Laken Bridges in the Book Arts studio at Penland.
Last week, Art Department Marketing and Public Relations Director, Meredith Mims McTigue, and I drive north past Asheville, NC from Clemson, then turned onto 19 East and up the winding mountain roads to Penland. Our mission: to visit with Laken Bridges, Clemson University Art Department MFA Candidate.
Laken was at Penland thanks for the vision of Penlands' donors and their on-going commitment to support the Higher Education Partner's Scholarship program. These scholarships are provided in partnership with up to 30 colleges
and universities who match Penland’s contribution of the cost of
providing full scholarships for a two-week summer session at Penland.
The college or university partner selects students, who must be
first-time students at Penland to be eligible.
Laken was studying with University of Georgia Visiting Assistant Professor, Eileen Wallace, taking her "Books with Substance" class. Wallace, the former co-director of Paper and Book Intensive and the curator for Masters: Book Arts for Lark Books, graciously accommodated our intrusion into her workshop.
In looking over Laken's prolific output, one could readily see books that fulfilled the course's mandate to create "one-of-a-kind or very-limited-edition artist’s books that
display a cohesive integration of structure and content."
In-progress book by Laken Bridges.
All told, it was an very inspiring way to spend an afternoon, dining at The Pines, having conversation with intellectually engaged and creative people who understand the power of the hand, heart and mind to foster creativity.
The Penland
School of Crafts is a national center for craft
education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in
the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Penland offers one-, two-,
and eight-week workshops in books & paper, clay, drawing, glass,
iron, metals, photography, printmaking and letterpress, textiles, and
wood. For more information, go to: http://penland.org.
Laken Bridges will be entering her second year as a graduate student with an
emphasis in printmaking studying with Professor Sydney Cross. To learn more about graduate studies in Art Clemson University or to schedule a campus visit, email the Art Department graduate coordinator, David Detrich, at ddavid@clemson.edu or call (864) 656-3890.
