I wanted to get better at some of the new storytelling techniques, so I used a sabbatical to make progress on storytelling in audio and video,” said Baird.

Baird’s display in the gallery features video pieces he produced for fun, friends and even non-profit organizations.

“I often tell students that any medium can be powerful,” said Baird. “One person might prefer to be immersed in a piece of literature, while someone else loves the movies or theatre. It’s all great.”

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Top Story

Watch

Jacey Crawford discusses the latest developments on campus, including the creation of a new musical.

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Miles Morey discusses this week’s sports highlights.

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

More Video

Listen

Raven Watch 2020-12-07

On this episode of the Raven Watch Podcast, Jordan is joined by former Big Ten Player of the Year and Indiana Pacer Clark Kellogg as they discuss displaying your faith in sports, Clark’s career as a player and broadcaster and his game of “H.O.R.S.E.” with President Obama.

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Raven Watch 2020-12-03

On this episode, Jordan Yaney sits down with senior soccer player Drew Sonnefeldt to discuss his soccer career, trips to Europe, hobbies, and dreams of playing professional soccer

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Raven Watch 2020-09-24

In the third Raven Watch Podcast, Jordan Yaney talks with Hannah Hawkins, a senior basketball player, about starting her freshman year 0-25, becoming more of a leader on the team and facing their one-on-one battle on the court freshman year. Thanks to our sponsor, the Folgate Agency. Please contact Steve Folgate for Allstate insurance and […]

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Raven Watch 2020-09-18

In the second-ever Raven Watch Podcast, Jordan Yaney talks with Kennedy Parker, a senior baseball player, about finding out last season was canceled while the team was in Florida, why he decided to come back for a fifth year and play and what he expects out of this year’s team.

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

More Audio

Follow

andersonianAndersonian@andersonian·
2 Mar

Check out this week's video:

Reply on Twitter 1366814559072321537Retweet on Twitter 13668145590723215376Like on Twitter 136681455907232153711Twitter 1366814559072321537
Retweet on TwitterAndersonian Retweeted
AURavenWatchRaven Watch@AURavenWatch·
24 Feb

New Raven Watch is up now!

Tune in for highlights from this weekend’s basketball games, Rocket League playoffs, a volleyball update and more.

https://andersonian.com/2021/02/23/raven-watch-2021-02-23/

@AthleticsAU @andersonian @AURavensMBB @AURavensWBB @AUesports_ @Volleyball_AU @AndersonU @MilesMorey

Reply on Twitter 1364389375136714755Retweet on Twitter 13643893751367147554Like on Twitter 13643893751367147555Twitter 1364389375136714755
andersonianAndersonian@andersonian·
18 Feb

The AU Rocket League team has found success in their inaugural season.
Read more:
https://andersonian.com/2021/02/08/rocket-league-has-success-in-its-first-year/

Reply on Twitter 1362432324919517185Retweet on Twitter 13624323249195171851Like on Twitter 13624323249195171853Twitter 1362432324919517185
Load More...

The Andersonian, the student newspaper of Anderson University, Anderson, Ind., publishes a print edition and maintains this website. As a matter of institutional policy, the University administration does not review or edit Andersonian content prior to publication. The student editors are responsible for both print and online content. While the administration recognizes the role of the student press on a college campus and in journalism education, the views expressed in the Andersonian are not necessarily those of Anderson University.

© Andersonian 2017, All rights reserved · Site by Mere
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.