UCO Special Collections on Display

Meredith America, Cherokee Spokecard

Emilio Amero (1901-1976), Boy with Fawn

Emilio Amero was born in Ixtlahuaca, Mexico in 1901. He was of Spanish and Otomi Indian ancestry. He first studied art at the famous Academy of San Carlos, in Mexico City and started working for the Mexico Nuevo newspaper in 1917. Amero was a leader in the Mexican Modern Art Movement. In 1923 Amero and artist Jean Charlot started a revival of the graphic arts. He learned the Fresco Secco technique from Jose Clemente Orozco when he collaborated with him on a set of murals for the National Preparatory School. The following year he worked with Diego Rivera on Frescoes for the Ministry of Education Building. Amero mastered lithography by training in Cuba and New York, where he worked with George C. Miller (Master Lithographer) and taught at the Florence Cane Art School. From 1946-1968, Amero was a professor at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. He taught mural painting, printmaking, etching, lithography and steel engraving. In Oklahoma, he founded the only leading Graphic Arts Print Workshop in the state where he influenced a generation of artists. He died in Norman, Oklahoma in 1976.

Ruth Augur (1886-1967), Village by Stream

Ruth Monroe Augur was born in Austin, Texas in 1886. Ruth attended Students School of Art in Denver, Colorado. There she received a state scholarship to the New York School of Art where she attended for one year in 1905. In later years she attended Carmel-by-the-Sea summer school in Carmel, California, The California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Augur was a teacher of composition, anatomy, color theory and painting in the Enid Public school system. She was fascinated with the human form, and portraiture, during her studies she took sculptor classes to gain a better understanding of the human anatomy to help with her portraiture works. Augur’s most well known achievement was the creation of six murals depicting the history of the Cherokee Strip for the Garfield County courthouse in Enid, Oklahoma. The work was meant to show the early history of Oklahoma. Augur prepared with months of research in pursuit of historical accuracy. The murals were completed on June 25, 1937, and covered an area of 1,136 square feet.

Martha Avey (1882-1943), Still Life

Martha Avey was born in Arcola, Illinois in 1872. At a very young age, Avey showed a strong interest in Art. At the age of 12, she convinced her parents to let her commute to Charleston, IL for to take private art lessons. Later in life, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago where she obtained a degree. She then went on to Parsons School of Design, in New York City, now known as the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts. She spent one summer studying at Fontainebleau Ecole des Beaux Arts in France. She was awarded the Carnegie Scholarship for one-year to study at Harvard University. She has taken private lessons and studied with successful artists such as Martha Walter, Cecelia Beaux, Felicie Waldo Howell, Maurice Braun, Lester Stevens, and George Pearce Ennis. Avey worked with oils, and watercolors, and preferred to create portraits. Avey was the first Art Supervisor in Oklahoma City Public School System. In 1925, she organized the Art Department for Oklahoma City University and was the director until her retirement in 1938. Avey was a charter member of the Association of Oklahoma Artist, a member of the Oklahoma Art League, and a charter member of the Art Renaissance Club.

Eugene Bavinger (1919-1997), Orange Field

Eugene (Gene) Bavinger was born in Sapulpa, Oklahoma in 1919. From 1942 to 1945, Gene served as a pilot instructor  and a flight commander in WWII. Gene spent most of his life in Oklahoma, with the exception of brief periods in New York City, and California. His graduate studies were completed at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel Allende, Mexico. After attending the University of Oklahoma for his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, Gene became a faculty member in 1947. He taught painting, drawing, and design for the next thirty-three years until his retirement. Gene’s artworks have a metaphorical meaning about the illusion of change and motion found in nature and the world as he saw it around him. He is best-known for his flat “Glass” paintings using this method Gene created a painting on top of a pane of glass with acrylic paint, then transfered that image to canvas. This style of painting allowed for an indeterminate depth that was improved by layers, textures, and oblique angles, that offers an enhancement to the sense of perpetual movement.

