Teaching

Come Check Out the 2022 Morningside Art Sale!

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As a part of my service to Morningside University, I am the director of the Eppley and Helen Levitt Art Galleries. I scheduled a faculty show, a guest artist show, and a senior thesis show for this fall, but there was a small window of time left over that wasn’t big enough for another exhibition… so I decided to hold an art sale!

Anyone from Morningside’s community - faculty, staff, students, or alumni - was invited to sell their arts and crafts, as long as they donate a minimum of 15% of their sales to one of our three art-focused clubs on campus: Art Club, Photo Club, or the Morningside Student Advertising Agency (MSAA). I asked one of our work study students, Su Montoya Alvis, to design the poster for this event (pictured right).

The sale opened on Monday, October 31st, and runs on weekdays from 1-5pm in Eppley Art Gallery through Friday, November 18th, 2022. It’s open to the public, so please feel free to stop in and check out all of the goods on offer! I myself put in matted 8x10”, 10x10”, 11x14” reproductions and photos, 5x5” greeting cards, and a variety of ceramics. A wide variety of arts and crafts are available from others, including ceramics, crochet, drawings, fiber arts, graphic design prints and stickers, jewelry, mixed media, paintings, photography, and printmaking.

Below are a few photos focusing on my section of the sale, but there is much more to browse!

Color-Blindness-Alleviating Glasses!

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Late last spring, I budgeted for and acquired two types of color-blindness-alleviating glasses for my design class in specific and the Morningside art department in general. Today was my introduction of our first color theory project in that class, so I brought the glasses out and said that if any students were having trouble either grasping the assignment or seeing colors change, they should try the glasses out to see if they could make a difference.

One of my students told me that he was not seeing the colors change in the project examples, but he was sure he wasn't color blind. I shared that there's a spectrum so it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing color blindness, and he could just test out if the glasses would help or not. He tried the deutan pair on and saw no difference. Next he tried on the protan pair and was surprised as he immediately registered color changes. I sent him outside just to check the world out and he came back after a few minutes and said he had no idea how much red was in our bricks or that there were maroon/brown moments mixed in the grass. Then he rocked the glasses for the rest of the class period while working on the color theory exercises.

You guys. I knew the glasses would help some students eventually, but on their debut they are already making a difference to a student for this project and more meaningfully for his general understanding of and experience with the world around him. I am so happy.

If you’re curious, the company I bought them from is EnChroma, and by coincidence it also happens to be International Color Blindness Awareness Month, so I’m both doing my part by raising awareness but also if you wanted some yourself, EnChroma is currently celebrating with 20% off.

And Now, the Morningside University News!

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A screenshot of the beginning of the Morningside University News article about my LSU Vet Med residency.

The Morningside University News just got in on all the excitement - “Associate professor of art Shelby Prindaville uses skills towards historical process” was published on August 26th! The image on the right is a screenshot of the introduction, but check out the whole article in the link above or take a look at this PDF.

End of the 2021-2022 Academic Year!

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Morningside’s 2022 graduation was on May 14th, and it was a really nice ceremony filled with a lot of students-becoming-alumni I have taught over the past three years! I posed for several photos, but I haven’t received copies yet - however, here’s one from our ODK honors ceremony in April. This is of Steinkamp, our 2022 Marion Shapiro award winner!

I’m posing with Rachel in front of her entry into the Morningside Reynders’ Retirement Art Contest!

Speaking of wrapping up for the year, here are some of our graduating art department majors’ websites (a capstone course assignment), if you’d like to check any or all of them out:

https://www.calissahanson.com/

https://elizabethobermeier.com/

https://gracie-eli-design.squarespace.com/

https://lexwurth.wixsite.com/lex-wurth

https://8shayjohnson.wixsite.com/my-site

https://mk0025.wixsite.com/madeline-keating

This was a fun and full academic year, and it should be a bustling summer as well!

April 2022 Raku Workshop at Dakota Potters Supply

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Here are some day-of photos from the April 2022 raku workshop I attended at Dakota Potters Supply in Sioux Falls along with Morningside ceramics instructor Paul Adamson and students Lauren Hedlund and Debora Allard. The photo of finished works are some of the student pieces - I’ll post separately about my own!

Title IX Religious Exemptions

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Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal civil rights law which reads, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

All three of the higher education institutions I have taught at have complied with this law. Up until recently I had believed - mistakenly, it turns out - that any educational institution had to make a choice between adhering to Title IX and receiving federal funding, or opting out of both.

