News Article

Shelley Gipson was beloved professor of art who passed away in April 2023. As a way for her colleagues, students and friends to remember her, Shelley’s 2016 Faculty Get to Know feature is below.

Shelley Gipson

Place of birth:

Nacogdoches, Texas

What makes a good professor?

A commitment and excitement about their subject field.

What makes for a good student?

The best students are engaged explorers seeking to expand their world.

Your philosophy on education in seven words:

Experience leads to understanding and then transformation.

What is the one thing you wish you could teach everyone about your field?

Printmaking is an inventive, experimental and fun exploration of narrative.

What are you working on right now?

The Print Hive exhibition, a collaboration of artists from around the world whose prints will be sewn together to make a giant quilt. Fancy Me This, a portfolio exchange of printmakers collaborating with their children. Her Hair, an exhibition of printmakers that use hair during the creation of her work. and Assessment.

My favorite motion picture is...

The Piano, The Red Shoes, Dune, anything with Lauren Bacall.

The television series I must TiVo...

Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.

The last book I read for fun was...

Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs.

My favorite trip was...

to Barcelona, Spain.

The best advice I ever received was...

Don’t get sidetracked. If you want something, you have to make it happen.

What is the one thing I’ve learned I’d tell my college self...

Take all those extra classes that you are interested in – you are going to need them later.

My passion is...

printmaking.

My pet peeve is...

the use of the word 'anyways' and the term 'I seen.'

My favorite meal is...

I love to cook, but I’d still say my father’s barbeque.

What I like about Jonesboro is...

it's small, but diverse.

Cats or dogs?

Cats... and chickens.

E-book or hardback?

I absolutely love books. There’s just something about the smell of old books. Something about holding it and turning the pages. Digital books are great for family trips, but the good ones, the cherished ones are actual hardbacks.

Beach or mountains?

Trees

Dinner or supper?

Dinner (but the funniest is Lupper)

My favorite saying is...

"Activate the Space."