We asked some of our Fall 2024 Adjunct and Associated Professors to share their insights, from favorite ways to find inspiration to under-the-radar artists everyone should know. Here’s what they had to say.
One thing you wish you did before you graduated college:
Scott Andrew: I wish I had gained more entrepreneurial skills and professional development/advice about how to start and sustain a productive arts career.
Julia Betts: Studied abroad.
Jenna Boyles: More research about student loans 😅
Kristen Letts Kovak: Study Abroad.
Alli Lemon: Took every class in the things I thought I wasn’t interested in. Just to push myself. I got caught up in the courses/mediums that appealed to me, and I’d love to have been even more exploratory.
John Guy Petruzzi: Experiment! College is the time for trying new things, discovering pathways and growing into your authentic self. This is especially true for artists.
Marvin Touré: Got more rest. The stakes were never that high in retrospect.
Another artist more people should know:
Andrew: Andy Warhol! JK! I’d say Machine Dazzle, Darrell Thorne, or any artists who still identify as a radical fairy.
Betts: Leyla Mozayen.
Boyles: Pamela Z.
Kovak: Ellen Altfest, Neil Harbisson, and Zoë Charlton (I couldn’t pick just one!).
Lemon: I love collage and think there are so many collage artists that should be household names — Romare Bearden, Hannah Hoch, John Baldessari, this list goes on.
Petruzzi: Katherine Brie Romero.
Touré: Spiders. Yes, I’m serious.
Where is your favorite Pittsburgh place to find inspiration?
Andrew: In actuality I would say on the internet from my couch, but to answer the question more seriously I’d say the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Phipps Conservatory, and the Mattress Factory.
Betts: I find a lot of inspiration walking around stores with interesting materials and objects. In Pittsburgh, I particularly like Construction Junction and Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.
Boyles: Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.
Kovak: Anywhere there is light.
Lemon: By the water. I love to walk across all the different bridges. My favorite is the Smithfield.
Petruzzi: The Museum of Natural History!
Touré: Not a singular place, but the many things I see on long walks through Pittsburgh.
How do you define Art?
Andrew: To quote Bob Bingham, “Is it art yet?” This always cracked me up and is something I say to my students today. This question always made me think that art is simply anything an artist says is art!
Betts: I don’t really like to give art a definition because, to me, that becomes a restriction. I had a professor one time that said, “I don’t care if it’s art or not, I just care if it’s interesting,” and I’ve always liked that.
Boyles: I don’t believe there’s one definition, but, for me personally, I would define art as the expression of a fresh perspective that has been visually and/or sonically considered and presented/performed in a meaningful way.
Kovak: The first time that I was surrounded by cave paintings, I was left speechless for hours. The presentness of their creation was thunderously loud, and only the mutual act of seeing remained across centuries. Somewhere in that moment, I abandoned definitions.
Lemon: The immediate answer is “there’s no one definition,” but past that, Art is our mark. The way each cycle of humanity chooses to be remembered.
Petruzzi: Art is a label describing reflections of existential experience that hold meaning in the mind of at least one person.
Touré: Honesty’s Halloween.
You exist at the intersection of:
Andrew: LGBTQIA+ video art, animation, and performance.
Betts: Sculpture, performance, and installation.
Boyles: Art and technology, of course!
Kovak: Seeing and knowing.
Lemon: “High” and “low” culture.
Petruzzi: Art and science. And ice cream.
Touré: North Fork Peachtree Creek, space camp, and Ben & Jerry’s (Non-Dairy) The Tonight Dough.
Get to know even more of our School of Art faculty here.