I have now learned that institutions can request religious exemptions to Title IX, receive those exemptions, and then are explicitly allowed to discriminate against their students and employees and still receive federal funding. Furthermore, the Office for Civil Rights has approved every religious exemption Title IX request filed. This includes hundreds of institutions; in late 2016 that number was at 245 and it continues to grow each year. Depending on their religious tenets, institutions can legally discriminate “on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy or receipt of abortion while still receiving federal funds.”

Last March, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) filed a class action lawsuit seeking to remedy this glaring civil rights loophole. As stated in the legal complaint, the institutional and legally sanctioned discrimination faced by these diverse populations includes “conversion therapy, expulsion, denial of housing and healthcare, sexual and physical abuse and harassment, as well as the less visible, but no less damaging, consequences of institutionalized shame, fear, anxiety and loneliness” on our taxpayer dime.

If you too find this religious exemption to Title IX to be deeply troubling, please consider donating to the REAP team (through their parent organization Soulforce, which received an 89/100 on Charity Navigator).

Ashlar Etching

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I was invited to take part in the ART 246 Intaglio and Collograph Printmaking course’s finals etching trade. The end of the semester is always a busy time, but I said yes; I haven’t done an etching in ten years and it’s always good to refresh and grow, plus it’s a nice interaction for all involved. Our talented instructor Stephanie VonderAhe provided me with an already beveled 3x4” copper plate with hard ground applied. The assignment was themed “the view from here.” As I was mulling over the theme and how it might fit into my artistic practice, I decided to do a portrait of Ashlar - I see her every day.

I drew the piece at home, and I just accepted any mistakes I made as I didn’t really have time to re-ground any spots. When I thought it was done, I put the plate into the acid bath for a 40min etch, took it out, and printed it. That first print was pretty good, but the drawing seemed a little flat and there were a number of areas where I wanted to add or deepen shadows and develop a sense of volume. Stephanie added a new layer of hard ground for me, and I went back into the plate a second time. We then put it in the ferric chloride again for 40 more minutes.

I printed an edition of 16, but several of those had print errors (are you supposed to count those? - I’m now thinking you’re not, but I did!). As intended, I gave away 7 to the class. I framed up one for myself, and gifted another to my parents and a third to my sister. I have just a few good prints left, but of course I do still have my plate…

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! Of course, I see some areas I could improve upon were I to do another plate or had time to fix mistakes prior to etching, but overall it’s a nice representation of Ash.

Spring 2022 Classes

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Well, last week we wrapped up the Fall 2021 semester, and next up is Spring 2022! I will be teaching Graphic Design I, Painting I, Painting II, Graphic Design Internship, Advanced Studies in Drawing, Graphic Design, and Sculpture, and Senior Art Seminar.

And He Might Have Gotten Away With It Too - Photoshop Edition

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As we were critiquing all the student animations turned in for my ART 210 Graphic Design I final, one piece prominently displayed the Photoshop twirl filter.

I commented to the class that when I see that filter, I recall how it was used by an infamous pedophile to hide his identity online, but international police managed to reverse it enough to allow for identification which then led to his capture.

My students were like, “huh,” and then we moved on with the critique.

The twirl filter applied to my most recent "baked potato" raku-fired bowl.

The twirl filter applied to my most recent “baked potato” raku-fired bowl. Scroll down to see it unaltered.

I Earned Tenure at Morningside University!

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I am extremely happy and honored to announce that I have earned tenure at Morningside University. I came in on a shortened tenure clock due to having already earned tenure and promotion at my previous institution, so this news comes in my third year here at Morningside University as Art Department Chair and Associate Professor of Art!

In that time - even in a pandemic - I have experienced the professionalism, academic excellence, support, and warmth of the Morningside community in an abundance of ways. I look forward to continuing my work and service as I join the ranks of the tenured Morningside faculty!

Volunteering with Art Club for Morningside's Into the Streets 2021!

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Morningside’s 15th annual Into the Streets event took place today; we had over 800 Morningside students, faculty, and staff volunteer with non-profit organizations across the region! I volunteered with Art Club students, and we brainstormed display changes and restored the Lila Mae's House Break the Silence exhibit, which raises awareness about sex trafficking.

Cross Off Another Bucket List Item: I've Done Raku!

