Lynnette Hesser Awarded First Place
at Gadsden Museum Exhibition

Lynnette Hesser was awarded first place in Three-dimensional work in the Gadsden Museum of Art Juried Exhibition in October. Lynnette is an Adjunct Instructor for the JSU Art Department. She also had an image pictured in the Gallery Section of the September/October 2008 issue of the national magazine Clay Times. Her work was featured in a contemporary crafts exhibit at The Wiregrass Museum in Dothan, Alabama for the first half of 2008 and a number of pieces are currently on display at JSU’s Hammond Hall Art Gallery’s Annual Faculty Exhibition.

Lynnette derives the designs for her floral pieces from plant shapes. Most of her work involves the assembling of wheel-thrown and hand-built sections that, together with detailed carving and embellishments, make intricate, imaginary flower and leaf shapes. Her goal with her floral designs is to capture the essence of flowers rather than recreating reality as she relates the positions of the assembled forms to the shape of individual flower she is creating. Other pieces have intricate geometric patterns or floral details which have been laboriously carved into the surface of the clay piece. She uses simple tools to carve out her designs into very realistic, three-dimensional drawings on the surface of each piece.

Her pieces are glazed with multiple glazes to give them vivid color schemes. The combination of multiple glazes and kiln atmospheres create the surface colors that uniquely complete each piece. The largest piece in the Faculty Exhibition is three feet high while the smallest is just under four inches. Some of the pieces are functional, meant to be used for serving food and enhancing the dining experience, while others are meant as decorative elements for the home or office. Having received a BA from Denison University, Granville, Ohio, a BFA and MFA from the University of Florida in Gainesville, each with a concentration in Ceramics,

she then completed a Master of Science in Education in Early Childhood from JSU in 1999. A resident of the Jacksonville area since 1987, she has been an adjunct instructor at JSU for 15 1/2 years and has also taught classes with Gadsden State Community College including classes in Art Appreciation, Ceramics I, Design I and II, and Drawing I classes. She taught Art at the Donoho School and in Cherokee County, Second and Transitional First Grades

at Alexandria Elementary, and conducted workshops through the Anniston Museum, Alabama County Extension Services, and the Little River Canyon Field School. Her ceramic work is exhibited nationwide and is made in the studio that she shares with her husband, Steve Loucks, who is also a Ceramic Artist and Professor of Art at JSU. Lynnette also is the curator for the traveling exhibition entitled “1000 Lbs of Alabama Clay” which is sponsored by supported by the Alabama Crafts Council, a subsidiary group of the Alabama State Council on the Arts in Montgomery. The exhibition celebrates work by 35 of Alabama’s ceramic artists who are either professors or professional artists. She asked these artists to create pieces for the exhibition in their unique, individual styles using indigenous clay from the Moundville and Mobile areas. Lynnette developed the concept and engineered the exhibition which first opened in February of 2008 in Tuscaloosa in conjunction with the 2008 Alabama Clay Conference and will conclude in the summer of 2009 at Samford’s Art Gallery in Birmingham. It is on display at the Tennessee Valley Arts Association in Tuscumbia through November 2008 when it will travel to the Gadsden Center for Cultural Arts for January and February 2009. It will be in JSU’s Hammond Hall Gallery for “Kaleidoscope” in March and then move on to Troy University in April. By the time the exhibition closes, it will have traveled to nine centers of art in Alabama.

 

 

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