Art in the Library: Preview Party One

The Mississippi Library Commission (MLC) and the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) partnered this year to showcase artists adjudicated through MAC’s annual Visual Artist Fellowship Grant program. The exhibits, on display at MLC (3881 Eastwood Drive in Jackson), have featured some of Mississippi’s finest artists.

The current exhibit, which runs through January 11, 2019, features seven of the 2019 MAC Visual Arts Fellowship Recipients. A special artist reception takes place Thursday, December 13, from 5-7 pm. MAC’s Visual Artist Fellowship grant program honors Mississippi artists who demonstrate the ability to create outstanding work in their chosen field, including painting, sculpture, photography, and many other mediums. These grants are highly competitive – only a small number of applicants receive an award. Meet some of these folks below!

After studying at Ole Miss (BFA 2004) and Miami University (MFA 2009), Charlie Buckley taught drawing and painting at Miami, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss. Since 2011, he has been working exclusively as a painter, and is represented by Fischer Galleries in Jackson, Southside Gallery in Oxford, and The Arts Company in Nashville. Charlie's work was recently on display in the Bicentennial exhibition at the Mississippi Museum of Art, "Mississippi, Land of Plenty, Pain, and Promise". A two-time fellow in Visual Arts from the Mississippi Arts Commission, Charlie has also been awarded the Visual Arts award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, and has been chosen to be an Artist in Residence at Acadia National Park for the Spring of 2019. He is the collection of the Walton Family Foundation, Bank Plus, The Graduate, the Community Development Foundation, Metropolitan  Bank, The Arkansas Children's Hospital, the University of Mississippi, Baptist Memorial Hospital, and more.

Charlie lives in Tupelo with his wife Amber and daughter Jane.

Mississippi abstract artist, Carolyn Busenlener, lives in Pearlington, Mississippi, with her studio on a bayou next to a pond. She enjoys the serenity of the country after living most of her life in New Orleans. After receiving a BFA from Tulane University (Newcomb College) the artist taught and continued to paint. She has won numerous awards at juried shows and was chosen to participate in the Mississippi Invitational at the Mississippi Museum of Art. Carolyn has twice been a recipient of the Mississippi Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellowship. The artist also was awarded the Jane Carter Hyatt Fellowship.

Carolyn is represented by four galleries across the country and has a painting the permanent collection of the Mississippi Art Museum in Jackson, Mississippi.

Rob Cooper has spent his artistic life surrounded by glass. The Jackson-based artist has spent most of his years as an active artist working at Pearl River Glass Studio, a commercial studio that creates stained glass windows, architectural art glass, and restores historic stained glass. He currently works as one of the glass artists for the studio, painting imagery on the stained glass windows and other glass artwork they create for churches, private residences, and commercial clients.

Cooper got his start at Pearl River Glass while in high school, doing an internship at the studio through the APAC arts program at Jackson Public Schools. He spent some time studying outside of Mississippi, earning a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Afterwards, he returned to Jackson and continued his work at Pearl River.

Cooper plans to spend at least part of his Fellowship year deepening his knowledge of the history of the art form and trying to find ways to incorporate classic design elements into his own work.

Earl Dismuke works out of his studio in Oxford, Mississippi, where he resides with his wife, two daughters, and two sons. He received his BFA from the University of Mississippi in 2007. He is a cofounder of the Yokna Sculpture Trail in Oxford, MS. He was the recipient of the Oxford Mississippi Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce's "2015 Leadership Award" for his work on the Yokna Sculpture Trail, a 2017 recipient of the Gallucci Creative Fund Grant, and a 2018 recipient of the Mississippi Arts Commission Fellowship Grant.

His work has been shown internationally in Basel, Switzerland at Scope Basel, and in Lima, Peru, and across the southeastern United States. He has a piece in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Biblical Art. His goal with his work is to tell a story, but to leave enough ambiguity in the work that the audience can make interpretations themselves. When the artist invites the viewer to interpret what the work means or what the artist was thinking, the viewer is forced to bring something of themselves into the work. He believes this binds the artist and the viewer.

Don't miss tomorrow's post collecting the rest of the artists who are showing their work at the Mississippi Library Commission, Rory Doyle, Eric Huckabee, and Betty Press! We look forward to seeing you Thursday night at 5 pm at MLC.