Two members of Department of Art win awards apart from university

Southeast Missouri State University junior Katherine Miller and sculpture professor Chris Wubbena were winners in their field of art for their printmaking and sculpting skills.

Miller is studying for her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in printmaking. Miller describes printmaking as carving an image into a matrix, which would be a woodblock, piece of metal or stone and transferring the image with ink to a piece of paper.

"Selective Memory" by Chris Wubbena. Submitted photo

"I came to SEMO thinking I wanted to do illustration, and then I realized I didn't," Miller said. "I started seeing a lot of prints that I liked and the idea of being able to create multiple things from one matrix was really cool to me. I then took my first class, and I was like 'Sold!'"

Miller won first place in the regional printmaking competition for the St. Louis chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters. She originally applied for a scholarship through the organization but came across the competition and decided to enter.

"I just figured 'Why not?,' thinking that it would be cool even if I could win just third place in the regional competition," Miller said. "I didn't think anything would come of it. I was not expecting to win at all."

Miller had to submit five images of her work, and she used some pieces she created last semester and from the beginning of this semester. She also had to submit a resume along with references and information about herself.

"I don't really know about the other competitors. My first inclination is to think that the competition wasn't very stiff because I'm very critical of my work, so I'm inclined to think that I didn't beat out someone really good," Miller said.

Miller will get to view her competitors' work in May. She has been awarded an all-expense paid trip by the St. Louis chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters to travel to Pittsburgh for the national level of the competition.

All of the first-place chapter winners from each state will showcase their winning pieces from the regional competition and a national winner will be picked.

Wubbena moved to Cape Girardeau from Mississippi six years ago with his wife after traveling all over the country.

"I love Southeast," Wubbena said. "Actually, an interesting thing, when we first moved down to Mississippi we would drive down Interstate 55 to go back up to where my parents live in Iowa. We would stop in Cape every time as kind of our halfway point, and we just thought, 'Why can't we live here?'''

Wubbena has taught at a number of different schools and showcases his own work. Wubbena recently won Best of Show at the Art on the River exhibition in Dubuque, Iowa, for his piece entitled "Selective Memory."

This is the 10th year the exhibition is being held and this was Wubbena's second time entering. There were only 10 pieces of artwork chosen from 118 entries by 66 artists from 20 states and one foreign country.

"Best of Show is usually some sort of certificate or money award," Wubbena said. "This exhibition was a money award. I've won best of show in a few other exhibitions and what happens is the jury knew they wanted these pieces in the show. All the artists drove their artwork from wherever they come from and install it. The morning of the show the jury goes around and chooses the best of show. It's a vote on what they think is the most interesting piece in the show."

"Layers Chairs" by Katherine Miller. Submitted photo

The piece "Selective Memory" was actually made some time ago in San Francisco, and since its creation, Wubbena has been taking the piece on the road to different cities to showcase it.

"It's two pieces, and when you look at it from straight on it looks like a picture frame, but a picture frame that is kind of twisted and distorted. It's a picture frame that has also been eroded and when you look at it you see the picture frame and it looks like a rock that is breaking down," Wubbena said.

There is a little boy etched on the surface and he is holding a rock above his head and he is about to throw it over to the other side. When someone walks around to the back of the other piece, there is an older man that is doing the same and has a rock over his head ready to throw it to the other side.

"Basically it was about my relationship with my father up until that point," Wubbena said. "Where we loved each other, but we didn't really understand each other, and so it was my way of trying to figure out if I was becoming that older man. It's also about wasting time arguing in the past, wasting time arguing in the future and all the present in the middle that just got bombarded with all these rocks it just lays to waste."

The piece is nine feet tall. People can walk through the frame, so that they can become one with that space in between. The inside of the piece looks like someone has been throwing things at it and digging holes in it. It is made of metal.

It took Wubbena three to four months to complete and has been shown all over the United States. He transfers the piece himself and said it can be a hassle to move because it is so big.

"After this show, after installing it I thought, I want to retire it," Wubbena said. "I'm tired of driving it around. It's really not easy. So I thought I want to retire it and just put it in my backyard but I think I found a place in Iowa that I'm hoping it will go to, all they have to do is come get it."

Wubbena is working on creating new pieces and getting them into shows. He recently found out he has two pieces selected to be in two different shows, one at Missouri Valley College. Wubbena has also received a grant to travel to England and France this summer to work on a new body of work, which will be a series of sculptures.

"I always tell students you can be talented, people can recognize your talent, but talent will only take you so far," Wubbena said. "It's determination and ambition that is going to take you everywhere else. You can't rely on talent, you can't rely on anyone to give you anything, especially in arts. No one is just going to give you things.

"You have to go out and make opportunities for yourself. A university education is about gaining as many experiences and skills and everything in between in order to create possibility of an enriched life after you're out of college and even while you are in college. But if you don't have all that, you have nothing to contribute to a job, career or the world if you haven't enriched your life."