WILL URSPRUNG continued Since sufering his frst detached retina in 2007, his vision has deteriorated further. He can no longer read well, or watch TV, or drive. “A maximum security prison isn’t really safe for a blind man,” he says with a laugh. Instead, he’s putting more time into creating his own art. He says his work evolves from whatever materials he comes across, and the art simply happens intuitively. As one commentator said, collage artists create uncommon beauty out of common things. He spends most days in his studio in a converted milk barn in Gilbertsville, Pa., outside Philadelphia. Last summer he was able to spend two very productive weeks in an artist’s residency in County Kerry, Ireland. Many of Will’s works were on display at Mercyhurst last fall when he was the featured guest alumnus in the annual Art Faculty Exhibition. He showed several small mixed media collages using found objects, steel and wood, many of them infuenced by primitive art and by Celtic, Norse and Native American myths. He’s had other works accepted recently for national shows that focus on myth and legend.
Some even incorporate references to the eye, like
“Odin’s Eye,” a reference to the Norse god who gave up his eye for wisdom. Will’s most prolifc image has been the cover art he created back in 1980 for the cover of The International Journal of the Arts in Psychotherapy; the journal is still using his image.
After being accepted for many national juried shows by the National Collage Society dating back to 1994, Will is now entitled to use the initials “NCS” after his name, and he serves as development director for the group. When the NCS celebrated 100 years of collage art with a big exhibition in 2012, Will talked about his process in an interview with National Public Radio. Listen to his comments at nationalcollage.com .
TRUSTEES RETIRE AFTER DECADES OF SERVICE
’ One a legal mind, the other a premier real estate guru and later jewelry designer. Jane was the frst woman chair of the board; she served frst on Mercyhurst s lay advisory board from 1966 until becoming a trustee fve years later. Bill served as Pennsylvania Attorney General before becoming a trustee of Mercyhurst and later chair of the board. They served for fve presidents of Mercyhurst; attended, spoke, and awarded degrees for years at graduations; and were as much Mercyhurst as its students and faculty. They were stalwarts of the board, devoted trustees, committed philanthropists, and long-standing leaders of the board. “ She is a graduate of Goucher College in psychology and did graduate work at George Washington University and he is a graduate of Holy Cross and Georgetown University Law School. Their commitment to Mercyhurst unlocked the doors of our imagination, encouraged vision, and gave us the right stuf to turn the promise they saw in Mercyhurst from a dream into reality. ” Jane and Bill. Two ordinary names of two extraordinary people in Mercyhurst history. Jane Theuerkauf and Bill Sennett, now trustee emeriti of Mercyhurst University, were both elected on Nov. 24, 1971, and both had been prominently afliated with the institution for four keepsake decades until their recent retirements.
Also retiring from the board as part of a new system of term limits and recently named trustee emeriti are: (pictured below from left to right) Myron Jones, Bruce H. Raimy, Kathleen C. Rohm, Sister Maura Smith, RSM, and Msgr. L. Thomas Snyderwine.
25
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online