Robin
McGinnis—an Industrious Librarian and Teacher
Interview
by Kath Pennavaria
Robin
McGinnis works hard. Very hard. Between her two jobs at WKU
and Draughon’s Junior College, Robin puts in an average
of 100 hours a week during the regular semester. Most people
get cranky at only half those hours per week, but Robin almost
never loses her affability. She can’t afford to—she’s
a public services librarian!
For
the past three years, Robin has been the WKU Main Library’s
weekend reference librarian. At the reference desk she answers
questions and “solves whatever dilemmas” the students
have on her shift. She also teaches English as an adjunct
for WKU, having received her graduate degree in English as
well as her library master's from Western. One of the classes
she has taught at WKU, Children’s Literature, is one
of her favorites. Children’s literature, she says, gets
dismissed as “not being scholarly” enough, but
in Robin’s eyes, it shares numerous qualities with acknowledged
“great literatures.”
At
Draughon’s, Robin is the full-time librarian and also
teaches classes such as English Composition and Internet Searching.
Draughon’s is a small career college in Bowling Green
(350 students) which offers numerous classes, many of them
in the evening, to non-traditional students. In fact, says
Robin, “it’s possible to get an entire degree
going only at night.” She wasn’t always the Draughon’s
librarian—that's a recent development. Now Robin teaches
and fulfills a librarian position at both schools. The Draughon’s
library contains traditional reference books, and is in a
brand-new building.
Perhaps
you might think that Robin has no life outside of the work,
but in fact she does. It also involves… hard work. In
her spare time, Robin is unlikely to lounge in front of the
television; instead, she’s likely to be doing outdoor
chores at her new house, especially preparing flowerbeds,
adding to the deck, and planting trees.
Working
hard does have its advantages, says this native of central
Kentucky: “I want to establish financial independence,
and I definitely don’t like to live paycheck to paycheck.”
Someday, she hopes to cut her work hours in half and work
one full-time job like most people.
Lynne
Ferguson—Ambassador for Art
Interview
by Jonathan Jeffrey
At
the age of 11, Lynne Ferguson knew that she wanted to become
an artist. Confident of her future plans, she carefully copied
a trial drawing from the back of a magazine and submitted
it to the Art Institute of America without her parent’s
knowledge. An Institute representative came to her family
home in Burkesville, where he demonstrated the coursework
his school had available for the budding artist. Although
her parents declined the Institute’s assistance, they
recognized their daughter’s strong convictions about
her future. Her confidence paid off. Today Ferguson is the
Kentucky Museum’s Artist in Residence, helping coordinate
creative art experiences for all ages. Since 1982 she has
exhibited in numerous regional art shows and has claimed several
prizes for her work.
Ferguson had to wait until she was a sophomore at Tompkinsville
High School before she could take an art class. Her high school
art teacher and WKU alumnus, Glenda Jones, recognized Ferguson’s
nascent talent. A signal experience during this time period
occurred when a representative from the Kentucky Arts Council,
who was studying art programs in Kentucky schools, selected
one of Ferguson’s acrylic pieces to display at a statewide
exhibit at the J.B. Speed Art Museum. She sent the piece to
Louisville via a colleague of her father’s; unfortunately
the piece was disqualified because of its large size. Undaunted,
Lynne quickly produced a smaller abstract painting for the
show. When the exhibit opened, Ferguson admitted that this
was her first time to darken the doors of any art museum;
ironically, she was going to view a piece of her own work.
After high school graduation, Ferguson entered the art program
at WKU in 1974, with a goal of excelling in the field of commercial
art. She had positive experiences while in the program and
credits several professors with exposing her to different
art forms and helping her enhance her natural skills.
During her college career Ferguson married. Despite the rigors
of running a household, she never allowed her creative side
to wither; she continued her art work and exposed her children—Aaron
(now 24) and Hailey (now 14)—to creative opportunities.
“I believe every child has an area of creativity in
which they can excel, and it’s their parents’
job to help their child find that part of their life,”
declares Ferguson. “If they don’t help their child
find this creative side, the child will grow up and feel a
void.” Ferguson’s children were exposed to all
types of visual and performing arts opportunities including
painting, drawing, music and theatre. Ferguson believes that
these experiences helped the children build self-confidence.
