Fix started working on her manuscript Harpo Marx as Trickster: Why We Laugh, Why We Love Him, Why He Seems Divine 10 years ago, and she finished her first draft last summer. She hopes to have the book published within a year.

The manuscript asserts that the literary character Harpo Marx captures the complexity and disruption needed to be considered a literary trickster.

Fix has been presenting her book proposal at various conferences throughout the last year, including most recently the C.G. Jung Association of Central Ohio, a community center in Columbus.

Tim Rietenbach's plan for "Grazing"

Columbus, OH, is turning 200 and to celebrate the city has gathered 56 international, national, and local artists including CCAD alumnus and professor Tim Rietenbach to create in public art projects around the city.

The entire series is called FINDING TIME: Columbus Public Art 2012. It will consist of 14 individual projects ranging from an LED light display on the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) building to new carillon chime compositions at a downtown Columbus church.

The projects explore the common theme of time, including its passage and measurement, along with notions of temporariness and permanence.

Rietenbach (CCAD 1977) is working on a piece called Grazing to be installed June 1, 2012. The art work consists of steel-rod cows that will appear to float on the Scioto River in downtown Columbus. The cows will have multiple moving parts that will be engaged by the flow of the water. Rietenbach said the cows will represent a time when farms were smaller and cows were able to roam the fields in close proximity to the city.

“The cows will, in appearance, be defying the laws of gravity (walking on water). Needless to say that is where the idea began and if realized will be the most gratifying artistic tool,” Rietenbach said. “My hope is that when finished I will have constructed a living gesture drawing that is as much phantom as it is real.”

Some of the art projects will blend in with Columbus’ urban landscape, while others may cause some head scratching, according to a Columbus Dispatch article.

“I think head scratching is OK,” said Columbus Art Commission Chair Diane Nance in the article. “It challenges people to think about what art is and what art should look like in a public space.”

Starting in 2010, the initiative has received grants from several organizations including the National Endowment of the Arts and The Ohio State University.

The projects will be documented as they are installed at www.columbuspublicart.com.

The first-place student design team with executives from Scotts LawnService

In a recent collaboration with ScottsMiracleGro Company a group of CCAD students competed to design an interior focal point for the company’s corporate offices.

The objective of the project was to design an artistic covering for 22 stone pillars that are a part of Scotts’ interior structure. The coverings needed to reflect the ScottsMiracleGro Company brand and also provide a wayfinding tool for employees and visitors.

Assistant professors Dawson Kellogg and Julie Abijanac (CCAD 1992) led the project involving the Studio Professions class.

Each student presented a concept to the professors. The original 37 designs were then narrowed down to 15.

Tiffany Peoples, the vice president of global innovation at Scotts, evaluated these 15 designs and selected the top six designs to move on to the next round.

The top six designers each became the artistic director of a team that they selected to work on a final design and presentation.

The final round of judging included Peoples and Jim Lyski, the chief marketing officer of Scotts. Each student group presented its designs and ideas to the judges in an open presentation. Peoples and Lyski then chose and ranked the top three designs.

First prize went to a design entitled Elements of Nature created by Fine Arts juniors Devin Broadnax and Chris Pack; Advertising & Graphic Design senior Maggie Malloy; Advertising & Graphic Design junior Richard Coyne; and Fine Arts sophomore Yunji Choi.

“We loved the detail in this group; we look at these designs every day so we wanted them to be generally appealing, but have a sense of detail to keep them fresh,” said Lyski.

First place design being presented to Scotts executives

Second place went to Drawn from the Roots. This design concept was created by Fine Arts sophomores Jamie Turner, Emily Ruff, and Allie Raines; Fine Arts juniors Emily Cook and Alexandria Goeltzenleuchter; and Advertising & Graphic Design junior Ashley Lyon.

The third place design, Hands of Appreciation, was created by Fines Arts sophomores Kyle Franklin, Gabrielle Hirth, and Angela Ryu; Illustration seniors Alyssa Gottlieb and Hannah Mu; and Fine Arts junior Yezen Abusharkh.