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I’ve always wanted to do raku firing ever since I first saw a piece of raku pottery and learned of the technique as a child - but it’s never been an opportunity I could take advantage of until now! A few months ago I attended a Saturday raku workshop at Dakota Potters Supply in Sioux Falls, SD, joined by my ceramics faculty member Paul Adamson and graduating senior Anna Uehling. Raku, first practiced in Japan, is a low-firing technique that makes use of wide temperature swings, reduction, and carbon trapping to create some really ornate artwork. Due to the low-fire nature of the process, the pieces are mostly decorative; they are neither watertight nor food-safe.

Here is a slideshow of the day’s adventures. This post will be followed by a series of posts exploring each of the three different glazing techniques I tried! There were five different techniques available, and I was most interested this first go-round in three of them.

  • Crackle glazes (either clear or white), with the goal that carbon gets trapped in the crackles

  • The “baked potato” technique, wherein you coat the bisqueware in ferric chloride, sprinkle it with sugar, salt, and/or horsehair, and then bundle it up in aluminum foil like a baked potato before firing it

  • Copper glazes

  • Ferric chloride spray

  • Horsehair and/or feather application

Distrust of the Medical Community

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I’m going to preface and close this post with my strong support of getting vaccinated, both in general and specifically with the COVID-19 vaccine. I have received both doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine; the sooner we achieve local and global herd immunity, the sooner we can regain a more normal world.

The United States is beginning to approach a new stage in the COVID-19 vaccination process: we are running out of people excited to queue, and are now attempting to convince those who are passively or actively opposing getting a COVID-19 vaccine to join the vaccinated so that we can reach herd immunity.

I have several students who have told me that they have rejected the chance to get vaccinated against COVID-19. While I haven’t grilled them on their own individual rationales, I know that there may be more than just political beliefs at play. The medical community is not infallible, and those patients who are privileged and/or lucky enough to have always received stellar health care are very fortunate - but others unfortunately do not have the same experiences.

A lot of people including myself bring up the Tuskegee Syphilis Study when discussing this topic. It wasn’t that long ago; it lasted for 40 years and only ended in the 1970s (after a number of earlier attempts to shut it down were unsuccessful). That’s still within the lifespan of people around today. But here’s another example from right now in 2021: nonconsensual pelvic exams unrelated to medical need have been and are still regularly being performed in the United States on women under general anesthesia - with one of the explicit rationales being that if women were asked for their consent beforehand, they might not give it. The state I’m currently living in - Iowa - banned this practice in 2017. That’s only four years ago. Furthermore, most of my life has been spent living in states that allowed or still currently allow this practice. Some doctors and medical institutions continue to lobby for nonconsensual exams under general anesthesia to continue. These can also extend to involuntary rectal exams on both sexes as well as penile and prostate exams. This is, sadly, just another of many examples of systemic medical transgressions and disparities.

As mentioned in the opening of this post, I have recently been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and I am grateful for that! I hope we can convince more folks to join us in this fight to attain herd immunity. But in order to do so, we need to acknowledge that some have legitimate concerns backed by personal or community experiences - and we also need to do better at tackling medical inequalities and oversteps. You can take action, too - through contacting your representatives and advocating for change, donating to organizations that are fighting these battles on the policy and legal fronts, and so on!

A Couple Commencement Photos

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It was a good graduation! Here are a couple photos from the Morningside Flickr account of me processing and congratulating students.

It's Commencement!

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Well, that was a strange and hard academic year we just finished, due to the pandemic, but I’m proud of our community for getting through it as best we could and being able to celebrate a range of accomplishments along the way.

Today is the graduation for our class of 2021! We had a wonderful string of senior thesis shows over the past month - the disciplines of graphic design, photography, animation, ceramics, drawing, and painting were all variously on display in the exhibitions of Courtney Klocke, Anna Uehling, Abby Koch, Kazune Oguro, and Carissa Powell. In fact, Kaz and Carissa’s two-person show will stay up through May 17th if you haven’t yet seen it and want to stop in!

It's National Poetry Month!

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I’ve always enjoyed attending annual state poet laureate presentations and have several books of poetry in my own collection. So when Morningside’s creative writing instructor Brendan Todt reached out to me to ask if I’d be willing to record a video of myself reading a poem aloud in support of National Poetry Month for a virtual 2021 Morningside Friday is Writing Day event shared online, I said sure!

Brendan suggested it might be nice if I chose an art-themed poem, which was an interesting challenge. I ended up selecting Three for the Mona Lisa by John Stone!