Sioux City

I've Been Making Ceramic Sauce Bowls, Too!

In addition to the chopstick rests, I’ve made a number of little ceramic sauce bowls to gift to folks in Japan as well! To complement my leaf chopstick rest designs, I went with flowers for these small dishes. I photographed a range of six, and then provided you with a single shot of one of my favorites:

And as I did with my chopstick rests, I’ve made a few small ceramic Sioux City dishes as well. I’ve included as a size comparison one of my Sioux City chopstick rests next to these little dishes:

Though my own vision is to use all of the above pieces of pottery as sauce bowls (for wasabi, yuzu koshō, etc.), they could serve as little trinket/ring dishes, too.

My Own Ceramic Chopstick Rest Designs!

I’ve been producing a number of chopstick rests to give out as gifts this summer in Japan! The people are so nice and there’s such a gift-giving culture that I want to make sure I am able to reciprocate. I’ve mostly been making a variety of leaf chopstick rests:

However, I also am in the process of making a few Sioux City chopstick rests for those who are more connected to the sister city relationship between Yamanashi City and Sioux City or have strong bonds to Morningside University.

These are much more finicky to glaze, as keeping the text legible and the heart from “bleeding” into the white satin glaze requires a multi-step glazing process:

  1. I glaze the heart with two to three coats of glossy red with a small brush

  2. I apply wax resist to the heart and each of the letters with a very small brush

  3. I brush on two to three coats of the white satin glaze

  4. I painstakingly coax the glaze off the wax resist areas using a very small, wet brush

It’s tedious, but the results look great:

Shelby Prindaville's custom ceramic Sioux City, Iowa chopstick rest

Any of my chopstick rests can easily be converted into a magnet instead, if the recipients prefer to use them that way!

Promotion to Full Professor in 2025!

I learned yesterday that I will become a senior faculty member at Morningside University beginning next fall, as I will be promoted to full professor!

In academia, there is a ranking system which is typically: instructor → assistant professor → associate professor → [full] professor.

I served as an instructor while teaching at Louisiana State University in graduate school in 2011-2013, became an assistant professor when I was hired full-time at the University of Saint Mary in 2013, was promoted to an associate professor in 2019 after earning tenure at USM but then moving to Morningside University, and have held the rank of associate professor since then while earning tenure at Mside in 2022.

It is an honor, and one that few academics reach before their mid-40’s, so I’m pleased to have earned it at the relatively youthful age of 38!

Yamanashi City - Our Sister City!

Returning to my summer travels - after I took the shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo, the next day Morningside University board member Mia Sudo and I took a day trip to Sioux City’s sister city in Japan: Yamanashi City! I had the honor of meeting the Yamanashi City delegation last fall during their visit to Morningside, and at that time I gave a short speech in Japanese welcoming them and then a slightly longer one in English describing the Morningside Art Department.

Mia was so kind - she put in work ahead of time arranging our transportation and schedule, and then she picked me up from my hotel and accompanied me throughout the visit and even translated for me when my Japanese was insufficient. I really appreciated her support of me and by extension Morningside University!

Yamanashi City welcomed me with open arms - literally and metaphorically! It was lovely to get to see the mayor and other delegation members again as well as meet additional city hall staff. Amongst several other very nice presents, I was gifted with a custom katakana stamp of my name, which was an extremely thoughtful, generous art gift which I will be definitely making use of! After exploring more of city hall, we where whisked away to tour more of Yamanashi City, including a sake brewery (and lunch!), a class visit with 5th grade students where I was allowed to join in on their lesson practicing Japanese calligraphy, a Mt. Fuji photo opportunity, a visit to a local museum and its gardens, and their zoo. Yamanashi City is warm and vibrant, and the people are so very kind!

Advance to Gogh Show is Up - With My Scra-baa Junior Piece!

KTIV chose to use footage of me looking at artwork to illustrate their article about the Advance to Gogh event.

