Studio Art was thrilled to welcome back alumni Sam Belisle BFA ’13, Chelsea Flowers BFA ’13, Camille Gammon Hittelman BA ’99 and Ariel Baez BA ’16
The event allowed current Studio Art majors and minors to listen to the experience of their peers as they navigated graduate school, jobs and career paths that vary from entrepreneurs to artists to teachers to administrators.
Comments from current students were positive and included reflections such as:
As a studio art major that thinks to have a somewhat clear idea of what I want to do as a career after graduating, it was extremely interesting getting to see how fluid these alumni’s career paths became during their time at Denison, and even after, in graduate or post-baccalaureate programs. Camille poignantly laid out her dynamic career path after her graduation from Denison in her presentation. She explained that she attended a one-year post-baccalaureate program to rediscover her passion for art and how she was going to use the discipline in her future. After graduating from this program, she found that she did not want to be an artist, but rather an art teacher, where she could spread her passions to the artists of the future. Her career became even more fluid, as she adjusted to and accommodated the new wave of technology by showing off her students’ work on Instagram.
I also enjoyed listening to sam and hearing about his artwork. I was very inspired by his paintings that demonstrate Black life and attempt to address the issues that the marginalized community faces. I really appreciated that he incorporated graffiti into his work, which is deeply intertwined with the Hip Hop generation of young Black Americans. I am currently taking a Hip Hop class, where I made an artwork that also incorporates elements of graffiti into it, so it was very exciting to see Sam’s work do the same. I really enjoyed attending this alumni panel and it was extremely revealing to me as a studio art major.
Studio Art hopes to follow this event with many others that allow students to imagine themselves into the world in all the multitude of ways in which a creative path can lead. Chair Sheilah ReStack states, “It is so important to understand that one does not have only the option of becoming a full-time artist, that is a very small percentage of us Studio Art graduates! We want students to know that they are capable of using their skills, creativity and problem-solving in a host of different ways in the world.”
Sam Belisle
Sam Belisle is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. The Ohio native traveled east to attend graduate school at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA). Since completing his master’s degree in 2018, Belisle has been participating in Boston’s gallery circuit, as well as engaging the community through grassroots art events. He has shown work at Adelson Gallery, Beacon Gallery, founded the Central artist in residence program and worked as a manager on the Webster Court Project. Belisle also received the “Best Emerging Artist” award in 2018 by the Faye Chandler Foundation at Boston City Hall. Most recently, Belisle has been working with fellow artist Cal Rice to open their own gallery with a mission of providing an opportunity to emerging artists and making contemporary art accessible to the community. Nearby Gallery is set to open in May of this year and will provide both an uncompromising gallery schedule, as well as community programming for children and adults alike. Belisle’s artwork draws attention to social class disparities in America. He often emphasizes moments, landscapes, fashion, or objects that he considers relevant identifiers of the culture surrounding the working-class experience.
Chelsea A. Flowers ‘13
Chelsea A. Flowers is an artist who holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2017), and a BFA from Denison University with a concentration in Black Studies (2013). She has shown work at various art centers and galleries in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Iowa City, Kansas City, and Philadelphia. With work currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Detroit, MI), Trout Museum (Appleton, WI), and The Sculpture Center (Cleveland, OH). She expanded her skills and research by attending ACRE (Steuben, WI), Real Time and Space (Oakland, CA), Ox-Bow School of Arts and Artist Residency (Saugatuck, MI) and Art Space is Your Space (Cincinnati, OH) residencies. Her practice explores subversion to popular culture, how “otherness” is created through social and cultural critique of her environment. She explores these ideas through comedic troupes, physical play, nostalgic memorabilia, and participatory performance.
Camille Gammon-Hittelman ‘99
Camille Gammon-Hittelman is a queer, white, cis-gender female, mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, maker, and teacher. Gammon has been teaching art full-time as a professional for the past 18 years and was teaching art not-so-professionally since the age of 14. Gammon graduated from Denison University in 1999 with a BA in Studio Art, and then moved to Baltimore, Maryland to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art. She received her MAT from MICA in 2005, and has been teaching in the Baltimore area ever since.
Ariel Baez ‘16
Ariel Baez (he/they) series, is the Program Coordinator for the Collective Features Fund a grant program provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation. He was born, raised, and currently resides in Roxbury, MA. He is a Denison alumni, class of 2016, an MFA graduate of the School of Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and hopes to give back and aid local artists in furthering their practice. Currently, as a mixed media artist, he has been working on a series of portraits documenting his mental health journey during the pandemic.
