Mixed media artist in residence at UCA

Visual and mixed media artist Stefana McClure is an Artist in Residence at UCA from today through Thursday.

McClure today will present a gallery talk about her work as part of the Baum Gallery exhibition, “Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite.” McClure’s work in the show is made from graphite transfer paper.

“I will talk about what attracts me to this particular material and also about the concept behind the work,” McClure said.

Tomorrow, McClure will conduct a mixed media workshop for students from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. She also will give a lecture at 7:30 p.m. in McCastlain Hall 143. All events are free and open to the public. On Thursday, she will engage in one-on-one critiques with students.Mixed media in visual art refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed. This type of media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct visual art media, such as a work on canvas that combines paint, ink, and collage.

Jennifer Rospert, assistant professor of drawing, is the faculty sponsor for the residency. According to her, the show itself is subdivided thematically, all dealing with graphite: graphite as content, graphite as sculpture and graphite as transformative agent.

“I was very interested in exposing our students to an artist whose ideas about this medium are at the opposite end of a very long continuum,” Rospert said. “If they can appreciate such ostensibly different uses and ideas about the medium, it will be a valuable lesson that applies to all of their art-making endeavors.”

McClure lives and works in New York. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Sculpting from Hornsey College in London and did post-graduate studies in papermaking from Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto, Japan. Her most recent solo as well as group exhibitions include The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Jos