Visiting Artist at the University of Rio Grande (part two…)

I just got back from visiting the University of Rio Grande. Benjy Davies, Professor of Art and Chair-School of Arts and Letters, invited me to show my work at the Greer Museum and conduct a mini-comics workshop with local high school students.

This was the second half of this visit, about a week and a half  ago I was at Rio Grande to visit the same high school students and start the workshop. This was a really great experience, I never did this kind of workshop with high school students before. They were extremely engaged and interested AND I think they created some really interesting comics.

Morning classes at Northwest High School…this is always my favorite part of any mini-comic workshop, when we get to read everyone’s comics…

This student wants to start a series of true stories that her parents are unaware of…this was hilarious!

Afternoon was spent at Valley High School…a student seen here putting some finishing touches on the comic…

This was a comic about a student who often sees ghosts or spirits…this was really good!

Comic about how teachers have mispronounced the artist’s first name…

Then it was back to the University of Rio Grande with comics in hand…Professor Benjy Davies and two other students helped make copies and fold all the comics…

This was a huge help! And we got to talk about comics and comic book movies while we folded comics…

Finally, on my first night back in Ohio I was able to see these murals painted along the flood walls in Portsmouth.

These murals were all painted by a single person! in Robert Dafford was commissioned by the city to paint murals recording the history of Portsmouth.

From Wikipedia: “In the spring of 1993, mural artist Robert Dafford was commissioned and began painting murals of Portsmouth’s history. He hired local art student Herb Roe as an assistant…The project eventually spanned sixty 20 feet (6.1 m) tall consecutive Portsmouth murals, stretching for over 2,000 feet (610 m).^[89] Subjects covered by the murals span the history of the area from the ancient mound building Adena and Hopewell cultures to modern sporting events and notable natives.”