Eastern Michigan University art professor Camilla McComb has been awarded the Best of Show Award at the 52nd annual Michigan Education Association/Michigan Art Education Association exhibit. McComb submitted two photographs of an old-fashioned school desk in two locations.
“I'm interested as an educator in how people are currently portraying education,” McComb said. “There is a lot of negatives out there. And as an art educator, I have the opportunity to influence those perceptions.”
107 people entered artwork into the competition and 67 of those people had work accepted. To McComb’s surprise, she won. She received two $185 checks for her work.
“I was surprised,” McComb said. “I was just trying to get in the show.”
She originally intended for her submission to be a sculpture until she found the desk at the Ann Arbor Reused Center. However, the desk ended up working better for her and could be used in a natural environment. The first picture, Assessing the Educational Landscape, is taken from the back. It shows the desk on a footpath up a grassy hill. The second, Contemplation, is taken from a high angle in birch trees and the shine of the desk reflects the sky, according to the MEA.
The desks are a metaphor for education, students and the state of American education today. McComb came to EMU after leaving her previous job as a K-12 art teacher several years ago. She said that she wants to teach the next generation of K-12 art teachers.
She has had her work displayed in faculty shows in the Student Center Art Gallery in previous semesters. Currently, she is working on a painting that explores the concepts of compassion and pluralism. This is especially relevant, she says, in the "divisive" political atmosphere that the country is currently in.