Just a reminder that I’m participating in a large group exhibition of over 40 Siouxland artists: Advance to Gogh. The opening artwalk receptions for this event (held at the Sioux City Art Center, Gallery 103, Three Rivers Gallery, Art SUX, and Vangarde Arts) was on Thursday, July 11th. I’m unclear on exactly when each of the participating venues will take down the show, but I believe it’s up at least through mid-August.

To the right, you can see an image of me looking at some of the exhibited artworks which was published by KTIV, and if you check the article and video out there’s more footage of me at the reception as well as their own event description and interviews.

In case you can’t make it, though, I’d like to share with you some images of what I did! In the random lottery, I drew the gameboard Scrabble Junior.

The original Scrabble Junior game board.

I decided to keep the illustration and prompt for “sheep” and then painted over all the rest of the illustrations and prompts, color matching with paint to “restore” the rest of the board to a clean, new appearance. Next, I painted a lamb at the base, added the words “& Shelby” to the wordmark, and carefully redrew the grid lines with marker.

Shelby Prindaville's repainted and drawn-over game board.

Finally, I added words for sheep in many languages to illustrate how one plays Scra-baa Junior!

This is Scra-baa Junior (“A ewe-nique edition!”), mixed media including acrylic, marker, varnish, and glue on Scrabble Junior game board with game tiles, 2024.

Shelby Prindaville's finished "Scra-baa Junior" artwork.

Upcoming: Advance to Gogh Exhibition with People's Choice Award

The Advance to Gogh flyer for participating artists, designed by Jean-Guy Richard!

My amazing friend and artist Terri McGaffin has organized the Advance to Gogh exhibition taking place at multiple galleries in downtown Sioux City, and she and Gallery 103 invited me to participate!

51 artists including me brought game boards (and some included game pieces and boxes) to the lottery selection on April 6th. I drew #43, which was Scrabble Junior!

I’m looking forward to the opening artwalk on Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 5:30pm beginning at the Sioux City Art Center and proceeding to visit all of the included venues:

Sioux City Art Center
Gallery 103
Three Rivers Gallery
Art SUX
Vangarde Arts

There will also be a People’s Choice Award with online voting, so stay tuned as I share more information about that as it becomes available! If you want to visit Gallery 103, it’s located on the ground floor of the Ho-Chunk Centre at 600 4th St, Sioux City, IA 51101.

I have to commend Terri - organizing such a big event across multiple galleries and organizations is a real labor of love and she’s doing a fantastic job with it.

I was the ArtWorks 2024 Judge for the Sioux City Community School District

On May 2, 2024, I was honored to serve as the ArtWorks 2024 judge for the Sioux City Community School District. This was a massive show with 1,000 student pieces from elementary, middle, and high school students! It was a lot of fun to soak in all of the varied artwork on display, and it was very difficult to award only ten prize placements. I was really wowed by the students’ hard work and talent, and also by the teachers’ creative assignments and support!

I returned that evening to see the show’s opening night, and it was packed with admiring folks of all ages. Here are a few photos of parts of the exhibition - it was so big that these only capture a portion of it!

Upcoming: 2024 ARTcetera Juried Exhibition and Fundraising Auction

One of my obvara raku vessels was juried into the 2024 ARTcetera exhibition and fundraising auction at the Sioux City Art Center! This exibition opens with a reception on Thursday, March 21, 2024, from 5-7pm. Artworks will be made available for sale at “Buy It Now” prices on March 22, and the exhibition continues through April 18 when the auction is held as a part of a ticketed event evening.

The opening reception will be free to attend, and if you’re interested in buying tickets to attend the auction, you can do so here.

The Sioux City Art Center is located at 225 Nebraska Street in Sioux City, IA, 51101.

Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees Renewal

I was appointed to the Sioux City Art Center’s Board of Trustees in January 2021, and subsequently elected and reelected as President of the Board of Trustees in 2022 and 2023. City board appointments are for two-year terms, so my term was ending in December 2023. The Sioux City Art Center’s director and board asked me to seek to renew my appointment in October 2023, so I reapplied and waited for City Council to deliberate. They sent out my renewal letter and certificate recently!

