Two Guest Scholars to Give Art Lectures This Week

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Emily Gherard. Untitled, 2011 32"x30"

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – An artist and an art professor will be giving lectures at the University of Arkansas this week as guest scholars. Paul E. Bolin, professor and assistant chair of art education at the University of Texas, will present his lecture at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Artist Emily Gherard will give her lecture at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25. Both events will be held in room 213 of the Fine Arts Center and are sponsored by the department of art in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Bolin’s research focuses on the investigation of historical issues within the field of art education, particularly art and public schooling in the late nineteenth century. He has presented his research at various conferences throughout North America, including the National Art Education Association, the American Educational Research Association, International Visual Sociology Association and the International Society for Education Through Art.

Bolin received a bachelor of arts in art education from Seattle Pacific University. He earned a master of art education and a doctorate of art education from the University of Oregon.

Gherard’s paintings focus on the quiet conflict between the characters of rocks and walls and their surroundings with the presumption that walls crumble and rocks huddle together for shelter. It is this tenuous relationship that both defines and conflicts with the space encompassing them.  This tension is further reinforced by Gherard’s painting process, which has been described as executing strong direct clarity underlined with wavering doubt. 

Gherard describes her work as exploring “the idea that painting and drawing have the ability to present inanimate objects in ways that allow the viewer to empathize with them.” Her art is included in the Tenses of Landscape exhibition, which examines the influence of landscape in the work of nineteen different contemporary painters. The exhibition is currently on view in the Fine Arts Gallery and will run through Sunday, Nov. 4.

Gherard received a bachelor of fine arts from Rhode Island School of Design and a master of fine arts from the University of Washington. She currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

To learn more about these visits and other events at the Fine Arts Gallery, please visit http://art.uark.edu/fineartsgallery.