Events

Thursday, January 18, 2024
5:00 p.m., Bloch Learning and Performance Hall, Canady Creative Arts Center

Annie McFarland, MS, ATR-BC, is a Board-Certified Registered Art Therapist and Art Educator originally from Farmington Hills, MI. She earned an MS in art therapy from Florida State University in 2013 and has continued PhD coursework in art education and art therapy at Florida State University.  Her dissertation research focuses on the use of papermaking with veterans to address trauma, PTSD, and veteran to civilian readjustment. As an assistant professor of art education and visual arts therapy at WVU, McFarland is excited to continue research on papermaking in art therapy, teaching art education and therapeutic art coursework, and developing art therapy programming at WVU.  

McFarland has worked in a variety of settings, including: hospice care, inpatient psychiatric facilities, pediatric rehabilitation, memory care/dementia facilities, and various veteran settings. “Art therapy allows people to break down barriers and connect with their inner self in a more fluid and creative way, explains McFarland. “It allows people to explore things that they haven't been able to access before. In this way, it helps with healing and rebuilding after trauma, loss, and recovery.” In addition to her clinical work, she has also done research and training in art education and worked with art educators to help develop therapeutic art education approaches and culturally responsive teaching practices.

Thursday, January 25, 2024
5:00 p.m., Bloch Learning and Performance Hall, Canady Creative Arts Center

Matthew Willie Garcia is a printmaker whose work moves far beyond the traditional print media, which includes screen printing, mokuhanga, projection-mapping, animation, and large-scale installation. Drawing on his love of science and science fiction, Garcia explore his queer existence and the unknowable qualities of the universe. Garcia uses his knowledge of printmaking to explore these themes through color abstraction, the graphic image, and nonrepresentational forms. Garcia is a California born printmaker who is currently living and working in Kansas City, MO and Lawrence, KS. He received his B.F.A. in Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute and his M.F.A. from the University of Kansas. Garcia has shown his work regionally throughout the Midwest. Most notably his work was included as part of the "Queer Abstraction" exhibition at the Nerman Contemporary Museum of art, "Star Children" exhibition at the Bradbury Art Museum and was featured at Des Moines Arts Center as part of the “Immersive” exhibition. His work has also been shown internationally as part of “Sumi-Fusion” Mokuhanga exhibition in Nara, Japan and the 2022 On Paper exhibition in Barcelona, Spain. Garcia is currently the Studio Manager at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, KS. 

Thursday, February 1, 2024
5:00 p.m., Bloch Learning and Performance Hall, Canady Creative Arts Center

Electronic musician and sound artist Stephen Vitiello transforms incidental atmospheric noises into mesmerizing soundscapes that alter our perception of the surrounding environment. He has composed music for independent films, experimental video projects and art installations, collaborating with such artists as Nam June Paik, Tony Oursler and Dara Birnbaum. In 1999 he was awarded a studio for six months on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center’s Tower One, where he recorded the cracking noises of the building swaying under the stress of the winds after Hurricane Floyd. As an installation artist, he is particularly interested in the physical aspect of sound and its potential to define the form and atmosphere of a spatial environment.

MFA Exhibitions: Payton Brown & Kristian Thacker

Laura and Paul Mesaros Gallery,  Canady Creative Arts Center

Reception: Wednesday, March 6, 5 p.m.

MFA Exhibitions: Stacy Larson & Heather Lepp

Laura and Paul Mesaros Gallery,  Canady Creative Arts Center

Reception: Thursday, March 28, 5 p.m.

Thursday, April 4, 2024
5:00 p.m., Bloch Learning and Performance Hall, Canady Creative Arts Center

Josana Blue, originally from Winthrop, Maine, is an independent artist with over 21 years' experience in NYC as a multidisciplinary artist and designer with 15+ years in the fashion industry. Blue has a BFA with a major in painting from WVU, a Master of Arts from NYU and has also studied fashion at both Parsons and FIT. Blue has sold a great deal of her paintings to private collectors by not only exhibiting in numerous galleries and alternative venues, but by also establishing and building her own gallery, Gallery Blue in Brooklyn. Josana has been passionate in the pursuit of building a career as an artist with her multidisciplinary creative skillsets. Over the years she has not only designed/ created costumes and fashion for performers and private clients but has also simultaneously worked in hospitality, teaching creative workshops, prop making, window displays, custom painting, production and creating large-scale art installations for weddings.

Blue landed a creative job with Ralph Lauren 13 years ago. This was the dream artist job she never knew existed until she had it. Encompassing every aspect of art, design and styling in both interiors and fashion, Josana worked her way up to Madison Avenue as part of the full-time design and production team for all 28 of the global flagship windows. Living in her Bushwick art studio, Blue continues to multitask wholeheartedly embracing every exhibit and creative opportunity to grow, share her gifts with the world and thrive as an artist.

BFA Exhibition

Laura and Paul Mesaros Gallery,  Canady Creative Arts Center

Reception: Thursday, April 11, 2024, 5 p.m.

MFA Exhibition: Kamara Townes

Gallery 937, 937 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Reception: Friday, April 12, 2024, 6 p.m.