Faculty
Thomas Noble Howe
Thomas Howe is an architectural historian with a broad background in several related fields, including classical archaeology, art history and architectural theory and design. The common thread in his creative and research interests is to write architectural history and theory in a way that strengthens the profession's ability to design for current and future problems in a "Post Modern," multi-cultural world.
His undergraduate training was in German language and literature at Lawarence University in Wisconsin. Through extensive research work outside of the U.S., he has since acquired reading/speaking abilities in several languages (French, Italian, Greek, Latin, Turkish and Chinese).
He attended the Master of Architecture Program at the School of Design at Harvard in the early 1970's, and transferred to the Ph.D. program in Fine Arts, doing his work in Greek and Roman architecture, theory and aesthetics.
Howe has performed field work in Turkey, the United Kingdom and Italy. He has taught at Southwestern since 1985, and introduced (with Patrick Veerkamp) Southwestern's program in Architectural studies.
- MA, PhD, Harvard University
- BA, Lawrence University
Victoria Star Varner
Victoria Star Varner is an artist whose work ranges from classically inspired, full scale figurative paintings to lyrical abstractions. Her works have been exhibited in museums, universities and galleries worldwide.
Her most recent work, a free-standing, open-ended chamber with megalographic painting, addresses the presumed "mysteries" of contemporary life. Her paintings, drawings, and prints have been exhibited at Santa Reparata, Italy, and eleven universities and museums in New Zealand and Australia.
Other exhibitions include: Mid-Four Exhibition, the Nelson Gallery–Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; 31st North Dakota Print and Drawing Annual, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks; Figurative Drawing: Three Approaches, Coe College, Iowa; 22nd Prints, Drawings and Photographs Exhibition, The Arkansas Art Center; The Human Figure: Five Views, Western Oregon University; National Invitational Book Arts Exhibition, McNeese State University; and Mark Making, Arlington Museum of Art.
Varner's students are active as artists, museum professionals and educators.
- BSEd, MA, University of Missouri
- MFA, Indiana University
Patrick Burke Veerkamp
As an artist, Patrick Veerkamp's particular interest is in utilitarian pottery. His recent work involving soda vapor glazing and wood-firing procedures explores the richness of surface effects produced by the dynamic nature of the firing process.
"I like to think that I am part of a long tradition of pot makers that extends back to prehistoric times whose intent was to make useful and aesthetically pleasing pots that are integrated into the everyday life of their owners. I draw freely from the full range of cultural traditions and pottery styles from around the world. Recently, I have been exploring how certain traditional pot forms, such as the tea pot, have been adapted by various cultures and evolve into unique hybrid forms with complex formal vocabularies that make them meaningful in the contemporary context."
This is reflected in the courses Professor Veerkamp teaches wherein objects are analyzed in order to find out what makes them meaningful. Students are then encouraged to explore their own work and to identify what it is that makes it meaningful within the context of their own cultural experience.
- MFA, Colorado State University
- MA, University of Denver
- BA, Adams State College
Mary A. Hale-Visser
Mary Hale Visser teaches sculpture and computer imaging. She has completed several large-scale public and private commissions; the most recent being for the city of Austin, and Sprint Inc.
Her work has been included in several multimedia and video presentations in the United States and in Europe, and she has been featured in Texas Monthly, Artspace, Ceramics Monthly, Sculpture International and in the book, A Comprehensive Guide to Outdoor Sculpture in Texas.
Visser's work has appeared in more than 110 juried exhibitions and she has received awards such as the “Design Excellence Award" from the City of Austin Design Commission, a Mellon Technology Fellowship, and a Mundy Fellowship.
Most recently, Visser served as one of the jurors for INTERSCULPT’s International digital competition.
- BAE, MFA, The Ohio State University
Kimberly A. Smith
Kim Smith's primary field of interest is modern art, including European and American art from the 19th and 20th centuries, and she maintains expertise in the art of Central Europe, including Germany and Austria, from the first decades of the 20th century.
Her dissertation, written at Yale University, studied the Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele, and analyzed the ways in which these images reveal both nihilistic and utopian aspects of Viennese culture before and during World War I.
Unlike other disciplines in the humanities that are primarily text-based, the history of art concerns itself with the history of image-making. Smith Smith's aims to teach visual literacy, and to provide her students with the methodological and analytical skills necessary to understand and examine works of art.
- PhD, Yale University
- MPhil, Yale University
- BA, Duke University
Diana Tenckhoff
Diana Tenckhoff comes to Southwestern from the University of Kansas where she earned both her PhD and MA in Art History.
Tenckhoff also received a BA in Art History and a BA in History from Lewis and Clark College.
- MA, PhD, University of Kansas
- BA, Lewis and Clark College