Donna Berryhill - Untitled

Archie Blackowl, Buffalo Hunt

Bary Blackwell, Untitled

Acee Blue Eagle (1907-1959), Fawn

Acee Blue Eagle, Che Bon Ah Bu La (Chebona Bula) Creek/Pawnee was born Alexander C. McIntosh in the village of Hitchita, Oklahoma. He adopted his mother’s name, as was the custom among Creek Indians. Blue Eagle and his peer artists  were a generation born at a critical time. Native Americans were experiencing cultural genocide at the hands of the U.S. Government. It was a time of change and marginalization of indigenous traditions. The work Blue Eagle and his peers accomplished established a New Movement in Native American Art. With forced assimilation came an urgency to preserve their traditions and culture. Thus their pictures portray costumes, dances, and rituals. They continued the “record keeping” of the ledger drawings in a new way. Ledger drawing were nineteenth-century Plains Indian drawings on paper or cloth. Drawings were often worked on an old ledger or accounting books hence the name ledger drawing. Blue Eagle established the first Art Department at Bacone College (previously the Indian University). He was deeply influenced by the philosophy and art of the Kiowa flat style. The Art Deco Movement, popular in Blue Eagle’s day was characterized by elongated style. Its influence can be seen in some of his early images of waterbirds and thunderbirds. Blue Eagle’s first major exhibition was the Exposition on Indian Tribal Arts in New York City in 1931. His works were later displayed at the Grand Central Art Gallery in New York. When King Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visited Oklahoma A&M, Acee gave him a headdress; Selassie was so impressed that he bought 7 of Acee’s paintings, which are still in the Ethiopian Museum.

Irene Bradford, Navajo Girl with Yarn

Orby Brownen, Untitled

Brownen is a self-taught artist who studied with Cletus Smith, former UCO Professor of watercolor. His works have been collected by numerous hospitals, nursing homes, and private individuals.

Kim Camp, Where Do I Find Manhood

Dorothea Stevenson Casady (1910-2006), Oklahoma Skyline

Dorothea Stevenson Casady was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1910. She married Richard R. Casady in 1943. Casady attended the University of Oklahoma for both her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Fine Arts degrees. She also studied at Julian Academy in Paris, France, and the Snow Fraelik School of Industrial Design in Chicago. She taught at Classen High School and was the Art Department Chairman at Oklahoma City University. Casady also taught at the University of Southern California and the University of California. She became a fellow of the McDowell Colony at Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Casady preferred to work with oil and was a renowned muralist. Casady created murals at Wilson School and Classen High School in Oklahoma City and Cameron College. The mural at Classen High School, Spirit of Oklahoma, remained until the 1960’s. The work was taken down due to its depiction of ethnic workers, and then later in 1985, the work was taken to the Oklahoma Museum of Art.

Jim Cobb, Portrait of Turnip

Gene Daughetry, Lake Scene

An accomplished oil and watercolorist Daugherty’s work characterized the American West with an open, clear refreshing realism. Daugherty received his Master’s in Education at Oklahoma State University, and taught art at Northern Oklahoma College for 24 years.

Brunel Faris (1937-2005), The Flood 2

Brunel DeBost Faris a native of Oklahoma City, received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the University of Oklahoma. He taught art in the public school systems of Tulsa and Oklahoma City before being appointed Art Director at the Oklahoma Science & Arts Foundation (now City Arts) in 1966.  He secured several major federal grants for visual arts instruction for high school students. In 1969, he became Professor of Art and Chairman of the Art Department at Oklahoma City University where he would spend the rest of his career.  

His untiring enthusiasm and the vision of the Norick family enabled Faris to establish the Norick Art Center and Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery at OCU as a first rate facility to showcase mainly Oklahoma artists.

The early concept of Bricktown was inspired by Oklahoma City University students who painted trompe l’oeil murals to show the potential future of Bricktown and encouraged businesses to invest.

He taught studio art classes for all ages, including summer programs for children. He was particularly fond of the rich creativity of his international students. A superb artist himself, Brunel DeBost Faris excelled in the mediums of painting, drawing, watercolor, and collage. He exhibited widely and is represented in public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

Brunel Faris (1937-2005), Morning

Alice Fleming (1896-1993), Arbuckle Waterfall

Alice Polk Fleming received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in painting and design from the University of Oklahoma, in Norman. She served as the supervising art teacher in Norman Public Schools for many years. Known for her watercolors, Fleming participated in the Oklahoma Art Exhibit at the New York World’s Fair in 1940 and was one of five watercolorists selected to participate in the Mid-Western Art exhibit in 1944. She was active in many art organizations and was an original organizer of the Norman Art League and served as the State Art Chairman from 1964-1966.

Alice Fleming (1896-1993), Waterfall

Martha Goetz, Untitled

She earned a BFA and graduated with distinction while on scholarship at the University of Oklahoma. In 1981 she received the Oklahoma State Governor’s Award. Her artwork has been collected throughout Europe and United States. Her life-size painting of aviator Wiley Post is catalogued with the Smithsonian and has a permanent home in the Oklahoma History Museum. She married artist George Goetz (son of Richard Goetz) and resides in Santa Fe New Mexico.

Mary Anna Goets, Cheever's

She began studying painting at the age of 13 with her artist parents Richard and Edith Goetz. By age 16 she was exhibiting her work at Marshall Field’s Gallery in Chicago. She furthered her art studies with Betty Warren at the Malden Bridge School of Art in New York. She has an extensive resume, of exhibitions throughout the nation and has achieved numerous awards.

Richard Goetz (1915-1991), Oklahoma Histyorical Society

Richard Vernon Goetz was originally from Tennessee. His family moved to Pryor Creek, in the newly formed state of Oklahoma when he was six years old. In 1933, Goetz moved to Oklahoma City and enrolled in Oklahoma City University. He moved to New York City in the 1940s joining the prestigious Art Students League, where he would later be a faculty member.

Goetz served as a medic in the Army in World War II. He was in the Battle of the Bulge and the D-Day Invasion at Normandy. A collection of his photographs capturing the Holocaust survivors in Germany is now housed at the Holocaust Museum in New York.

After the war Goetz returned to Oklahoma and worked extremely hard to support his family as an artist, undaunted by the fact few regional artist made a living through art in Oklahoma. He tirelessly traveled the region teaching art classes. A typical daily schedule would have him teaching a morning art class in Ardmore and afternoon classes in Lawton and  Wichita Fall before traveling back to Oklahoma City that evening. Through this exposure Goetz gained popularity and recognition for his artwork.

Goetz has exhibited his works in numerous places. He’s works have been collected in both public and private collections. Goetz achieved numerous awards, including Governor’s Lifetime Service award in 1979, and a gold medal in the American Artists Professional League Grand National.

Richard Goetz (1915-1991), Still Life with Vegetables

Leonard Good (1907-2000), Boats Wintering

Leonard P. Good was born in Chickasha, Indian Territory, June 25, 1907.  He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B.A. in Art Education in 1927. Good taught at the University of Oklahoma from 1930-1950. During the WPA period he actively supported artists. Over his long career, Good’s paintings and drawings have been seen in more than 1000 exhibitions and are included in a number of private collections. He was one of the first artists in the National Exhibition of American Artist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A selection of his work was exhibited in the Kawamura Memorial Museum in Sakura, Japan and three other Annex Galleries in Japan. On January 17, 1993, Oklahoma Governor David Walters proclaimed the day as Leonard Good Day and presented the artist with a certificate.

Leonard Good (1907-2000), Landscape

Edward Grady, Lovely in Grief She Watched

Anton Harjo, Returning Home

Born in Carnegie, Oklahoma, Marcelle Sharron Ahtone Harjo Sain-Tah-Oodie is a Kiowa painter and basket maker.  She earned an A.A. at Bacone College, under Cheyenne artist Dick West and a B.A. at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She also attended the Armory for the Arts in Santa Fe, N.M. In the 1970s along with teaching art in schools, Sharron began showing her work professionally. Because women artist were often not accepted, she exhibited under the name Ahtone Harjo leaving her gender a question.

Sharron and her sister Virginia Stroud were instrumental in the revival of ledger art, a Plains Indian narrative pictorial style on Western support, originally old accounting ledger paper hence the name ledger art. She contributed to her Nation as a member of the Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Federation of Indian Women and was awarded Outstanding Indian Woman of Oklahoma. Sharron was selected as one of only eight Oklahoma Indian artists to exhibit in the Year of the Indian Exhibition in Oklahoma. Sharron said, “I feel an obligation to illustrate those things that are particular to the Kiowa women in our roles as historical recorders.”

Rance Hood, Comanche Warrior

Oscar Jacobson (1882-1966), Seine et Notre Dame

Oscar Brousse Jacobson was born in Sweden, but emigrated to Lindsborg, Kansas in 1890 to study at Bethany College where he received a Bachelor’s degree in 1908. At Bethany College he studied under fellow Swede and artist, Birger Sandzen. He continued his education at the Louvre in Paris, in Sweden and Denmark and in 1916 completed an M.F.A. from Yale University. He would later lecture at Yale, and many of the techniques he used to teach art, would be adopted by the Yale Art Department. He returned to Bethany College in Lindborg and completed a doctorate in fine arts in 1941.

In 1915 Jacobson became director of the School of Art at the University of Oklahoma. He would spend the next 40 years there developing the Arts Program. By 1916, he had organized exhibits and the first student art association “Les Beaux Arts” in the state. In 1917, the association was accepted as a chapter of the National American Federation of Art, Washington D.C.

Jacobson was a tireless promoter of all arts. He brought nationally renowned artists and lecturers to OU, some of whom would remain at the university. The University of Oklahoma became the most advanced art school in the region, due to Jacobson’s efforts. Jacobson's Art Association began collecting art, and in 1936, he secured a collection of Asian art objects (value at the time,1940, to be $3,500,000.00). He also brought North African art objects and Native American artworks to OU’s growing collections. His most valuable acquisitions was a collection of works assembled by the U.S. State Department after WWII, which included major works by American Masters. This laid the foundation for what has become a superb collection at the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art on the OU campus.

Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was bringing attention to Oklahoma, through his encouragement and promotion of Native American Art. He became the first American art authority to recognize Indian Art as Fine Art. Jacobson became a champion and mentor for Native American people. He worked hard providing stipends to support Native Americans, as well as finding markets for their artwork. In the 1920s he worked with a small group of five Kiowa males and briefly one Kiowa woman to develop their own style. These artists and their style became world famous and have forever since been associated with Oscar Jacobson. His influence on these Kiowa artists culminated in an exhibition of the “Kiowa Six,” which traveled to Prague, Czechoslovakia. A portfolio, published in 1929, in France accompanied the exhibit.

Oscar Jacobson (1882-1966), Big Sur

Myrle E. Kelly (1891-1967), Untitled

Originally from Nebraska Kelly organized and served as Prof. of Art at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford. Kelly studied at the Chicago Art Institute and Student Art League in New York.

D.J. Lafon (1929-2011), Untitled

Dee J. Lafon was born on April 23, 1929, in Ogden, Utah. By the age of eighteen, he was making a living as an artist. Lafon was featured by Life Magazine as one of America’s top emerging artists in 1951. Lafon received his B.F.A. (1960) and M.F.A. (1962) in painting and drawing from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He worked as an illustrator and taught painting and drawing until in 1962 he accepted the position of Chair of the Art Department at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma where he served for twenty years. Following his retirement from East Central University he opened a studio in Norman and concentrated on his artworks. He also served as the Visual Arts Director for the Oklahoma Arts Institute.

Lafon received many honors and awards, including the Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award in 1992, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Paseo Arts Association in 2007. His artworks have been collected by many museums, galleries, and public institutions, including State Art Collection of Utah, Oklahoma State Art Collection, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the University of North Carolina, Springfield Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art, and others.

D.J. Lafon (1929-2011), CFO

D.J.Lafon (1929-2011), Soutine

Mike Larsen, Sunday Morning

Mike Larsen was born in Dallas, Texas in 1944 of Chickasaw heritage. He began his art studies at Amarillo Junior College, then continued his studies at the University of Houston, before finishing his formal education at the Art Students League in New York City. During his career, Larsen has taught or lectured at University of Oklahoma, Beacone College, Goetz Studios, and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. He also holds the honor of being named a Master Artist by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum located in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

In 1994, Larsen received the Best of Show award from the American Indian and Cowboy Artist Association and in 1997 the Spirit of Oklahoma Award from the Five Civilized Tribes Museum. Larsen creates a wide range of art from acrylic, oil, watercolor, and pastel to sculptural forms. The depictions in his works consist of portraits of shamen from various nations, mountain men, Indians of the plains, and rural settings of western life. He created a mural for the State's Capitol Rotunda honoring Oklahoma’s five Indian Prima Ballerinas. Larsen has created murals for several educational institutions and also created the Oklahoma Centennial Stamp for the United States Postal Service.

Trent Lawson, Untitled

Jerry McWilliams, Untitled

He is a colorist who does landscape and figurative work in oils and mixed media. He participated in the National Cowboy and Western heritage Museum’s Small Works Great Wonders Winter Show in 2012 & 2013.  He has also exhibited his works at the Gilcrease and the Philbrook in Tulsa, Oklahoma as well as other states including Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas.

Scott Momaday, The Actor

Navarre Scott Momaday was born on the Kiowa Reservation in Lawton, Oklahoma. He is the son of writer Natachee Momaday and the painter Albert Momaday. He is better known for his writing becoming the first Native American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961 for his book House Made of Dawn. As a result of this work Native American literature entered the mainstream in the United States. Momaday holds 20 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1963. That same year he began teaching at the University of Santa Barbara as an assistant professor of English. In 1969 he was named Professor of English at the University of California-Berkley. Momaday is a member of the renowned Kiowa Dance Society. His paintings reflect his Native American heritage. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, Momaday was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush and was the Oklahoma Poet Laureate from 2007-2008.

Regina Murphy, Pears

Jay Phillip O'Meilia, Riggers

Jay Philip O'Meilia, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, achieved recognition as a Sports Painter in the 1950s. He served in the U.S. Navy as an artist during World War II and in Korea.  He taught oil portraiture and watercolor at the Philbrook Museum of Art, in Tulsa. O'Meilia's work has been displayed in galleries and museums across America, including the Smithsonian Institute, the National Academy of Design in New York, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. His sculptures, paintings, serigraphs, and prints are in more than 500 permanent collections. In 1965, he won first place in a national competition sponsored by Abercrombie & Fitch for his Painting, Night Baseball. In 1970, he created his first sculpture, On Deck, which began yet another phase of O'Meilia's career. His first commissioned piece, Roughnecks (1979), stands in Tulsa's Mid-Continent Building. O'Meilia's first international monument Oil Patch Warrior (1991), resides in England's Sherwood Forest.

John O'Neil (1915-2004), Seated Male Model

John O'Neil was born in Kansas City, KS. He received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in 1936 and received his Master of Fine Arts in 1939 from the University of Oklahoma. He continued his studies at Colorado Springs Art Center, Taos School of Art with Emil Bisttram, and the Studio Hinna in Rome. In 1939, he became a Professor of Art at the University of Oklahoma, and later the Director of the School of Art. In 1965, he left to teach at Rice University where he had a tremendous impact, credited with growing the program to foster talented artists and historians, engaging exhibitions, and art lectures. O'Neil led the art department until 1970 when he became Director of the University's Sewall Hall Art Gallery. 

O'Neil served as a topographer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in North Africa and Washington, D.C. A recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, O'Neil is listed in Who's Who in American Art, Archives of American Art, and Personaggi Contemporaneii, Italy. He is featured in Coming Home, American Paintings 1930-1950, and The Schoen Collection, published in 2003 by the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. Copies of John O'Neil's personal papers from 1945 to 1978 are preserved at the Smithsonian.

O. Gail Poole (1935-2013), Portrait John Abbott

O. Gail Poole was born in Marlow, Oklahoma, but grew up in Bradley, Oklahoma, where his mother was a school teacher. He is a 1957 graduate of the University of Oklahoma receiving a B.F.A. in Advertising Art. A year later he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a 1st Lieutenant. Poole was an award-winning commercial artist who owned his own agency and art studio. He began his career as a full-time artist in 1978. Poole started teaching at the Geatches Studio in 1990 after being asked by friend and fellow artist Mike Larsen. Poole was also an adjunct professor of journalism and art at the University of Oklahoma.

In 1974, Poole was invited to the exhibition, “Western Artists of Oklahoma,” in Germany. With this exposure he quickly became an influential painter. He credited his artistic diligence to his mentor and friend, Richard V. Goetz. Poole left a treasure trove of unseen artworks from his 50-year career to his daughter, Nicole. She is dedicated to furthering her father’s legacy through museum acquisitions, and national and international exhibitions.

Doel Reed (1894-1985), Reclining Nude

Doel Reed, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was a world-renowned master printmaker. He was also gifted in painting and drawing mainly nature, landscapes, and the female figure. Reed attended art classes at the John Herron Art Museum in Indianapolis, and he apprenticed in architecture for four years after graduating high school. Reed entered the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1916, but his education was put on hold due to his service in the 47th Infantry in World War I, later he continued his education and graduated from the Cincinnati Art Academy. In 1924 he accepted a teaching position at Oklahoma A&M College (today Oklahoma State University), he arrived on campus as the first faculty artist and relished the challenge of building an Art Department from the ground up. Reed adopted the art integration philosophy emphasized in art history, humanities, and others.

Reed published Doel Reed Makes an Aquatint in 1965. His works are in the collections of major institutions, nationally and internationally, including the Carnegie Institute, the Honolulu Academy of Art, the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Art, the New York Public Library, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the University of Tulsa, La Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris and the Victoria, Albert Museum, London.

Bert Seabourn, Birds and Words

Bert Seabourn was born in Iraan, Texas but attended high school in Purcell, Oklahoma. After graduation he joined the Navy serving in the Korean War. After his discharge in 1955, he began night school at Oklahoma City University (OCU) graduating in 1961 with a Certificate of Art. Later OCU granted him and honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters. Seabourn taught at the OKC arts center and was also an adjunct at the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK. He  has taught numerous workshops for high schools, universities, and art organizations across the nation.

His works are exhibited worldwide in locations such as The White House, Washington, D.C., the Heart Museum, Phoenix, A.Z., the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art, Italy,  China’s National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan and Moscow State University, Ulyanovsk, Russia. In 1976, Seabourn was awarded the title of Master Artist by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum and in 1981, he received the Governor’s Arts Award by Oklahoma Governor George Nigh.

Sohail Shehada, Portrait of Maria Callas

Sohail Shehada is a Professor of Figurative Sculpture and Drawing at the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, University of Oklahoma. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor of African and African American Studies and gives lectures inside and outside the United States on Traditional African Art. He received a Bachelor’s of Architecture and M.F.A. in Ceramics, both from the University of Oklahoma. Sohail has won international awards for his pastel works. He incorporates elements of African culture, the supernatural, ballet, and opera into his works. He has received many commissions both for public and private sculpture works in bronze and marble. Sohail has created several sculptural busts of distinct individuals from the University of Oklahoma that are permanently displayed on the campus in Norman.

Mary Summers, Woman in a Pink Coat

A retired professor of nursing, Summer’s is an oil and pastel artist who has exhibited locally. Her philosophy is to "follow the brush to capture the rich colors and textures of the landscapes around her in oils."

Derald Swineford, Bucking Bronco

Suzanne Thomas-Justice, Three Graces

Thomas-Justice, (1964-) received her Bachelors of Fine Arts, from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, and graduated with a M.F.A. in Painting from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She is a tenured Professor of Art at Rose State College, Midwest City, Oklahoma, where she is also co-advisor for the college chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Suzanne is a working mixed media artist and painter in Oklahoma. Thomas-Justice is very active in the local and state arts community, serving on the Board of Inclusion in Art, the Visual Arts Committee for Individual Artists of Oklahoma, and Art Committee for the Omelette Party Fundraiser for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Thomas-Justice worked in other vocations before pursuing a full-time career as a teacher and artist. Her art is in the collections of the Mary Mahoney Memorial Health Center, in Oklahoma City and the University of Central Oklahoma. Thomas-Justice was awarded 2016 Top 15 Advisor for Phi Theta Kappa, the Excellence in Teaching Award 2009, the Roby Honoree for Academics, and Graduate Deans Fellowship Award. 

Suzanne Thomas-Justice, I Hear You

Father John Walch (1918-2003), Portrait of Wade Ferguson

Reverend John L. Walch was born in Oklahoma City. He graduated from John Carroll High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. Simultaneously, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago pursuing his love of art. While in Chicago he received his calling and devoted his life to God. Father Walch was devoted to the Catholic faith even through his art. In 1958, Bishop Victor Reed appointed him the Diocesan Director of Art. He opened the St. John Damascene Studio of Liturgical Art in Oklahoma City to create art for churches, chapels, hospitals, schools, rectories, convents, and other places of worship. Father Walch and his studio have worked on more than 100 churches, chapels and institutions throughout Oklahoma, as well as New Mexico, California, and New York.

Father Walch served five terms as president of the National Catholic Art Association and was the Director of the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art at St. Gregory's University, Shawnee, Oklahoma. He also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oklahoma Museum of Art, the Mabee-Gerrer Museum and the Oklahoma Art Guild. He was a member of the National Liturgical Conference, the Liturgical Arts Society, the Philbrook Art Center and Gilcrease Museum, and was a charter member of the Southwestern Watercolor Society. Father Walch's works were widely published in art publications and periodicals. He taught painting and drawing as a visiting professor, and gave demonstrations and lectures throughout the Southwest. His works can be found in the permanent collections of the Vatican, The Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the Philbrook Art Center, The Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and The Kirkpatrick Foundation.

Roger White, Old Mine

Roger Lee White (1925-1994), Still Life

Roger Lee White (1925-1994) was born in Shelby Ohio in 1925. He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio for his B.F.A., and received his M.A. from the University of Denver in Colorado. White attended the University of Denver, University of Colorado, and the University of Oklahoma in Norman for his graduate studies. White was a prize-winning southwestern artist that participated in regional and national exhibitions. As a professor he taught art and art history at the College of the Ozarks and Oklahoma Science & Arts Foundation  before becoming Chair of the Art Department at Oklahoma City University from 1958-1969 when he moved to Empire, Colorado to focus solely on creating his art. In 1991, White moved back to Oklahoma after the birth of his grandchild. White’s inspiration for creating his works was from the world around him and experiences found in life. His work shows representations of mountains, people, mines, historic sites of Colorado and wildlife.

Chester Wills (1909-1990), Winter Woods

Originally from Kentucky, Wills lived most of his life in Oklahoma City. He is known for western genre.