SMC Student Art Show Returns

Southwestern Michigan College’s annual student art exhibition returned for the first time since 2019 April 18 with an awards ceremony in the Art Gallery of the Dale A. Lyons Building on the Dowagiac campus.

COVID-19 canceled art shows beginning in 2020, so the reopening of the Art Gallery under the leadership of Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Sam Walker, resurrected some familiar elements, such as the Terry Pfliger Toaster Award and the Mina, while christening it with a SASSy new name — Student Art Show at Southwestern.

Drawing

1st Place – Nicholas Patterson

Mina Award – Nate Turbyfill

Judge’s Merit Award – Cavina Marquez

Graphic Design

1st Place – Elena Barkman

Mina Award – Haily Shadix

Judge’s Merit Award – Julius Vinall

Mixed Media

1st Place – Evan Brown

Mina Award – Ciara Taff

Judge’s Merit Award – Elena Barkman

Painting

1st Place – Eylul Antisdel

Mina Award – Nikola Mccllen

Judge’s Merit Award – Maria Long

Photography

1st Place – Haily Shadix

Mina Award – Owen Cooper

Judge’s Merit Award – Caylie Dibble

3D Work

1st Place – William Lafleur

MINA Award – Eylul Antisdel

Judge’s Merit Award – Marissa Jones

Recipient of the Presidential Choice Award – Nicholas Patterson

Recipient of the Terry Pfliger Toaster Award – Nate Turbyfill

Recipient of the Peer Award by popular vote – Olivia Converse

The Mina is named for Mina Kay Pouyamehr, 23, killed in a Dec. 1, 1989, crash in Tipton County, Ind. She graduated from Elkhart Memorial High School in 1984. She was born Jan. 6, 1966, in Independence, Kan., and lived in Dowagiac at the time of her death.

Provost Dr. David Fleming revived the toaster presented by the apocryphal Pfliger Foundation for the Arts.

Fleming slipped on a wig to recreate his alter ego, Marcelle.

Pfliger, an art professor emeritus who retired in 2015, died June 9, 2016, at 68. At the time of his death he lived in Bridgman.

A well-respected artist in Canada, from 1973-95 he led the art department at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario.

A Canadian council chose his work for a 2012-13 traveling exhibit of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil and Australia.

A mischievous man who took humor seriously, the only child in 1999 introduced SMC to his fake foundation run by invented siblings, twin brother David and younger sister Marlene.

Many pieces are whimsical historical fiction, taking real events and altering them to toy with the viewer by almost being believable.

Early TV quiz shows inspired the odd prize, but “it is a serious appreciation of the student’s work with a personal touch that edges beyond a judge’s considerations and becomes ‘The art was selected because it would look good on our wall.’ ”

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