Brian Rust named artist of the year
Laura Phelan
Issue date: 9/15/09 Section: News
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"I want to continue to explore," Brian Rust, professor of art, said.
Rust was raised to an artistic family in Washington state and has been painting, drawing and sculpting since childhood.
"I was always one of those kids who knew what he wanted to do since high school," Rust said.
Rust graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle and then earned his master's at Berkeley in California. He has done everything from large-scale public works to smaller studio works. Rust's work is admired all over the U.S., at the Henry Lay Sculpture Park in Louisiana, Mo.; the South Carolina Botanical Garden in Clemson, S.C.; Stone Quarry Hill Park in Cazenovia, N.Y.; Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.; the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.; and the Mid-Columbia Arts Center in Kennewick, Wash.
According to Rust he also has drawings in private collections at the Morris Museum of Art and the Mary Pauline Gallery, both in Augusta, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta.
Rust appeared on, "State of the Art", a on Georgia Public Broadcasting, in 2007.
According to the show, "Rust has a reverence for natural materials and a curiosity about history and the world around him that is reflected across the media in which he works." This reverence is seen in his temporary site installations created from clay, cement and stone that "celebrate the processes of decay and erosion."
According to Rust, he was pleasantly surprised to find out this summer that he had been named Artist of the Year, although it is no surprise to anyone who has seen his work or spoken to him about his work.
He is a passionate yet humble master of his craft to say the least. Chair of the Department of Art, Alan MacTaggart, stated that he was proud Rust was his colleague and described him as someone who "is admired by his students as a great professor and role model and has been active in civic arts organizations."
"It is no surprise to me that such a fine person and successful artist should be singled out as artist of the year," MacTaggart said.
According to Janice Whiting, professor of art, she has enjoyed working with Rust over the years and called him a caring and compassionate person who is easy to work with.
"I have seen his work evolve and change over the years with new developments in technology, his work has always been beautiful," Whiting said.
Rust worked with digital photography and incorporates sculpture with digital photography to form his pieces. A jack of all trades, Rust is a painter, a sculptor, a drawer and a teacher who continues to push the envelope and is inspired everyday by his students and colleagues, as his students and colleagues are inspired by him.
"I see my students working with new materials and trying new things," Rust said. "It makes me want to work with new materials and try new things."
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