Visual Arts Graduate Katie Waugh Wins ‘Best of Show’ at Prestigious Festival
By Randy Meline
Graceland University artist Katie Waugh, of Platteville, Wisconsin, won
Best of Show among 24 "Emerging Iowa Artists" featured June 29 to July 1, 2007, at the Des Moines Arts Festival. Besides the honor of placing first at one of the country's most prestigious arts festivals (it drew more than 200,000 visitors this year), Katie also took home a prize of $1,000.
Katie just graduated from Graceland in May 2007 with a degree in visual art. New Graceland President John Sellars and Bette Sellars were at the festival and stopped by to visit with Katie and Eric Mercer, of Monetville, Ontario, a Graceland artist who also participated in the festival. President Sellars was delighted Katie won the competition. “Graceland is honored by the work of these fine young artists," he said. "They have made the most of their educational opportunities in the visual arts at Graceland. We are proud of their achievement.”
Fine Arts Division Chair Julia Franklin, who, with many other Gracelanders, posed for photos at the festival with Katie and Eric, and the Sellars, said she could not be more proud of Katie. "She has worked so hard and her art has come so far.”
Katie’s response to winning over young artists from the three, big state universities in Iowa was one of shock at first. The award was announced at a Saturday morning meeting for artists. “I sat way in the back so when they said my name, it took a long time to get to the front of the room.” She kind of had the jitters, but that quickly turned to excitement. She said, “I really do feel like I share this award with so many other people who helped me get to this point: Eric, my teachers, my family and all the help from Graceland. I hope this helps other students in the art department at Graceland feel encouraged to pursue professional art opportunities (it has helped me feel more secure about supporting myself as an artist). This whole experience has given me a better idea about what it means to be a working artist. One of my truly favorite things about the festival, though, was getting to meet so many interesting people and talk about art constantly! We got such amazing feedback, and I met so many great people who shared their stories and insight with me, as it related to my work, and I got a much bigger idea about how my work fits in the art scene as well as people's lives.”
Katie also reports that she and Eric had good luck selling their works to festival patrons. Katie and Eric spent long hours in The Helene Center for the Visual Arts creating work for their individual booths at the festival.
Before we go on, there is something else you need to know about Katie and Eric, and this story will sound familiar to Gracelanders. They met at Graceland, they attended classes together, they got to be friends and they fell in love. They said it was okay to mention that. Now, they are headed to graduate school together this Fall (2007) at the Savannah School of Art and Design, at the Atlanta, Georgia, campus, and yes, when pressed, their faces turn a little red but they admit they are thinking of marriage. A lot of couples meet and fall in love at Graceland. Artists too!
To visit with Katie and Eric is to glimpse the world of working artists, which is what they hope to be. A certified blacksmith, Eric is immersed in the labor-intensive process of working with steel to create sculptures and paintings. A technique he currently employs involves creating a painting on a rusty piece of steel, using chemicals, then stopping the chemical process at the right moment by applying beeswax. He will show a variety of work at the festival, including stand-alone, “blacksmith flowers,” Calla Lilies and Tulips. He will also be at work on sculpture so visitors and show judges can watch.
Eric’s work is eclectic to say the least. You may remember the huge inflated balloon which engulfed the Dwayne and Dottie Shannon Atrium of The Helene Center for the Visual Arts this Spring. That was his brainchild. He wanted people to step outside their daily boxes and feel “a little uncomfortable,” he said. For those who park behind The Helene Center and walk through The Shannon Atrium each day, it certainly did cause discomfort, but it was in the cause of art, and it was something very different that made you stop and think. This affable young man’s work is edgy and always a surprise, sometimes even to him. By the way, Eric is the guy who wore the amazing Mohawk hairstyle for two years here at Graceland. Oh, now you remember him!
Nearly 1,400 artists applied for entrance to the festival as “currently working artists” or “emerging artists.” All work displayed during the festival must be for sale, so Katie and Eric hustled (“this is our job this summer”) to create bodies of work. They could be found at The Helene Center day and night, working hard.
Katie’s oil and charcoal paintings are beautiful – that must be said at the outset. Her body of work to document aspects of old Kelley Hall (the torn-down art building used from the 1940s until The Helene Center opened in 2004) is somewhat dark and mysterious (“my work is sort of gloomy,” she said) but it beckons you to walk into the paintings, to just step inside and experience the atmosphere. Graceland has purchased some of these paintings and they are on exhibit in The Shannon Atrium.
Katie has moved on now to embroidery work on muslin, depicting the crickets she observed so closely while painting (especially in the women’s restroom, which became “my space”) at Kelley Hall. She embroiders the crickets, then creates her painting, in black paint, over the embroidered muslin. The effect is very stark, and quite lovely. There is a soft, lilting quality that makes you want to wrap up in one of the paintings on a chilly day. By the way, she learned to embroider from her grandmother, not at Graceland.
Down the road, after graduate school, after marriage, how do Katie and Eric (who are both 23 years old) see their lives evolving? That’s a fair question we all want answered, right? Well, according to this artist duo, they envision a lifetime of studio art mixed with teaching art, sort of like their heroes on the Graceland visual art faculty. Eric and Katie are quick to note how much they have learned from, and admire faculty members Julia Franklin (also Chair of the Fine Arts Division) and Rob Stephens. The admiration is mutual. Here is what Julia had to say about them: “They have accomplished so much over the last few years, and they have been superb leaders and role models in the department. They are focused young artists who are passionate about what they do. It has been exciting to watch their work develop and to see them find materials that allow them to express their ideas. Katie and Eric also have enviable work ethics. They practically live in The Helene Center and have exploited all the equipment and space the building has to offer. We were fortunate to have Eric and Katie study with us, and we are proud to call them Graceland Alumni.” No wonder Katie and Eric want to teach some day. They have had their own role models here at Graceland.
Many Gracelanders visited the Des Moines Arts Festival, to meet Katie and Eric, wish them good luck with graduate school, their art, and their lives. And, to buy something from them and send them off to Georgia with our love and best wishes, and a few bucks in their pockets.