Siouxland Woman Magazine Featured Artist Profile

Below is the digital spread of my featured artist profile in Siouxland Woman Magazine’s Volume 9 Issue 2, published in January 2023! While it’s the current issue, you can also look at the whole magazine online here.

Whiterock Art Show Photos!

Here are some photos from my three-person show Whiterock Art at the Betty Strong Encounter Center in Sioux City, IA! You can still check out this exhibition in person through November 13, 2022. I have 37 works on display, including 20 chromatograms, 15 site-specific ceramics, and 2 painted bas reliefs on panel using the polymer clay I helped create (QuickCure Clay).

As you can see, I arranged dried botanicals harvested from Whiterock Conservancy in four of my 41.816, -94.646 ceramic vessels to show this ceramic collection’s utility and connection to the landscape. My friend, former colleague, and master ceramist Susan Nelson inspired me to do this, as she often shows and photographs her ceramic work with ikebana, or the art of Japanese flower arrangements. I also placed a representative sampling of the small rocks, twigs, and other debris I cleaned out of the clay in a fifth display inside one of the smallest dishes.

At the reception for the show, I sold four of the 41.816, -94.646 ceramic pieces! I was pretty pleased with that, particularly because my price point for pieces in this collection was significantly higher than that of my stoneware work, given all the additional labor that went into this site-specific series. One of the buyers selected a piece holding dried botanicals, and another picked the vessel containing the rocks, twigs, and debris cleaned out of the clay body; both shared with me that they plan to keep those displays intact. That intent surprised me, but I’m happy that my decorative touches felt so appropriate that they’ll continue on beyond the exhibition!

Upcoming: Whiterock Art at the Betty Strong Center!

You may remember I attended an artist residency at Whiterock Conservancy outside of Coon Rapids, IA, in summer 2021. My good friend and colleague Terri McGaffin had already completed a residency there that spring 2021, and turned me on to the opportunity. Another Sioux City artist, Pauline Sensenig, then followed suit this summer 2022.

All of us will be exhibiting our work in a three-person show called Whiterock Art at the Betty Strong Encounter Center in the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City, IA, from October 2 - November 13, 2022. The reception will be on Sunday, October 2nd at 2pm, and I hope you can join us - there will be a reception and presentation by Whiterock’s own Liz Garst, co-founder and Board of Directors member of Whiterock Conservancy.

I designed our show logo, postcard, and poster (viewable at the exhibition) - below you can take a look at the digital postcard.

Show postcard back design

2021 ArtSplash Festival Judge!

This past weekend (September 4th and 5th) was the 2021 ArtSplash festival, hosted by the Sioux City Art Center. I had previously attended the 2019 ArtSplash which was held in Riverside Park; the 2020 festival was cancelled due to the pandemic. This meant a lot of people - including myself - were really excited to attend the 2021 ArtSplash, which was relocated downtown to take place in and around the Sioux City Art Center itself. I think this was a very smart change that highlights the institution and clearly links it to the festival.

I was invited to serve as one of the two 2021 ArtSplash judges, and I was honored and excited to say yes! I visited each of the approximately 50 artist booths and looked closely at the work presented as well as spoke with the artists about their processes. My co-judge and Briar Cliff University art professor Nan Wilson and I then came together, compared our notes, and visited a number of booths again before selecting four Awards of Excellence, a Best 2D, Best 3D, and Best in Show artist.

This was my first time judging an art festival, though I have judged art shows and competitions before. In my previous judging roles, I did so solely based off of the work itself, without access to the artists until after the awards ceremony. I really enjoyed getting to speak with the artists and learning more about the work and process as a part of this ArtSplash judging. Overall, I’d say the 2021 ArtSplash was a blast, and I look forward to 2022 ArtSplash!

My Artist For the Earth Opening Reception!

Well, Earth Day 2021 was quite eventful! I’ll do a separate post on the ART 225 Painting I project we took on earlier in the day, but this post is all about how my opening reception went for my Artist for the Earth solo show at The Block Gallery in downtown Sioux City.

