GRAD STUDENT DISPLAYS ARTWORK AT MUSEUM

The work of a Southeast Missouri State University graduate student and elementary art teacher is being displayed as a summer exhibit at the University Museum.

Mary Jo Wilder, 28, has completed eight figure drawings for the exhibit, which opens today.

"It's a creative project in lieu of a master's thesis," Wilder said. "And it uses human figures as the subject matter."

Wilder is a native of Ellsinore, where she has taught kindergarten through eighth-grade art for seven years in the East Carter County School District.

She said for the drawings she used old, family black-and-white photographs for reference as well as live models and observations.

"The project has really grown out of an interest in color and patterns and my past experience in portrait drawing," she said.

Wilder said both she and her adviser felt a creative project would do more to advance her artistic ability than a thesis. She has been working on the eight drawings for about four months, she said.

The exhibit will be open to the public until Aug. 1. Summer hours for the museum, in Memorial Hall on campus, are 8 a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m.