Meet the Artists
The images in the Fall 2022 edition of Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education (No. 61) are the work of artists from across the AJCU network. We thought you would like to know a little bit more about the people behind the work.
Littleton Alston (Pages 9, 37, 42) Littleton Alston is Professor of Sculpture at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where he also maintains his sculpture studio. His sculptures are included in public and private collections throughout the country, and his artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Littleton was featured in the recent documentary film, A Sculpted Life | Nebraska Public Media and his bronze statue portraying author Willa Cather will soon be installed in the U.S. Capitol to represent the state of Nebraska in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Littleton earned a B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Rinehart School of Sculpture in Baltimore. Find further information at Alston Sculpture.
Rev. Arturo Araujo, S.J. (Pages 4, 13, 34, 45) joined Seattle University as an associate professor of Visual Arts. Originally from Colombia, Araujo joined the Jesuits in 1986, earned his bachelor's degree in Philosophy and a master's in divinity from Javeriana University in Bogotá. He came to Seattle University to study Visual Arts, and he received a BA from SU before going on to study at Cornish College of the Arts and then to the University of New Mexico. He returned to Seattle most recently after teaching at the University of San Francisco. Inspired by nature and by the work of Rembrandt, Käthe Kollwitz, and Thavor Ko-udomvit, Araujo creates work that expresses a contemporary spirituality combining etching and lithography, silkscreen, relief, and digital media. His work has been known in Colombia, the United States, Italy, Mexico, and Canada. Araujo's work is a visual meditation that seeks reconciliation and identity. His expertise is the combination of all print media.
Ben Dunkle (Pages 19, 35) is a designer artist and professor at Canisius College. He draws on memory and nostalgia for inspiration and his recent work consists mainly of drypoint, monoprint, collage, silkscreen, acrylic, and gouache works on paper and canvas. He completed a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in printmaking, with a concentration on intaglio and bookmaking and continued to practice printmaking his entire career. He incorporates digital processes into traditional printmaking methods by drawing imagery on a computer, printing it, and transferring it to paper and canvas. 3D design and printmaking is a major focus as well.
AGO exterior, by Beatrice M. Mady, professor of Graphic Arts and director of Fine Arts Gallery at Saint Peter’s University. Photo courtesy of artist and St. Peter’s University.
Beatrice M. Mady (Pages 3, 39, 46) This artist’s works can be seen at the Dayton Art Institute, Museum of Friends and Drew University Museum and in corporate collections of Pfizer, Ortho Dermatological, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Johnson and Johnson, Sydney and Francis Lewis Foundation, Arenol Chemical Corp., Capital Health Medical Center and the Provident Bank of New Jersey. She was a recipient of a Ford Foundation Grant, a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant and seven Kenny Grants. She exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions. She is professor, graphic arts coordinator and gallery director at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.J., and received an M.F.A. in painting from Pratt Institute and a B.F.A. from the University of Dayton. Her home and studio are in Jersey City, N.J.
Ashok Chatting With Friends, by Rachel Mindrup, assistant professor of Drawing and Painting and the Richard L. Deming, M.D. Endowed Chair in Medical Humanities at Creighton University. Photo courtesy of artist and the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics.
Rachel Mindrup (Pages 7, 11, 44) is an assistant professor of Drawing and Painting and the Richard L. Deming, MD Endowed Chair in Medical Humanities at Creighton University. She received her BFA from the University of Nebraska-Kearney and then continued with atelier studies at the Art Academy of Los Angeles. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Her current painting practice is about the study of the figure and portraiture in art and its relation to medicine, healing and identity. Her son's diagnosis has been the motivation behind her series of portraits "Many Faces of Neurofibromatosis (NF)". She is currently painting someone with NF from all 50 states to bring to Washington D.C. when advocating for federal funding for NF research. Mindrup's work has been shown nationally and internationally including the Queens Museum in Queens, NY, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha and Kearney campuses, Georgia Regents University and Washington University Medical School. Her artwork is held in many private collections including those of primatologist Jane Goodall and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Artificial Gladiolus, by Wanda Sullivan, professor of Art and director of Eichold Gallery at Spring Hill College. Photo courtesy of the Mobile Museum of Art and artist.
Wanda Sullivan (Pages 40, 48, Back Cover) is a professor of Art in the Visual & Performing Arts Department and director of Eichold Gallery at Spring Hill College. Her most recent work is conceptually based on climate change. She received an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Mississippi. Sullivan exhibits her work nationally in competitions, galleries and museums such Alabama Contemporary Art Center in Mobile, AL, The Hollins University Eleanor D. Wilson Museum in Roanoke, V.A., the Santa Clara University Gallery in Santa Clara, C.A. and the Xavier University Gallery in Cincinnati, O.H., among many others.
Rev. Michael F. Tunney, S.J. (Cover, 33), ordained a priest in 1988 at Fordham University Chapel in The Bronx, is USA East Provincial Assistant for Higher Education. Previously he was rector of the Fairfield Jesuit community and of the Canisius Jesuit community. He taught and was pastorally active at both schools and in the dioceses. Tunney has an M.F.A. in painting and Master of Science in art history from Pratt Institute, a Master of Divinity at Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, and a Master in Sacred Theology from JSTB. Tunney’s works have appeared in America Magazine and been exhibited at Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery and galleries in Buffalo, Boston, Fairfield, Kansas City, Montreal, New York, and Philadelphia. His commission work includes Cross, Knot, Stripes: A Mural for Keenan Commons, at Xavier High School, NYC; Lorcán & Iñigo, (the cover image) in St. Ignatius Church, NYC; and Friends in the Lord: Ignatius, Francis, and Peter at Xavier High School, NYC.
The featured cover photo (above) is courtesy of Alice Dietrich via Unsplash.