C. Todd Jones, Grand Award winner Ken Aschliman, parents Kathy and Dave Aschliman.

In an exciting follow-up to an already exciting story, Fine Arts Senior Ken Aschliman (CCAD 2011) was awarded the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Ohio (AICUO) Excellence in Visual Art Grand Award. To recognize his talent, the AICUO purchased a work of art from Aschliman and awarded him $2,500.

Held at Ohio Wesleyan University on April 13, the reception honored senior students from independent colleges throughout Ohio who were deemed finalists in the competition by a panel of Ohio artists and members of the art community.

Aschliman was one of three CCAD seniors nominated for the award. Fine Arts senior Katherine Adkins (CCAD 2011) and Photography senior Pei Yin Chen (CCAD 2011) also competed for the award. You can read more about the students’ nomination here.

Prior to the reception and awards announcements, the student nominees participated in a panel discussion, discussing their inspirations, their academic experiences and their career aspirations.

AICUO was organized in 1969 to represent the interests of its members to Ohio’s lawmakers, regulators and citizens.  AICUO seeks to strengthen student financial aid programs and bring about a greater understanding of the impact and contributions of Ohio independent colleges and universities.  At the same time, AICUO works to promote the well-being of Ohio higher education as a whole, with special regard for the dual private/public nature of the responsibility to serve the educational, social, and cultural needs of the state and the nation.  For more information regarding AICUO, visit our website at www.aicuo.edu.

Aschliman was named the 2011 Outstanding Senior for the Fine Arts department and is a member of CCAD’s Student Government. Learn more about him on his website.

Katherine Adkins and Ken Aschliman, both seniors majoring in Fine Arts, and Pei Yin Chen, a senior majoring in Photography, are nominees for the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio (AICUO) Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts.

In addition to competing for a grand award, including a cash prize of $2,500, the students also are eligible to win a People’s Choice Award. Online voting opens to the general public at the end of February.

The competition recognizes outstanding senior artists from Ohio’s independent colleges. Portfolios of all artwork submitted by the student nominees are judged by independent college faculty, community artists, art journalists, and state legislators to determine Grand Award finalists. All nominees’ art portfolios are available for online viewing.

In addition to the Grand Award and the People’s Choice Award, five student nominees will receive awards as competition finalists at a public reception on April 13th at Ohio Wesleyan University.

When Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, assistant professor, Liberal Arts and Graduate Studies, learned of the challenge she assigned students in Contemporary Literature, Writing Poetry, and Writing Fiction classes to send in a manifesto that addressed a social issue or concern or to find ways to broadly share literature.

Bolden was “absolutely ecstatic” to receive “a slew of Yawp offerings from some bright and brilliant students at CCAD.” She wrote, “I’ve been absolutely blown away with their work, which is sophisticated and shows a sense of honesty and dedication to art and truth-speaking and sooth-saying.”

The first CCAD response that Bolden received was from Katherine Adkins. The Fine Arts senior’s work is posted online at The Yawp, a public poetry project. To read it and to understand more about “yawp” go to http://theyawp.com.

Bolden also was impressed and appreciative that Kartsonis decided to incorporate the assignment into her teaching. A thank-you note she sent to the professor said, “I’ve been so very impressed with your students’ work — they’re a wonderful group, and they’re lucky to have you as a teacher. I wish I could take your class!”

Go to CCAD faculty bios to learn more about Kartsonis.

First prize by Dillon Sirimongkhon

Winners of the annual Lowell Tolstedt Drawing Prize competition are Dillon Sirimongkhon, first prize winner; Katherine Adkins, second prize; Taylor Leaman, third prize; and Kerry Kunze, honorable mention. The drawings of all 2010 finalists will be on display in the Canzani Center from March 29 to April 15.

Open to sophomores and juniors, this year’s competition was narrowed to 24 drawings by 22 finalists as selected by a committee of drawing department faculty and department chair Gordon Lee. Sarah McCoubrey, visiting artist and professor at Syracuse University, reviewed the finalists’ work to select the winning drawings.

Finalists include: Ken Aschliman, Jennifer Bills, Brielle Burrus, Jeremiah Caudill, Rachel Hartshorn, Eric Hines, Stefan Hoza, Taylor Leaman, Teryn Loebs, Todd Pleasants, Alex Ross, Pallavi Sen, Darian Shepherd, Michael Smith, Carlilyn Sombat, Jeffrey Tyler Stevenson, Dion Utt, and Ryan Walters.

The drawing competition was established by Thomas and Pamela Workman (CCAD ’99) in honor of Lowell Tolstedt, Fine Arts professor emeritus, to celebrate and promote the strong drawing tradition at CCAD.