The University of Olivet senior Jenna Mayle, of Ionia, received the Juror’s Choice award for her painting, titled “Squash Carving,” at the Michigan Small Colleges’ Art Exhibition. The exhibition is currently on view through April 5 at Albion College (Bobbitt Visual Arts Center, 805 Hannah Street, Albion, MI 49224).
Mayle is double majoring in visual arts dual discipline with a business concentration, and visual arts with commercial design and studio arts concentrations. Named to The University of Olivet’s President’s List, she has consistently maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout her college career. She is also a member of the college’s President’s Leadership Institute; Omicron Delta Kappa honor society; Society of Hosford Scholars; Honors Alliance; and Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Student-Athlete Advisory Committee; and is vice president of Art Alliance.
Mayle is also captain of the women’s soccer and track teams, for which she has earned numerous accolades. In the summer of 2013, she was selected to take part in the USA D-3 Soccer Tour in Brazil. In 2012, she earned Capital One Academic All-District VI Women’s Soccer Team First-Team honors, as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America. She is slated to graduate in May.
The Michigan Small Colleges’ Art Exhibition features the work of some of Michigan’s most promising young artists. Participating institutions include Adrian, Albion, Alma, Kalamazoo and Olivet colleges.
Robert McCann served as this year’s juror. In his large-scale paintings, McCann explores “the ways people fit into and echo their environment,” including urban scenes with people in bizarre, almost dream-like juxtapositions.
McCann earned a BFA in studio art at Missouri State University in 1996 and a Master of Fine Art degree in painting from Indiana University at Bloomington in 2001, the same years he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to paint in Berlin, Germany. He has exhibited widely throughout the United States. McCann is an associate professor in studio art and foundations coordinator in painting at Michigan State University.