Northwest's March art exhibit to feature glass sculptures

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SENATOBIA, MS (02/15/2018) The Northwest Mississippi Community College's March art exhibition will feature the works of local artists Sharon McConnell-Dickerson and Terri Massey. The exhibition, entitled "Broken," is a collection of bas-relief sculptures done in broken glass and mirror.

The opening reception will be held on Thursday, March 8 from 5-7 p.m., and the exhibition will run from March 5-23 in the Northwest Art Gallery on the Senatobia campus.

Dickerson is an artist, lecturer, teacher and speaker. Her work is featured in numerous exhibitions and included in museum, university, and private art collections.

Originally from New England, she worked as a flight attendant and chef on corporate jets. In addition to heads of major corporations, she flew with such notables as George and Barbara Bush, Donald and Ivana Trump, Al Haig, Henry Kissinger, and others.

After working in the corporate world for seven years, a turn in her life took place at the age of 27. She was soon diagnosed with Uveitis, a degenerative eye disease. After several years of surgeries and treatments she became involved with sculpture. "Sculpture is the vehicle by which I access a lost sense," Dickerson said.

Dickerson moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1996 to study art in a more traditional sense by learning hands-on from mentors and teachers and produced a body of work that included bronze sculpture and life cast sculptures. Her most well-known works are her life-masks of 52 Delta Blues musicians. "I wanted to discover the faces behind the music I love, so I went to Mississippi to map out the visages of the real Delta Blues men and women," Dickerson said. This body of work has been exhibited in many museums in the United States and at blues festivals in France. Dickerson moved to Mississippi in 2006, where she met her husband David. They reside in Como with her guide dog, Avatar.

Now almost totally blind, she is seeking venues to exhibit her works, conducting life-casting workshops, lectures and demonstrations, and traveling. She is also painting large scale minimalist works in oil on linen.

Terri Massey comes from a family of artists and has had a love of drawing since childhood. Her favorite subjects are animals.

In 2011 she suffered an accident which changed her life in many ways. Despite having ridden horses since she was a young girl, she took a fall when her horse reared and then fell on her, breaking several vertebrae in her back.

During the weeks she spent at The Med in Memphis, she was often told how lucky she was to not have been paralyzed, to be alive at all. She became confined to a slow and sedentary recovery in a body brace and a reclining wheelchair, unable to sit up straight while her spine began to mend.

Relying on her faith, she developed patience and an inner peace, which helped her tolerate her new-found lack of mobility. Refusing to succumb to frustration and boredom, she re-discovered her passion for drawing.

Encouraged by friends and family alike, she began sharing her work with her local communities in art council shows and juried exhibitions.

Even though she took an adult education art class at Northwest in 2010, she is mostly self-taught. Since 2012, her art has included the mediums of pastel, charcoal and graphite. She studied oil painting, both portrait and still life, under the guidance of renowned artist Sue Foell and detailed portraiture has been her passion.

Massey and her husband and family live in Senatobia.

Gallery hours are 8 a.m.- 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. - noon, Fridays. Admission to the gallery is free.

For more information about the Northwest gallery, contact Lawayne House, art chair at 662-562-3399 or e-mail lhouse@northwestms.edu.