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to the Morningside Art Department federal work study studio art assistants Devyn Reilly and Rachel Steinkamp for helping me to install the show. While I’ve installed many a show alone, it is so much nicer to have skilled help working alongside you! I also had Rachel take some nice shots of the show after we installed it, so I might add more to the blog later, but here are a few photos I took tonight.

The last photo in the grid is thanks to some of my lovely friends, who not only came out to support me at the reception but also gifted me with a bouquet of flowers and purchased artwork and reproductions. A bunch of wonderful colleagues, students, and community members also came through and many left with various pieces of artwork as well. It was a lovely evening!

Upcoming Solo Exhibition: Artist for the Earth Shelby Prindaville at The Block Gallery

I was invited to have a solo exhibition at The Block Gallery in downtown Sioux City, and since my work is ecologically-focused, gallery director Gia Emory and I agreed that opening the show on Earth Day 2021 seemed appropriate! I also went ahead and registered it with the Earth Day Network, which coordinates Artists for the Earth and thus gave me an easy show title to boot!

This show will not only display some of my 2D work, but will also include pieces of my ceramics! I’m quite excited about that, as this will be the first time ever that I’ll be exhibiting ceramic artwork.

The exhibition poster for my Artist for the Earth show at The Block Gallery!

The exhibition poster for my Artist for the Earth show at The Block Gallery!

New Artwork: Synthesis, and Upcoming Invitational Exibition

In late December I was invited to participate in an upcoming exhibition and fundraising support event called The Maskuerade for local art gallery Vangarde Arts which has, as is unfortunately the case with many arts organizations, suffered during the pandemic.

Vangarde Arts has been a great supporter of the arts in Sioux City as well as of Morningside College, so I happily agreed to participate. Vangarde provided each invited artist with a white cotton 3-ply face mask, and asked that each mask be made into a unique artwork. The pieces are then to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to support their organization.

This was more of a challenge than I think many viewers might realize for several reasons:

  • The substrate (the face mask) is rather small and of a defined form already, so there’s limited room to work.

  • As an artist, I think you want to embrace the media you’re working with - so making it unrecognizable as a face mask to me ends up defeating the purpose of the challenge.

  • While I think one could pretty easily paint on a cotton mask as a canvas, I question whether viewers will easily differentiate an original painting from an existing fabric print. This meant I felt I needed to get somewhat sculptural while still embracing the substrate and its intended function in order to really make it transform identifiably into an original artwork.

  • I didn’t want to lose my own artistic focus and hand - I wanted to make this piece work within my oeuvre rather than existing outside of it.

I mentally wrestled for weeks just in trying to develop a concept, and then with only a vague starting point in mind I then physically wrestled with the mask itself for a couple weeks to try to see if that manipulation would inspire me to come up with an artistic solution. Finally all the reflection and experimentation paid off, and with an idea in mind all I then had to do was execute it!

This is Synthesis, a wearable mixed media artwork including a white cotton mask, thread, acrylic, gel, Cladonia rangiferina “reindeer lichen,” Tillandsia usneoides “Spanish moss,” pine needles, and bark. Its dimensions are 7x13x4.5”.

Synthesis, a wearable mixed media artwork including a white cotton mask, thread, acrylic, gel, Cladonia rangiferina, Tillandsia usneoides, pine needles, and bark; 7x13x4.5”, Shelby Prindaville, 2021.

The Maskuerade exhibition will have open house hours on February 11, 12, and 18 from 6-7pm in Vangarde Arts which is located at 416 Pierce St, Sioux City, IA 51101. An online auction will be open from February 15-18, and a silent auction and Fat Tuesday on Friday celebration will be held February 19 at 6pm with a live auction following at 7pm.

I'm a Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees Member!

Back in October, I learned that the Sioux City Art Center Board of Trustees had a couple openings through a friend already on the Board - so I applied. In December, I had a virtual interview with City Council, and I recently learned that I was approved! I look forward to serving my community in this function for the next two years.

SCAC BoT Certificate.jpg