Through the hard work of our graduates, students and faculty, Indiana Wesleyan University Art + Design Division has become one of the most well know, highly regarded programs in the nation!
Here is another example of how IWU graduates are influencing the world.

Photographer Jeremiah Wilson  is the featured artist at the Princeton University Conference 2016

Featured Artist | Life & Law in Rural America: Cows, Cars, and Criminals

IWU grad Michael Matti

Wow!!!!!! this is exciting news. Michael Matti , Indiana Wesleyan University Art + Design graduate had this incredible photo selected as the image for the State of Indiana Bicentennial stamp. The photograph is a stunning image, redefining the beauty of the Indiana landscape. Congratulations Michael!!! See more of Michaels work here: http://www.michaelmatti.com

American Philatelic Society

September 22 · 

In 2016, the State of Indiana will celebrate its 200th anniversary of statehood. This commemorative forever stamp, featuring a photograph by Michael Matti, shows cornfields near Milford, Indiana. An exact issue date has not been determined for the stamp.

‪#‎APSstamps‬ Michael Matti Photography IN.gov Indiana Bicentennial Commission

Jeremy Bustos amazing award winning internationally known photographer, designer, videographer, entrepreneur and IWU Art + Design Grad. Check out his work here: http://studiothisis.com and here:http://www.wecreatemedia.com/wc_teammate/jeremy-bustos/

Indiana Wesleyan University Art + Design Alum Aimee Odum is the recipient of the 2015 Sturgis International Fellowship!! Aimee is currently a visiting student at Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik. Her attraction to studying in this location was inspired by a previous artist-in-residency at Nes Art Studios in Skagaströnd, Iceland. She will return to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville this spring to complete her third and final year of the MFA,Ceramics program. In 2011 she received her B.S. in Pre-Art Therapy from Indiana Wesleyan University. Within the University of Arkansas, Odum co-directs sUgAR, theUniversity of Arkansas student gallery, and assists with teaching foundation level courses. We are so proud of you Aimee! Congratulations…http://www.aimeeodum.com

Indiana Wesleyan University Art + Design program Alumnus Tim Petrenic on "Work of Genius"

Work of Genius: IWU Art + Design Alumnus Competes on a Reality Show for Fine Artists- another example of the brilliant alumni graduating from a top art program.

“It was kind of surreal,” Tim Petrinec (’03) says of his appearance on the reality show/docu-series Work of Genius. In 2009, Petrinec responded to a casting call for visual artists, and was soon invited to New York to audition for the show. “I grabbed three pieces of art and drove up from Charlotte [NC],” Petrinec recalls. He soon received word that he had made the top 50, and that he would be flown to Miami for the filming of the show. “They told me to pack for either three days or three months,” Petrinec laughs, “so I packed for a week.” On his first day in Miami, Petrinec was told that he had made the top 12. “It was exciting news, but as time went by, I wished more and more that I had packed for more than one week.”

Work of Genius is “a 13 – episode reality show that exposes and challenges twelve of the most talented, yet previously undiscovered international artists, to live, create, and compete together for the chance of having their life and career transformed.” The top twelve artists live at a hotel in South Beach for three months, traveling around the greater Miami area to “compete in a series of mini-challenges from crayons to chalk, pencils to watercolor, sketching to sand castles.” Work of Genius operates differently from other reality shows in that no one is eliminated during the filming. Instead, viewers can evaluate the original paintings that the artists produce for each show and vote for their favorite artist online. Should Petrinec win the distinction of “Top Artist,” he will receive “a cash prize, representation in a top gallery, and a publisher for 1 year.” Work of Genius airs on Saturdays at 3 PM on NewsmaxTV. At the writing of this article, Petrinec was in second place for Top Artist.

Dreams… Starlight… Wandering

 Technology has created a radical change to painting. The privileged place painting and sculpture held in hierarchy of art disciplines since the Renaissance has vanished. Actually I'm kind of pumped about that, and I say "it's about time."  The autonomous genius artist pumping out work to be worshipped by the masses is gone.  At least for the most part.  If you have a inkjet printer and some rudimentary knowledge of how to paint on a canvas you can simulate a fairly convincing original painting. Maybe it's possible to even mimic genius, if there is such a thing as genius?  I guess I think everyone is a genius in one way or another, just like I think everyone is an artist in one way or another.
    Now a days,  with a digital camera, photoshop software, acrylic paint and inkjet printer and canvas you can simulate all sorts of paintings.  You can also buy a 3D printer and knock out one sculpture after another without ever moving a thing but clicking print with your index finger.
    Really?  I'm not complaining. I figure all this change is good for art making in general. I've always been kind of amazed at why people collect art. Here are a couple of reasons that make sense to me… If it helps you think or feel or helps you believe in the invisible and eternal.

