Painting & Drawing
Painting Faculty
Sonya Evanisko, MFA • sevanisk@shepherd.edu
Professor of Art, Coordinator of Painting and Drawing Program
Evan Boggess, MFA • eboggess@shepherd.edu
Coordinator of Foundations and Professional Practices
The B.F.A. Painting and Drawing program offers students an excellent education, superb faculty, and a thorough grounding in historical and contemporary art. Students will have time to explore and develop a personal style, numerous opportunities to exhibit work and travel, and an invitation to work with a community of artists in well-equipped studios.
The Department of Contemporary Art, Communication, and Theater is committed to encouraging students to work conceptually and visually. To accomplish this, students will progress through a carefully developed series of courses mixing the development of technical skills, language and theories of the visual arts with the broad based knowledge of liberal arts, essential to artists in the complex contemporary world. Within the first two years students will enroll in Painting and Drawing classes, with a focus on traditional art skills and experimentation with many styles and media of painting. During the last two years students focus on developing an individual style and personal portfolio. The senior year culminates with an exhibition in which students organize, create, curate, install and publicize their work.
Because of our cross-disciplinary approach, a painting student may do mixed media work, installations, drawings, or work with whatever media and format best portrays their concepts and style.
Individual and peer critiques assist students in evaluating work and its relationship to past art and the contemporary art world. The Interdisciplinary Studio courses will focus on students developing a significant body of work while reading, writing and participating in discussions about contemporary art and culture.
In preparation for a career as an artist, portfolio and Business of Art courses are part of the curriculum to prepare students to approach galleries, to obtain commissions, to have exhibitions of their work, or to apply for graduate school. Elective courses and internships are offered to personalize your individual course of study.
Painting students can be gallery owners or operators, art administrators, set designers, muralists, illustrators of books and print, exhibition curators, frame shop technicians, or practice in their own studios to produce work for clients or galleries.