Ferguson’s convictions about exposing children to art
went beyond her own family. She volunteered in the schools
her son and daughter attended, helping children explore their
creative side. At one time she was one of Barren County’s
“Picture Ladies,” taking illustrations by a particular
artist to schools and talking about the painter’s life
and career. As the Kentucky Museum Artist in Residence, Ferguson
continues this work, coordinating numerous workshops and art
sessions for children. Some of the programming is specific
to a Kentucky Museum exhibit; at other times the classes concentrate
on a specific art form, i.e. murals or collages. Another rewarding
component of this work is taking the programming to under-served
populations at the Girls Club, the Bowling Green Housing Authority’s
after-school program, and the Warren County Juvenile Detention
Center. “One participant,” Ferguson noted with
glee, “told me when I was leaving the Detention Center
one day, ‘Mrs. Ferguson, I’m glad you came today,
I didn’t know I could be creative.’” Those
golden moments inspire Ferguson. “Lynne believes art
is not just a thing, but it’s a way,” Laura Harper
Lee, Kentucky Museum Education Curator, expressed. “She
truly believes art makes life better.”
Most of her work at the Kentucky Museum consists of children's
activities. “Working with large groups of children takes
a special energy,” Ferguson said. Her most challenging
experiences as Artist in Residence have been coordinating
art experiences at large events, such as the Southern Kentucky
Book Fest and the International Festival. “You just
don’t get to spend much time with the people at such
events,” Ferguson noted. One of the artist’s most
enjoyable experiences in her current role was a project that
involved participants in the English as a Second Language
classes at Bowling Green’s International Center. Class
members were asked to cooperatively paint murals about their
home countries. “It was quite an experience,”
Ferguson noted, “to see people of different nationalities
working side by side on a project.” The artist enjoys
museum work, and after graduation from WKU’s Folk Studies
graduate program in May 2005, she hopes to pursue a similar
position in which she can help people discover their creative
side.
Gayle
Novick—from Cytotechnologist to Watercolorist
Interview
by Roxanne Myers Spencer
Gayle
Novick is a part-time library assistant at the Educational
Resources Center, a campus branch library of WKU Libraries.
Gayle has had a varied and interesting background, as you
will see in the interview below. In addition to her regular
duties, she uses her unique creativity to enhance the visual
displays at the ERC. Collections & Connections (hereafter
C&C) caught up with Gayle in early March, 2004
and had the following conversation:
C&C: Gayle, you have a background as
a cytotechnologist, and you are also an accomplished watercolorist.
Could you tell us a little bit about cytotechnology and how
you came to work at WKU?
GAYLE:
Cytotechnology is a branch of medical technology that diagnoses
cellular abnormalities, mainly cancer and pre-cancerous conditions.
The cytotechnologist is the professional biologist who works
with the pathologist. The cytotechnologist prepares cells
for microscopic evaluation and screens these specimens under
the microscope.
I came to work at WKU as a result of my husband (Bryan Carson)
taking a position in the Libraries here at Western. I assumed
I would be able to work as a cytotechnologist in Bowling Green
but soon discovered there were no jobs here in this field.
The idea of commuting every day to Nashville did not appeal
to me so I decided to retire from cytotechnology. Hence, I
started working part-time at Western, first as an exhibits
preparator at the Kentucky Museum and now at the ERC as a
library assistant.
C&C:
Tell us about your artwork [left]. You have a very whimsical
style—what inspires you to draw and paint such fantastical
creatures? How did you come to develop your artistic style?
GAYLE:
My artistic style evolved over the years because I would often
draw in my spare time. With no particular thoughts in mind,
I would start putting down spontaneous lines. Often these
preliminary lines would suggest shapes, either animal or human
or various combinations of the two. So, working in a rather
automatic technique in both drawing and painting, my style
evolved. My work is still changing—it has been my good
fortune to take art classes at WKU from which I continue to
learn and expand my work.
C&C: What kind of formal art training
have you had?
GAYLE:
I have a B.A. in art from the University of Minnesota.
C&C: What are your favorite subjects
to paint or draw? What do you find most challenging to work
on?
GAYLE:
I begin drawing with no particular subject in mind. Routinely,
however, the subject emerges as human and/or animal. I did
a lot of life drawing in previous art classes. I suspect that
my fascination with animal forms began at an early age when
I begged my parents to let me have pets. They finally relented
and my father got me a horse, and soon after I brought a kitten
home that had been born in the hayloft. I only had the horse
for five years but have always shared my life with cats since
then. I enjoy nature programs and books that expand my awareness
of the countless, wonderful creatures that inhabit our world.
Most challenging for me now is painting non-objective forms
on canvas and using color in ways that I haven’t before.
C&C: What do you like best about the
creative process?
GAYLE:
What I like best about the creative process is the challenge
of revealing the unknown. Not knowing what the end result
will be is what makes art interesting and exciting for me.
If I knew exactly how something would turn out ahead of time,
it would be rather boring and not worth doing.
C&C:
Is there a period in art that influences your work?
GAYLE:
The many artists that influence me the most are part of the
modern movements such as Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism,
Symbolism, and Surrealism. As I continue to study art I am
constantly discovering artists, some I was familiar with and
many that are entirely new to me.
C&C: Thanks for sharing your story with
us!
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