Is how it's made important?  That's a question I'm still trying to answer….

Visual memes.

This is a painting I did for Grays Sporting Journal in 2011.  A split cane fly rod, a reed creel, fiddle ferns and a fiddle. Sometime when I'm fishing I hear music. Most of the time it's just the sound of water over the rocks      birds singing      wind in the trees      or rain drops falling.  A few years ago,  I was fishing the Pere Marquette River in Michigan.  I had been there a week and every afternoon, about 4 pm,  I could hear bagpipe music when the wind was right.  It would come and go and was far off enough I wondered if it was just my imagination. I finally decided to follow the sound upstream. I never found out where it was coming from , but I'm convinced it was real.... I think 

Allegorium

ALLEGORIUM
My son Bryan Crossman has been working on a novel. He recently put up this website/blog that features excerpts form the book. Give it a visit... I think it is wonderful! He was kind enough to use this painting of mine on the site. ALLEGORIUM

Post discipline Artist David Ireland

I have really bonded with David Irelands work..... he called himself a post discipline artist which really resonates with me, especially because of my own post medium declaration....

Barrys new wesite

My son Barry's      new website is up. I was really impressed with his new work. just awesome. He has a real love of painting and drawing and it is so evident in this work.   Barry is in the Army with ADA , it amazes me the dedication and persistence he shows with creating art in spite of another full time job that takes so much time and energy. 

Building Totems

   

These are edited photos, part of a series I'm working on of favorite fishing spots near my home.  The definition of a Totem:  some thing that wants to be our friend, guide or companion.  If that is  true?... then this stream is a totem for me... something I desperately need...  and lately,  need even more.  

     The stones in this totem I found in this section of the river. Turning them into these huge boulders is a way of rendering them in a visibly obtrusive,  yet sublime way. It is also a reference to what is possible, impossible, orimprobable. The scale deception changes the viewers perception of these stones in unexpected ways. Rendering these small stones in this gigantic scale and placing them back where they came from or “giving them back” opens up the possibility of new questions. Just how important are these stones along the rivers edge?  Are these pieces of what were larger stones?  Where did they come from?      These balanced stones are a enigma... simultaneous precarious  permanence.... the question, “How long can this last” always remains.

   

Grays Sporting Journal and Wayne Knight

             I hope you already subscribe to Grays Sporting Journal 

   They chose my painting for the front cover of the April (Annual Fly Fishing) issue

   so pick up a copy or subscribe if your not all already.  I also have a 

painting inside this issue I hope you'll look for.   Wayne Knight is the Art Director for Grays and does a magnificent job designing this Journal. It is a visual delight!  I think he's the best art director out there. I'm always amazed how he  makes the art look so beautiful with his layout and composition. Grays also publishes the best writing available. They have been the # 1 Sporting Journal for thirty years and it is always an honor for me when they select one of my paintings to publish. 

    

the persistence of memory...

   These are memories of  an evocative object....  

     Objects have the unique ability through memory and association to become a kind of time machine. One of the most memorable objects of my childhood was a beer can.  I found it hidden under the stones in a creek that flowed near the trailer court where we were living at the time. The stream flowed through a tiny patch of wild that was holding desperately onto the edges of the altered landscape surrounding it. Our trailer court was right across the street from the town dump. We didn’t live there long enough for me to discover where the water in our creek came from or went to… I wonder now what kind of stuff was lurking in its water? Whatever… it was clean enough to harbor all sorts of creatures, crayfish,  minnows and water insects. It was my favorite place. The creek was down a dirt lane between the rows of trailers. Across a wire fence, through some trees, a few jumps down the hill, a run through the grass, some hops over the rocks. The narrow, ankle deep rivulet bubbled along over pebbles and stones. Most of the kids and all the adults ignored the little stream.  It was the most perfect thing I knew. There was a an occasional disruption,  a neighborhood dog sniffing around or another inquisitive kid. There were animals that lived in the holes along the banks. Birds loved the stream too. It was an alien world I could immerse my body and mind into, escaping all the junk around me. I’d take off my shoes and socks and roll up my pant legs before I’d step into the chilly water. Thinking back now, part of it’s allure and power was how it transformed me. I became Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians. I had at least a little control over this world. Searching under rocks for crayfish or pollywogs and minnows. I lived a very different life there than in the trailer park a few hundred feet away. The stream was a companion and friend, my first totem.

