News FeedThe brick house on Scott Street is missing the family van. Inside there is no furniture to relax upon. The kitchen only has a sink, no oven to cook a meal. The walls lack family portraits. This brick house is vacant but that does not mean it lacks a family.
The brick house is called the Studio House. Located at 209 E. Scott St., it gives upper-level painting majors a place other than Ophelia Parrish to work on projects.
“For us it’s a place where students can work in a professional atmosphere,” Jim Jereb, Truman’s printmaking professor, said. “It’s an attempt to make this school compete on the same level as bigger schools where all students get studio space for themselves. We’re trying to give our students that same advantage.”
Jereb said the Studio House has been used by printmaking and fiber students. However, the house is better suited for painting or drawing majors because print and fiber students lack equipment at the house. At the moment, five painting majors are using the house.
A peppy, curly blonde occupies the garage. Allison Sissom, a junior studio art major, is using the Studio House as her painting and drawing study.
“It’s a getaway,” Sissom said. “A playground for experimenting! It’s away from other distractions like T.V., friends, cell phones, etc.”
Music hums in the wood-paneled garage as Sissom works at her drafting table. Sissom’s space is filled with previous works and paintings in progress. Complimenting her pieces are the dirt floor and cobwebs of the garage. Sissom has no problem with the house’s shanty appearance.
“I adapt to fit my needs and make a space I feel comfortable in,” Sissom explains as she points to her carpet, lamps and space heater.
Leaving Sissom in the garage and then follow the cracked archways of the house, a young woman in a black peacoat is found. Leslie Song, a junior painting and fibers major, applies paint to her large canvas in a cold room at the front of the Studio House.
“I just paint here,” Song said with a nervous smile. “There is plenty of room to spread out. I personally find it easier to paint bigger paintings because I like working with things larger than myself. So, the house is a good space for me.”
Song said her canvases cannot fit in her car and are too cumbersome to walk home with, so the Studio House is a perfect place for her needs.
“There isn’t a whole lot of space and I kind of like being around other people who are painting to get others’ input and no one really works in the OP studios,” Song said. “Also, I’m in OP all the time, so it’s a nice change!”
Next to Song lies a small, corner room with canvases from a senior painting major who also uses the house. Up the old, matted-down carpeted stairs lives another painting major. The upstairs is filled with a creepy silence and following the cracked linoleum, the rustle of bats at dusk can be heard, Sissom said.
Running downstairs from the bats to the garage, Sissom cuts clippings of fashion magazines. She was encouraged by her parents and her high school art teacher to pursue a degree in art.
“My parents were concerned when I told them I wanted to be an art major,” Sissom said with an eye roll. “They at least wanted me to be an elementary art teacher, but I can’t do that. I want to be making statements with art and being more progressive is the most important thing in the world.”
While Sissom yearns to make a statement with her art, Song holds a different aspiration.
“I hope to influence and inspire my audience,” Song said in a soft-spoken voice. “Instead of having my own bias towards something, I just let the audience think for themselves.”
Song comes from a family of Korean immigrants. Her parents wished for a doctor.
“Originally my parents and I thought I was going to be a pediatrician,” Song explained. “So I studied biology at Truman but I found I liked art so much more. I think it’s important to do what you are really passionate about.”
Both Sissom and Song share a love for the Studio House, but this home for artists can disappear with a snap of a finger. At the end of each school year, art students have to clean out the house incase Truman decides to tear it down and build a parking lot, Jereb said. For now the house will be used only for art students.
“We were told that this house is only temporary,” Jereb said. “The University is going to do what is in the best interest of the University, not for a specific program.”
If the University was to take away the house, they would be taking away a lifestyle, according to the artists.
“This is where I spend all my free time,” Sissom said. “Other people watch T.V. or hang with their boyfriends. I don’t have a boyfriend, my boyfriend is my art!”
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