Spring 2022 OCTC Student Art Awards

by Katie Powers

Owensboro, KY (04/18/2022) — Owensboro Community & Technical College (OCTC) art students participated in the college's Spring 2022 semester Student Art Exhibition. Dustin M. Price, curator, and director of Gallery Gray, a nontraditional online gallery space, served as a juror for the exhibit. Price will teach online Graphic Communication courses with the OCTC Art Program beginning Fall 2022.

The Spring 2022 OCTC Student Art Awards reception and the ceremony took place on April 14, 2022. This exhibition will be on display through May 4, 2022, in the Dayman Art Gallery, located on the second floor of the Learning Resource Center on OCTC's Main Campus.

Best in Show went to Amber Jenkins for her Prismacolor drawing, Pear Basket. Juror Price commented, "Pear Basket is an excellent example of an artwork demonstrating line, value, contrast, balance, and specifically luminosity."

First place went to Sabrina Ward for her pastel drawing, Neon Dreams. Juror Price commented, "Neon Dreams is a superb demonstration of the possibilities inherent in pastels to achieve hue intensity. The drawing is also quite well rendered and escapes the use of line to dictate edge, a difficult and complex element to draw."

Second place went to Rachel Haynes for her Prismacolor drawing, The Raven. Third place went to Haley Johnson for her acrylic painting, Jellyfish.

The OCTC Purchase Award went to Amber Jenkins for her graphite drawing, Bottles.

Honorable mentions include the following: Rose Richards, acrylic painting, Floating; Melia Purcell, Prismacolor drawing, Glowing; Rachel Haynes, digital cartoon, Love at First Sight; Louie Fuchs, Prismacolor drawing, Here We Are; and Lillian Davis, pen and ink illustration, Box Boy.

OCTC Art Program Coordinator, David Wilson said, "This is a tremendous exhibition of our students' talent. And it's so wonderful to be back in a time with exhibitions and receptions happening in person again!"

The winning purchase award pieces become a part of OCTC's permanent student art collection. Faculty members David Wilson, Lou O'Leary, and John Schartung are slated to teach studio classes in drawing, painting, ceramics, and photography during the Fall 2022 semester.

Wilson added, "We were so appreciative of Dustin taking the time to work with us on the awards. He enjoyed it so much that he is also going to teach a new online course for us in the fall, Graphic Communication."

Those interested in exploring an Associate in Fine Arts Visual Art degree or joining the OCTC Art Club should contact David Wilson, OCTC art program coordinator, via email at davidd.wilson@kctcs.edu.

To view more photos of OCTC student art in this exhibition, please visit facebook.com/OCTC-Dayman-Art-Gallery.

Owensboro Community & Technical College is one of the sixteen community and technical colleges that make up the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. OCTC serves the KY counties of Daviess, Hancock, Ohio and McLean. OCTC has three campuses in Daviess County and a Center and Annex in Hancock County. OCTC strives to serve the communities in the service area by providing associate degree education for transfer, state of the art technical education for students focusing on entering the workforce, customized business and industry solutions through the Workforce Solutions division, and adult education and business and industry testing through the SkillTrain unit.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System is the Commonwealth's largest postsecondary institution with 16 colleges and more than 70 campuses. We also are Kentucky's largest provider of workforce training and online education. Through partnerships with business and industry, we align our programs to meet the needs of local employers. We help students fulfill their dreams of creating a better life through programs that lead directly to jobs or help them transfer to one of our four-year partners.

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