David Kendall, associate professor of communication, has quickly become an integral member of Goshen’s visual and media arts scene. As he finishes up his second year as a professor, he reflects on his experiences with film as a teacher and as a vital cog to the Riverbend Film Festival, which occurred last weekend, April 6-8. “I’ve taught for about 17 years — seems crazy to me — but I started teaching art at Chandler and Parkside Schools in 2000,” Kendall said. While at the Goshen city elementary schools, Kendall taught visual arts but began working with film, television and acting...

By Marris Opsahl • April 13, 2017 • Features

The biannual opportunity to replenish cupboards and decorate walls is upon us. Every semester on Reading Day, the Student Art Sale gives Goshen College student artists and performers an opportunity to share their crafts with GC and the broader Goshen community. In the past, there has been a wide variety of art for sale including ceramics, paintings, prints, jewelry, terrariums, knitted goods, baked goods and CDs. The tradition has been around for over 30 years, according to Randy Horst, professor of art. Sponsored by the Art Club, the event is fully student-organized and normally only features student artists. “It’s self-perpetuating...

By Sadie Gustafson-Zook • April 13, 2017 • Arts

Rebecca Ramer pointed to a precariously balanced stack of handmade bowls in her kitchen cupboard. “I can’t really even remember how many times we’ve gone,” she said. “The first time was probably before we even moved to Goshen six or seven years ago.” She’s referring to the Empty Bowl Project, a meal that takes place one night a year at the Goshen Farmers’ Market. Put on by the Goshen Clay Artists Guild, members provide handmade bowls, area restaurants and guild members donate soups to fill them and community members contribute money. The suggested $15 donations go to Goshen Interfaith Hospitality...

By Katie Hurst • March 23, 2017 • Features

For senior art majors, March and April are the most important months of the school year. Starting on Friday, Mar. 10, the first of two senior art installations will be showcased in the Hershberger Art Gallery in the Music Center. Each installation will feature the work of five to six senior art students. The first features work by Diana Blacut, Ginyce Haywood, Courtney Miller, Anya Slabaugh and Ardys Woodward. The senior exhibits will be the culmination of four years of hard work. As with other academic programs, senior projects provide a tangible and public expression of artistic growth throughout their...

By Sadie Gustafson-Zook • March 9, 2017 • Arts

Katie McKinnell, senior art major, loved design at an early age. Her mother was a graphic designer and would often let McKinnell propose her own designs for clients. “I grew up just kind of in that world; I got to help with projects starting when I was in middle school,” she said. “[My mom] would have me make up little mock drafts of posters or things when she was kind of stuck. I would be in her office, and she would show me her sketches for a logo that she was supposed to be designing, and then I would be...

By Andrew Pauls • February 2, 2017 • Arts

The visual art and theater departments of Goshen College have teamed up to bring notable theater designer Karl Eigsti to campus. Eigsti has worked in American theater for over 50 years, and has been involved in 20 Broadway productions. The designer has worked with costume and lights, but his primary focus is set design. Just after finishing his master’s degree in theater from the University of Bristol, England, Eigsti became the resident designer at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The Arena Stage features a tiered theater designed in the round, meaning the audience surrounds the actors on all sides....

By Andrew Pauls • January 19, 2017 • Arts

People process life in different ways. Maddie Gerig choses art. Or rather, art choses her. “I couldn’t really imagine my life without making art,” says Gerig, a senior art major and writing minor. “People make art for different reasons… I make art to process what has happened in my day.” Through her multi-media artwork, using primarily clay and steel, Gerig reflects on relationships and daily interactions. “I enjoy watching interactions: the weird stuff that people do because of a random thing that happened in their childhood.” The term Gerig uses for this idea is “gesture.” In art, a gesture is...

By Sadie Gustafson-Zook • January 19, 2017 • Arts

As a child, I hated forced coloring book sessions; I felt patronized. That is my first art memory. During my first year of high school, I reexamined my relationship with art when I began seriously working with clay. I was awful. I never wanted to do it again. However, my counselor signed me up for two more semesters of ceramics and I was too lazy and uncomfortable to go ask her to change it. Eventually, I began to enjoy the pieces I was making and soon fell in love with wheel-throwing. I bought my first pair of work overalls in...

