Central’s Legacy of Art Endures

The Enduring Legacy of Art at Central

By EMILY KESEL

The Winter Wonders exhibit at the AshbyHodge Gallery of American Art may have only lasted a few months, but the works that made up most of the show from January to April are some of the most special pieces in the permanent collection.

It was neither a show of the most wellknown American artists or a dedicated exhibit to a collection of expensive artwork. Rather, the show was devoted to Central Methodist University’s finest homegrown artistic talent. The paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures on display were part of a show dedicated to Central’s rich history of alumni artists.

“We’re always trying to use as much of our permanent collection as we can,” said Dr. Joe Geist, registrar of the Gallery. “We wanted to find a new way of showing off some of the collection.”

And what better way to show off a collection of art at Central than with a show of Central artists?

The first time the Gallery did an alumni show was for Homecoming 2001, when 43 artists’ work was on display, dating back all the way to 1892. Unlike that show, which borrowed works from numerous private collections, this spring’s exhibit concentrated on 24 CMU graduates, with all the works in the show coming from the Gallery’s permanent collection.

“The hardest part was deciding which Edna Schenk works we wanted in the show, which Tom Yancey we wanted in the show,” said Geist. “We tried to show as much variety as we could.”

And it wasn’t just the most well-known and prolific Central artists like Schenk, ‘35, and Yancey, ‘54, that were prominently featured this time around. There were also the likes of Virginia Monroe, ’70, Eugene Weathers, ’58, and Frank Steinman, ’36.

Then there’s George Potter, a 1963 graduate who first came to Central to major in math before entering the Air Force but instead embraced his natural talent as an artist and became an art teacher.

“I never really took it seriously,” Potter said of his artistic skill that he began honing as a child. “I’d always just been good at doing visual things with my hands and making things.”

When he got to Central, though, Potter had the opportunity to take his skills and love of art to the next level, and the rest was history. He took a drawing class as an elective in his sophomore year and did well, inspiring him to take more art classes and eventually major in art. From there, he went on to graduate school, earning a master’s degree in drawing and later in sculpture. Five years after graduating from Central, Potter moved to Macomb, Ill. to begin teaching sculpture at Western Illinois University, where he helped others realize their dreams in art the way his alma mater helped him.

“Everyone has a God-given ability,” said Potter. “It’s just about finding out what that is and going after it. Then you’re following your

Left to right: Penny (Jones) Selle, ’78, Dr. Joe Geist, and Nancy (Morrison) Nesvik, ’78, during Homecoming 2018. Photo by Bob McNeill, ’77.

dream, and that can carry you through some pretty difficult times.”

Another Central alum featured in the Winter Wonders show would likely agree with Potter’s statement. Nancy (Morrison) Nesvik, ’78, followed her dream of being an artist and was able to use her gift to help others find beauty in the wake of a disaster. Following Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Nesvik, who lives in Pensacola, Fla., designed a custom Christmas card featuring Santa Claus flying over homes covered with blue tarps, emblematic of the area’s struggles following the storm. The card became so popular and successful in the area that it led her to establish a freelance business, which along with her coastal-themed Christmas cards provided designs for logos, murals, and other art.

But Nesvik, like Potter, didn’t come to Central with a plan to be an artist. Originally, she only intended to stay for a few years before entering a health program in St. Louis, but she says she “liked the campus and art classes so much that I did a complete turn and decided I’d aim for art education.” Nesvik’s classmate Penny (Jones) Selle tells a similar story. She came to Central with pre-med intentions, but after a fateful interaction with professor Pat Stapleton in the honors program, she was encouraged to pursue her love of drawing and eventually graduated as a double-major in biology and art. Now an art teacher herself, Selle remembers fondly her time in Stapleton’s classes, such as art history, in which the professor would show slides of art from all around the world on a carousel projector.

“She would just transport us to places all over the world, to ancient Greece or someplace in Rome or to Paris, where they were painting,” Selle said. “It was a very idyllic kind of experience.”

Part of the Central experience that appealed to both Nesvik and Selle then and still stays with them now is the personal connection between students and professors. As two of only around five students in any given art class, they had both the attention and the space they needed to be successful.

“What was so lovely about that for someone my age at the time was the luxury of having the teachers’ attention and not having to carve out a little, niche corner and protect all my art supplies,” Selle said. “That was a tremendous luxury, but of course at the time, I didn’t recognize it for what it was.”

Nesvik also recalls experiencing the connection with professors even after graduating. She has a fond memory of returning to Fayette with her husband for her 20-year class reunion, when the AshbyHodge Gallery was relatively new. When she and some friends entered the Gallery and were greeted personally by professors Geist and Yancey, Nesvik’s husband who graduated from a much larger institution was “blown away” that the teachers knew who their former students were even after so much time.

“All of us looked at him like, ‘Well, of course they would, why wouldn’t they?’” Nesvik recalled. “That was striking to me, that not only did I feel like I carried their influence with me, but I felt that we left our influence with them also.”

The influence of former students undoubtedly lives on in the hearts of CMU faculty and others still on campus, but it briefly took on a tangible form while the Gallery had so many of their works on display, something that the artists did not take for granted.

“It’s quite an honor [to be featured],” said Potter. “I hope the people that see the work enjoy it.”

“One of the things I value is the connection that I’ve been able to maintain with Central through my friendships and keeping up with professors,” Nesvik added. “And to know that I [was] in an art show makes me feel like I’m still there somehow.”

Top left: “Untitled” by Margie McMillan, ’69, watercolor. Top right: “Kaleidoscope Reader” by Eugene Weathers, ’58, photograph. Bottom left: “T Berry Smith Hall” by Ellery Johnson, ’55, pen and ink.