OU School of Visual Arts
The OU School of Visual Arts at the University of Oklahoma cultivates a vibrant intellectual community that fosters the greatest possible excellence in the study of the visual arts, design, and art history. The School was established in 1915, and is the oldest and most comprehensive school of art in the state of Oklahoma. Through civic engagement, we endeavor to meet the artistic needs of Oklahoma’s citizens and promote the growth of culture. We offer the BFA and MFA in Art and the BA, MA, and Ph.D. in Art History. We strive for excellence in teaching, publishing, and creating art and design at the highest level. The School prepares our students for success nationally and internationally as artists, designers, scholars, teachers, and influential patrons of all the arts.
MFA Inclusive Exhibition 2021
Spotlight Work
An essay included in the Cartographic Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth-Century Americas;
Cartographic Representation in the Age of Vernacular Landscape:
Pictorial Metaphor in Stephen Long’s
Map of the Country Drained by the Mississippi (1822)
By Kenneth Haltman
Marissa Childers
MFA Ceramics Student
Sweater Bottle with Sippers
Marissa Childers was born and raised in the small town of Florence, Alabama. She attended the University of North Alabama, where she earned her B.F.A. in 2019. Upon graduating she worked as a ceramic intern at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and is now pursuing her M.F.A. at the University of Oklahoma.
Her work explores how we share intimate moments with one another through functional handmade objects. Her work is often colorful and covered in a variety of textures. Whether it is influenced by the pattern on her grandparents curtains or the woven threads of a blanket, each piece is a little reminder of home.
Marilyn Artus
Her Flag
Marilyn Artus graduated with a BFA from the University of Oklahoma School of Art in 1991. She worked for 13 years in the gift industry designing products and packaging for United Design Corporation and Relevant Products for manufacturing worldwide. In 2008, Marilyn became a full-time visual artist.
Her Flag is a nationwide art and travel project created by artist Marilyn Artus to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and the 72 years long nonviolent fight that kicked open voting for women in the United States.
Marilyn has collaborated with a woman artist from each of the 36 states that ratified the 19th Amendment into law to create a HUGE 18 x 26 foot flag. Each artist created artwork inspired by this anniversary that Marilyn turned into a stripe. Marilyn’s original plan was to travel to all 36 states in order of ratification over 14 months, taking 17 separate trips. She sewed the stripe onto the flag in each Capital city in a public performance with the artist that made the representing stripe attending.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
All images provided courtesy of the artist
