April 21, 2009
Three seniors share Rickert-Ziebold art award
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Three graduating seniors from the School of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will share this year’s prestigious Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award.
Charles Grant Cox III (Eldorado), Joshua Ingold (Cobden) and Jason Watts, (Washington, Ill.) and will share the $20,000 scholarship.
A jury of School of Art and Design faculty members selected the winning entries from 16 finalists’ exhibits. An exhibit of all the Rickert-Ziebold competition finalists is open now through Saturday, April 25, at the Surplus Gallery in the old Glove Factory at 432 S. Washington Ave. A reception for winners is set for 5:30-8 p.m. on Friday, April 24, with an awards ceremony at 6:30 p.m.
Cox created a multi-piece exhibit called “Accumulate.” A painting major, Cox said he wanted to question the standard perception that a painting is two-dimensional art.
The pieces making up “Accumulate” incorporate items found along Illinois Route 13, which Cox drives almost daily as a commuter student. He said he also took some pieces from residential curbside trash.
“In my process, I handle my environmental concerns by turning them into art,” he said.
Cox plans to attend graduate school to continue his training in art.
Ingold created a mixed-media sculpture using lumber, steel, concrete and sod. He explained that his three-piece exhibit explores the philosophical concept of deconstruction. He said that, as an art student, he perceives concepts as visual metaphors. This exhibit was his way to illustrate the metaphor.
“I like to see the piece in real space,” he said, noting that the final form of the exhibit wasn’t complete until he brought it to the Surplus Gallery. “I focus just on the idea. Completing the idea is as exciting for me as finishing the piece.”
Ingold plans to pursue his interest in architecture at the Rhode Island School of Architecture.
Watts is a former Force Reconnaissance Marine. His artist statement refers to his service in Iraq as pivotal in his artistic career. His multi-pieces stoneware sculpture exhibit blends natural items recreated in his stoneware as symbols with bust portrait sculptures.
“I lost several very close friends (in Iraq) and I told myself if I made it back, everything else in the world would be gravy,” he wrote in his artist’s statement. “Making art allows me to explore myself in order to heal, and to understand my purpose in life.”
Erin Palmer, chair of the Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award committee and associate professor of painting and drawing, said Rickert-Ziebold competition students are well-prepared for the next phase in their artistic careers, whether that next phase is in graduate school, the studio or some other area.
“This year, one thing that strikes me as I look around this gallery is that we have diverse sensibilities, a strong sense both of individuality and of different media and disciplines,” she said before announcing the winners.
The annual Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award honors the late Joseph Rickert, a prominent lawyer and former state senator from Waterloo, who loved the arts and appreciated SIUC’s place in the cultural life of the Southern Illinois region. His family established the award in 1974.
Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award winner --
Charles Grant Cox III of Eldorado with a
portion of "Accumulate," his winning
exhibit in the 2009 Rickert-Ziebold Trust
Award competition at Southern Illinois
University Carbondale. (Photo by
Russell Bailey) Download Photo Here
Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award winner
--Joshua Ingold of Cobden with a
portion of his winning exhibit in the
2009 Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award
competition at Southern Illinois
University Carbondale. (Photo by
Russell Bailey) Download Photo Here
Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award winner --
A portion of a winning sculpture exhibit
by Jason Watts of Washington, Ill,, in
the Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award
competition at Southern Illinois
University Carbondale. Watts could not
attend the awards announcement.
(Photo by Russell Bailey) Download Photo Here