Class is in session with "Mentors and Protégés," an exhibit of influential guidance. Works by leading art educators in the community and their mentees will be featured at the Macon Arts Alliance on First Friday, March 4 with a reception from 5-8 p.m. Mentors, Eric O'Dell, Diane Mead, and Martha Tisdale hand-selected current and former students that have demonstrated significant development as artists. The opening reception will also include a reading from poet, Anya Silver at 6:30p.m.  
 
"I paint, I draw, I teach," states O'Dell. "After finishing graduate work [Florida State University], I returned to Macon and set up Liberty Hall Studios in downtown Macon at the Contemporary Arts Exchange and renovated a house where I spend time with my wife and two daughters. After several years as curator and Director or Exhibitions and Collections at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, along with serving as adjunct instructor at local universities and colleges, I became a full time Assistant Professor of Art at Mercer in 2013 where I teach studio courses, Great Books, as well as studio courses overseas."
 
Of his many students, O'Dell carefully chose six Mercer undergraduates to display their work alongside his own. Caleb Brown, Gabby Carter, Kathryn Honeycutt, Jasbir Kaur, Anna Schneeger, and Sarah Ugan all credit O'Dell with charging them to think and see differently. "I would be misguided if I did not attribute much of my knowledge to my first art instructor, Eric O'Dell. I have known him since my sophomore year at Mercer and he has truly taken me under his wing as it relates to matters of art-techniques, history, business, and life," states Brown.
 
Mead, current instructor of fine arts in the upper school at Mount de Sales, has always been influenced by the physical world, both manmade and nature. Most recently, Mead has studied at the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She continually aims to share her robust enthusiasm with others. "I like to make sure my students love art...I hope I teach them that art is a lifelong passion," states Mead.
 
Brianne Hall, Samantha Lee, Angie Stephens Sanders, Alli Talbert, and Nora Xie all attribute a fundamental understanding of art to their mentor. "Diane helped me to finally see that I did have a gift and helped me to develop my skills as an artist. She constantly challenged me in class to learn new things about art and to try new media, and was always there offering encouragement and kind words," states Sanders.
 
Mead's passion for art extends outside of classroom and into the gallery. "I've been fortunate that my teaching job allows me time to put shows together. I enjoy putting a variety of artists together, and hope viewers can see how they augment each other," states Mead. Mentors and Protégés will be Mead's sixth show curated at Macon Arts Alliance.   
 
Prominent and ever evolving painter, Tisdale began her journey as an artist drawing for her teachers in elementary school. Her relationship with the arts has changed over the years from pupil, to teacher, to commercial design. Reared in Macon, Tisdale lived in Tennessee and Alabama before returning back to Georgia. "My surroundings influence me most...I take pleasure in the subtle nuances of people being themselves," states Tisdale. Mead asked Tisdale to be a part of the show, as her work resonated on a personal level. "She has the same fresh approach to art as she ever had. Martha's work is a great font of inspiration for me. Curating a show of her work a few years ago, I could see the amazing depth. Her work in art has been a lifelong labor of love! She reinvents herself in wonderful ways," states Mead.
 
Anya Silver, author of I Watched You Disappear (LSU Press, 2014) and The Ninety-Third Name of God (LSU Press, 2010), will be reading varied original works related to visual art and music. A Swarthmore, Pennsylvania native, Silver was educated at Haverford College and Emory University. She currently teaches in the English Department of Mercer University and lives in the College Hill Corridor with her husband and son. "I'm mentored by all the wonderful poets whom I've read through the years: Anna Akhmatova, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Adam Zagajewski, Friederike Mayrocker, and Marina Tsvetaeva. They've taught me the power of the well-placed image and the ability of poetry to witness to the world carefully, passionately, humbly, and honestly," states Silver. Her third book, From Nothing, is forthcoming from LSU this fall.