By Irina Gladun • December 1, 2016 • Arts

A campus communicator announcement recently brought attention to an ongoing mystery. It explained the story of a missing piece of art with the request: “If you happen to have this piece, please return it to the art department; no questions will be asked.” A watercolor painting donated by its creator, John Blosser, professor emeritus of art, was discovered to be missing from its spot in storage over a year ago. Although its monetary value is not high, the work has a lot of meaning for the artist and the college. It has been entered in a number of shows, and...

By Katie Yoder • November 10, 2016 • News

Sitting atop his father’s lap at 6 years old, David Jantz remembers his first experience with glass in the shop behind his home in North Newton, Kansas. That first creation began with “a glob of glass on the end of a rod” heated by the flame of a torch. With the help of his father, he used the tools to add lips, fins and eyes to make a small fish. This was the first of many glass creations for Jantz, who is now a senior bio-chemistry major. Most of his memories with glasswork are connected to his father, who was...

By Lana Smucker • October 27, 2016 • Features

If you venture into the Hershberger Art Gallery right now, you will find several lifeless birds. The gallery is showing Merrill Krabill’s most recent project entitled, Between Earth and Sky: exploring loss and redemption. The exhibit is made up of smaller pieces, all exploring the contrast between life and death. Each piece is comprised of a section of a tree root, a clay bird, seemingly lifeless, nesting in the root and a landscape photograph printed on an accompanying hanging cloth. In each photograph, the clay bird’s image has been edited into the sky scene, emphasizing the interaction between earth and...

By Sadie Gustafson-Zook • October 13, 2016 • Arts

Artist Doug Unger spoke to students, visitors, and professors about his work, “Amish Landscapes, Charm, Ohio: Paintings by Doug Unger” on Sunday, Sept. 11. Featuring his landscape paintings of the Amish farms in Holmes County, Ohio, the exhibit displays Unger’s style and skill to capture the tranquility of the countryside. Yet, Unger shared beyond his inspiration and transition from portrait to landscape paintings. Dressed in a simple plaid vest with blue jeans, Unger noted the importance of the elements of art (such as hue and value) and emphasized the painter’s perspective. For Unger, these mental tools are in constant use,...

By Dona Park • September 15, 2016 • Arts

Goshen College student artists will sell their work in the first floor connector during Reading Day. The Student Art Sale has been a finals week tradition for the last 30 years at GC, taking place twice a year. The Student Art Sale provides an opportunity for student artists to showcase their work for the GC community and make a profit in the process. In the past, items for sale have included ceramic goods, knitted apparel, greeting cards, sculpture, drawings and paintings. Maddie Gerig, a junior, described the sale’s pricing as “ridiculously inexpensive.” Randy Horst, professor of art, noted that the...

By Jenae Longenecker • April 14, 2016 • Arts

Maddie Gerig, a junior art major, received a business grant from Goshen College last fall. Since then, she has been busy using the funds to build up her ceramics and sculpture business. Gerig’s newest project is a pop-up camper renovation. Inspired by the tiny house trend, Gerig is working to transform her childhood pop-up camper into a “mobile microstudio that can also function as a gallery space.” She said, “I love the idea of everything you need being in a tiny, accessible space.” Gerig plans to take this pop-up camper with her when she graduates from Goshen next year. “I’m...

By Jenae Longenecker • April 14, 2016 • Arts

Spring has come around again, and for Goshen College seniors, the joys and stressors of the final semester of college are in full swing. In the GC art department, Ellen Schlabach and David Pauls have been hard at work putting together their joint senior art exhibit, which will open this Sunday, March 20. The exhibit will kick off with a reception from 2-4 p.m. in the GC Music Center’s Hershberger Gallery. Schlabach is an art education major from Goshen, IN. She has chosen the theme “personal sanctuary” to bring together the prints and paintings in her portion of the exhibit....

By Jenae Longenecker • March 17, 2016 • Arts