Graceland University Professor of Art Julia Franklin is Making Art and Making News

Graceland University Professor of Art Julia Franklin is shown with a piece of her found art.

Graceland University Professor of Art Julia Franklin has been busy lately, which becomes apparent when we look at the many recent displays of her talents and the amount of positive press she is receiving in connection with them.

Franklin’s solo exhibit Lost and Found has received much favorable press. Michael Morain, Features Reporter for the Des Moines Register, called Franklin’s work in Lost and Found “quietly elegant” in a Jan. 17 piece in The Register.

Iowa Sunshine, the author of an Iowa Bike Rides blog, refers to the transformation of Franklin’s found objects in Lost and Found as being one from “something insignificant to something magnificent.”

Franklin probably says it best in an excerpt from her artist statement from the show, “I collect and display these precious things to remember and relive the past, to feel connected to others, to organize, explore and analyze, to give value to overlooked things, to preserve and honor, and to appreciate all the tiny, beautiful things this world provides.”

Lost and Found was on display at the Des Moines Social Club in Des Moines, Iowa, from Jan. 9 through Feb. 1, 2015. Franklin also gave an artist talk on “The Process, Making and Meaning of Lost and Found” at the Des Moines Social Club on Jan. 12. Franklin’s interest in found objects as objects that inform and redeem was also presented at the Mid-America College Art Association conference in San Antonio, Texas, in October 2014.

Other recent exhibitions that show off the talents of this GU professor include Wander/Wonder, another solo exhibition that was on display in the Community Gallery in the Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames, Iowa, from Oct. 5 through Nov. 12, 2014, and The Skin Show, which includes installations by Franklin, along with Rachel Buse and Tiffany Sinnot. The Skin Show is currently on display in the Constance Gallery on the Graceland Lamoni campus through Feb. 20, and has been called “magical,” “disturbing” and “grossly gorgeous.” A must see. You can read more about The Skin Show in this Graceland Tower article.

Julia Franklin has been a Professor of Art at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, for 14 years. She received the “Excellence in Teaching Award” in 2011, and her artwork has been featured in over 60 exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad.