USA Baldwin County

Kayla Trosclair is the winner of the University of South Alabama Baldwin County’s  “Celebrate Fall” Photo Contest.  Photos were placed in a photo gallery on USABC’s Facebook page, and the photo with the most “likes” won.  Trosclair, who is from Mobile, AL, is an 18 year old freshman majoring in journalism.  To see USABC course offerings, visit www.myusabc.com.

Maria Papp, an internationally recognized Sumi-e Artist will be displaying her work for the First Friday Art Walk on January 6, 2012 at the University of South Alabama Baldwin County.  Papp grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and she attended the Universidad El Salvador.  She shares her first love has always been art, and she studied at the Fine Arts Institute of Buenos Aires to prepare for a career as a visual artist.

Papp began identifying with the concept of Sumi-e, or ink brush painting more than 25 years ago. The Japanese word Sumi-e means “Ink Picture’’ or “black ink painting.”  This ancient discipline is an economy of brush strokes used to communicate the essence of the subject.
Sumi-e goes far beyond painting; it is a source of spiritual development for Taoist scholars and intellectuals.

Papp’s work has been featured and recognized in regional, national, and international exhibits.  Her work has been selected to be part of an annual Juried Show in the International Asian Artists of Sumi-e with exhibitions in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, Japan, Taiwan and the United States.
Recently, Papp’s work was juried in with the Mobile Art Associations at the “Shared Expressions” exhibit held this past summer at the Mobile Museum of Fine Arts, Langan Park, in Mobile.  This particular work is featured for one year in the Mobile mayor’s office.

Papp resides in Fairhope with her husband and is excited about being part of the Fairhope First Friday Art Walk.  “We really feel at home here with so many things to do, so now I feel like a tourist in Argentina.”

The event will begin at 6:00pm and end at 8:00pm at the USABC Administration Building, 10 North Summit Street, Fairhope, AL.  The Jag Tran will be running from the USABC Administration building to the Eastern Shore Art Center for patrons on that Friday evening.

USABC will be closed from Friday, December 23, 2011 and reopen on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 for the holidays.

For the first time ever, the University of South Alabama Baldwin County will offer a two-day intensive creative writing workshop led by guest lecturer, Kevin Rabas, (Emporia State University in Kansas), a nationally acclaimed poet and fiction writer.  “This creative writing workshop will cater to writers in any genre (poetry, fiction, playwriting, creative nonfiction), focusing on strengthening your work by adding detail, voice, and narrative drive,” Rabas said.  “A variety of approaches will be used to help get your work kick-started and to help you begin to polish to share it, and for publication,” he said.

Associate Professor Rabas (MFA, Goddard College; PhD, KU) co-directs the creative writing program at Emporia State and edits the Flint Hills Review. Rabas writes poetry, plays, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. His three books include Bird’s Horn, Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Kansas Notable Book and Nelson Poetry Book Award winner, and Spider Face: stories. Rabas writes regularly for the Jazz Ambassador Magazine (JAM). His plays have been produced across Kansas and in San Diego. Nominated for four Pushcart Prizes, Rabas is the winner of the Langston Hughes Award for Poetry, the Victor Contowski Poetry Award, the Jerome Johanning Playwriting Award, and the Salina New Voice Award.

The one academic hour course will be offered this spring on Sat., March 24, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Sun., March 25, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., at the USABC campus in Fairhope.  Professor Rabas will provide feedback and evaluation of work during the weeks following the workshop.  Students with questions about this opportunity can contact Professor Steven Trout, Chair of the Department of English, at strout@usouthal.edu.  For more information about how to register for the class, call USABC at (251) 928-8133 or visit www.myusabc.com