       There was a patch of woods on the far side of the stream. It belonged to the older kids from the park. I’d spy the older boys and girls  sneaking into and out of the woods. They’d hold each other in funny ways and I could tell they were doing some things they probably shouldn’t. When they’d creep back home along the woods edges the boys would  elbow and push each other and laugh like you did when you were making fun of somebody and the girls always walked ahead of them like they were in a big hurry. I watched my older brothers friend George makeout with a girl there once. It didn’t look like much fun.

     The day I discovered the beer can I was lifting up rocks, looking for crayfish. I found the unopened can wedged between stones hidden in the current. Whoever had put it there had blown it, this can was mine now! The kids in the trailer park lived by an unwritten law, finders keepers losers weepers.

      This discovery became one of my first “Eden experiences.” I came from a family of strict prohibitionist and I was also only eight years old.  A good portion of that eight years I’d spent on my butt, sitting in a church pew, hearing about how bad the stuff in this can was for my soul. This stuff was a ticket straight to hell. I couldn’t believe my luck!   There were no poptops in 1959 or I would have opened it and taken a swig right then. I needed a can opener! Going to a friends house was out of the question. I’d already learned none of my friends could be trusted with a secret , especially one as big as this. The last thing I needed was one of the big kids beating me up for stealing their beer.  I was going to have to sneak it home. Which met I was going to have to get it past my big sister Kathy. Kathy was thirteen years old and took care of me after school until our parents got home from work.  She accomplished this job with a combination of indifference and eagle eye attention that left me a little paranoid and always watching over my shoulder. I was going to have to appeal to her curious side and tempt her with this forbidden drink. It was my only chance. What would she do? What could she do? She wouldn’t go near the creek and if mom found out she let me go there alone she’d be in big trouble. She’d either help me or confiscate it. I was convinced Kathy could read my mind, she could always tell when I was up to something even before I knew I was up to something. To my eight year old mind she was a kind of grown-up so I was shocked how easy she gave in to this conspiracy. Kathy found the can opener and opened the can, she took the first swig and then handed it to me. I was in awe and amazed,  there was more to my big sis than I knew!  I’d smelled this stuff before, on street corners downtown and on the breath of a man that showed up in church occasionally. Whoaaamundo… it tasted worse than it smelled. We only drank one sip each, threw the rest away and hid the can… I spent the  rest of the day waiting to Satan show up and escort me directly to hell.

       I think mom may have been in her seventies before she found out this story. It was one of those holiday times, when we were all together, and it isn’t long before somebody starts telling old stories. The years had turned us into “grownups” but this kind of moment turns you back into kids. The nostalgia of these moments acts like a truth serum and the story of a “forbidden beer” finally came out. My mother just laughed and told us all a similar childhood secret of her own.

      As I wander the streams around my home in search of fish, sticks and stones.  I occasionally find an empty beer can someone has tossed. For a moment I am an eight year old boy again, filled with a yearning to know what I do not know and a willingness to have secrets I’m beholding to 

I wanted to shrink me.... and make the tinker toys seem massive....  like you were living inside the toy.....   I'm going to do a whole series of these paintings....   

I painted this evening street scene  of Charleston , South Carolina....  this is what Feb. in S.C looks like... we have -10 below here right now....   It's all about the street lights...

Indiana Farm

Finally finished this painting ..  20x24...  acrylic on canvas 

Queen Annes Lace

this a detail of another new painting I'm working on.... 

Light and Water

Another I'm working on...... 

Spring Turkey

"Spring Turkey"    24x 30    acrylic on canvas....     unfinished      long way to go on this, it may change drastically before it is finished. 

Reflections

"Spinner Time"   20" x 24"    acrylic on canvas       

More reflections on growing up.  I love evening light, when everything is covered with a glow of mystery.  This time of day reminds me to believe in the impossible.