Endless rows of paint brushes, peacocks and tons of flowers make up the colorful chaos of art professor Joanne Stichweh's home studio.
Stichweh is wrapping up her fifth sabbatical, a period of leave meant to acquire new skills. She will be returning to the classroom winter quarter.
Otterbein professors are required to take a sabbatical every three and a half years.
"First and foremost, I love teaching. I do miss being in the classroom, but what I learn through research enriches my teaching," said Stichweh.
Stichweh is reading and researching like everyone else, but her hard work will not be in the form of writing. Instead, Stichweh is producing artwork that will be on display next fall in the Miller Gallery, located in the art building.
Stichweh teaches ancient art history at Otterbein. Her interests lie in ancient world images and paintings, but she also has a passion for gardening.
"I think I couldn't live without my garden," she said, smiling. Stichweh's theme for her project is "Garden of Earthly Delights."
Stichweh is reproducing 20 representations of greenery and gardens true to specific cultures.
Stichweh also incorporates cut-out images from magazines and books into her work, giving it a collage effect. The mixture of the materials classifies her work as mixed media art.
Stichweh looks at copies of ancient images and learns about the different cultural compositions-the color, shapes and subject matter that were depicted during that time period.
For example, Egyptians had extensive gardens amongst their burial tombs, whereas Persians concentrated on creating patterns.
Stichweh is not creating her artwork on an ordinary canvas.
Instead, she wanted to work on a larger scale. She is painting on regular-sized wooden doors from a hardware store. The giant paintings encompass the viewer, and can make it feel like he/she is in the painting itself.
Painting since she was 10 years old, Stichweh has always been interested with expressing her own personal voice. Garden imagery is prevalent in a lot of her work.
Stichweh is grateful to Otterbein for giving her the time and resources to have this experience.
"It allows you to pursue your particular interests," she said.
Stichweh believes that taking a sabbatical gives professors new energy and vitality for their teaching.
Abiodun Goke-Pariola, vice president of academic affairs, supports required sabbaticals because it allows professors to strengthen their particular interests.
It allows professors to "pull back and reflect" on their work, as well as give them a full 10 weeks to devote their time to it exclusively, he said. t&c;
