PRESS RELEASE

Student artwork featured in Field Live! Exhibition

KOKOMO, Ind. — The latest exhibition in the Indiana University Kokomo Art Gallery represents an important milestone for Anna Marcum.

“It feels professional,” said Marcum, a senior new media, art, and technology (NMAT) major. “That’s the whole thing about being an art student: Where is that line of ‘This is a hobby,’ or ‘This is my job’?

“I feel like this is that line,” she said. “Getting stuff into a gallery makes it feel like I don’t just paint for fun, this is my job, this is a career I can make in it.”

Marcum is one of eight artists featured in the exhibition of work from Field: A Journal of Arts and Sciences Vol. 9. It includes oil paintings, silkscreen, watercolors, charcoal, colored pencil, pen, cyanotypes, assemblage, and photography.

Copies of the  journal, which is curated by student editors, are available in the Gallery during the exhibition, which continues through December 18.

Jim Coby, assistant professor of English and journal editor-in-chief, said Volume 9, which was published in April, features a diversity of work. In addition to the artwork featured in the exhibition, it also includes poetry, research, prose, podcasts, and other media, all created by students.

“We only accept work from the IUK community, he said, adding that many university literary journals are open to public submissions.

“We want to emphasize the creativity we have here on campus,” he said. “It’s a magnificent forum to highlight creative and academic thought on our campus.”

Marcum has five pieces featured, including an oil on canvas, an assemblage (a sculpture made of found objects), a series of charcoal drawings, and a cyanotype, which is a type of printmaking.

She created her cyanotype by using white fabric treated with a reactive chemical. She set objects on the fabric to block the sun, leaving the blocked space white and the exposed surface blue.

“There’s a whole process to figure out where you want things, to make sure the sun doesn’t touch the fabric where you don’t want it to. You have to make sure you get a full 10 minutes of sun exposure and that it’s not too cloudy,” she said.

She laid on the fabric to create the silhouette of a person, alongside a skeleton. Stuffing from stuffed animals made clouds, and she also set flowers and stems on it.

Marcum also participated in a special section in the gallery, featuring “print-stallations” – print installations. Students made the projects in the advanced silkscreen printmaking course with Minda Douglas, associate professor of fine arts. She built a dragon-themed escape room for her project.

“I had fun coming up with the clues and how I was going to do everything, and the prizes,” she said. “It’s nice to see people coming through and figuring it out.

The student editors for Volume 10, scheduled to publish in spring 2025, are currently seeking submissions for that edition. The submission deadline is December 16. For more information, go to kokomo.iu.edu/field/.

Additional students featured in the exhibition include Abigail Carman, Bailey Howard, Madison Moore, Shyzeadriea Prater, and Coby Woodring, Kokomo; Lacy Salgat, Cutler; and David Trujillo, Windfall.

The IU Kokomo Art Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Admission is free, and free parking is available on campus.

For more information about the IU Kokomo Art Gallery, visit /kokomo.iu.edu/gallery/.

Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.