Vol State News 06/16/2008
Volunteer State Community College
Vol State art professor Sue Mulcahy likes to work in charcoal. Her abstract works will be on display at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts this summer.
Vol State art professor shows work at the Frist Center
Rejection is part of life for an artist. Sue Mulcahy knows the feeling well. She also knows what can happen on the other side of that picture. The Volunteer State Community College professor will be showing her work at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville this summer, all thanks to a bit of rejection.
“Two years ago I submitted work to a college art conference,” Mulcahy said. “I was rejected for the conference, but from those submissions the Frist picked out my work. So, actually my rejection worked out really well. It shows students that rejection doesn’t always crush you.”
Mulcahy specializes in charcoal, black and white, abstract images. Five of her pieces will appear as part of the exhibit “Shades of Gray: Four Artists of the Southeast.”
“One of them I decided to work in a bolder and larger way. I put on charcoal with brushes and rags.”
She’s even found a new way to approach the work, out of the frustration of cleaning up a piece that wasn’t going well. She used a vacuum to suck up the charcoal and found a whole new tool.
“You can make big marks with the vacuum,” Mulcahy said. “It lifts the charcoal right off the paper. I bought new brushes for the vacuum, so now I can actually draw with the vacuum.”
Mulcahy teaches a variety of visual art classes at Vol State. She says part of the fun of being an art professor is seeing creativity come to life.
“I like looking inside of people’s heads. Students reveal themselves on the page and each person is different. You see them search for the right answer. It’s like finding a key that opens a door. It’s such a personal thing.”
Her own process of discovery started 40 years ago.
“I was always the kid that did the cover of the brochure in school, but I didn’t think of it as art. When I knew I was going to college I decided to do art and it totally changed my life. It’s the act of making the drawings that is important. It’s the sense of discovering something while you are doing it.”
Her black and white work has been featured at a show in the Netherlands and will be seen this fall at the downtown Nashville Library Gallery. The Frist show was a complete surprise and she is excited about what it can offer.
“This is a museum and it can really open doors to me to get gallery representation,” she said. “It’s the most visible show I’ve ever had.”
“Shades of Gray” will be shown from June 20-September 21 at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts as a counterpoint to the exhibition “Color as Field.” For more information about the Visual Arts program at Vol State visit www.volstate.edu/Arts/Visual or call 615-230-3202.