Scotts is one of several community clients that CCAD has recently provided significant creative services for including, Easton Town Center, The Central Ohio Transit Authority, the Governor’s office, and Nationwide Insurance.

Screenshot from the Columbus Dispatch article featuring a photograph by Abigail S. Fisher

The Columbus Dispatch recently featured Andrea Myers, CCAD adjunct faculty, in an article about her sculpture Everlasting, which is currently on display at the McConnell Art Center of Worthington.

The piece is a large, low bowl containing dozens of circular layers of colorful fabric.

“It’s the cutaway that’s revealing an unexpected interior,” Myers said in the article. “On a micro scale, it would be (one of Wonka’s) Everlasting Gobstoppers; macro, it would be the Earth cut in half. They’re vastly different objects in reality, but they can look the same.”

In her work, Myers explores the space between two-dimensional and three-dimensional by mixing painting, printmaking, and sculpture.

The article also notes that Myers was a recent recipient of the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship.

Read the full Columbus Dispatch article here.

Flegle's sculpture, "Sorrow"

Foundation Studies and Fine Arts Instructor Matthew Flegle has work in a group exhibition at the Alice F. And Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The exhibition, Material Witness, features six artists and is curated by Matt Distel, the executive director at Visionaries & Voices, an organization supporting artists with disabilities.

The exhibition features artwork in which exposed structural components dictate the conceptual and formal readings of the objects.

Material Witness is open through Feb. 26, 2012.

Denny Griffith, president of CCAD, in his studio

Denny Griffith, the current president of CCAD, comes into work every day and oversees the college’s growth and development, but when he leaves his office at the end of a long day he steps into another room, his studio.

Griffith sat down at his interview with me smiling and before I could even begin asking him about his upcoming exhibition, he said, “First, let’s talk about you… how are you doing?”

This showcases the kind of individual the president is. He is aware of his surroundings, his position, and most importantly his peers. He is an active artist and this shows a vivid connection between him and not only the arts, but the community.

In the early 1990s, Griffith began a series of abstract paintings and also started to experiment with a new material, melted beeswax.

“I mix the beeswax with oil paint to create this rich texture and coloring,” said Griffith.

In his current exhibition, Microscopy, he takes a look at microscopic images of cells in an abstract art form. The show comprises approximately 24 pieces, which are all new works done within the last two years.

His inspiration came from his personal life.  He received some troubling news when he found out his dad had been diagnosed with leukemia.

“I came across images of leukemic cells and saw how much the slides looked like interesting little paintings,” he said.

His continual artistic reference to the microscopic world became a source of endless inspiration for him when he was most concerned for his father.

“It amazes me that something so devastating can be portrayed into something so beautiful,” Griffith said.

Griffith was born in Delaware County and moved to Detroit with his family at a young age. When time came to look for a college, he chose the city of Delaware and his father’s alma mater,  Ohio Wesleyan University.

He received his bachelor of fine arts from Ohio Wesleyan and went on to receive a master of fine arts from The Ohio State University.

“Never would I have dreamed that I would be a president of a college, but I always wanted to be working and making a living in the arts, and I am,” Griffith said.

When asked why he stays active in his art making, his eyes sparkle and he answers with a degree of passion.

“Art is a self directed journey and I go back to the saying that it is about the journey and not the destination,” he said.

“Being active in my art shows the people at CCAD that I am not only their president, but a peer. I give them reassurance that I am connected to the arts and I am a part of their community.”

Not only does the president maintain his active artistic lifestyle, but he continually supports the staff and faculty to remain active.

“I encourage my staff and faculty to remain active in the arts, for a professor it is part of their research, it shows the community we have a direct and engaged connection .”

Griffith has been included in more than 90 solo and group exhibitions and is represented in many public and private collections. He is also represented by the Hammond Harkins Galley in Columbus.

Microscopy an exhibition of oil and encaustic paintings will be shown at Ohio Wesleyan University in the Richard M. Ross Art Museum, 60 South Sandusky St. in Delaware, Ohio from Sept. 29–Nov. 13, 2011. There is a reception for the artist, Friday, Sept. 30, 7–9 p.m.