• Contact Info

Womack, Mike

Associate Professor

Positions

Research Areas research areas

Research

research overview

  • Mike Womack's research focus is on drawing and painting media, objects, conceptual practices, and installations made from plain materials, which in turn make images. The imagery reflects, projects, or distorts either the objects that create the images in the first place, or their constituent materials. Using mirrors, lights, and found materials, I create a rudimentary bitmapping of data. This primitive and low-tech approach replicates the complexity of electronics, like a cathode ray tube or an integrated circuit, with the make shift means of the everyday. Compounded blips of light and color attempt to create a raster image similar to that transmitted in a computer or a television. The inherent inability of mechanical-era ingenuity to simulate atomic-era technology results in an abstraction of futility. The images created by the objects Womack makes are a fingerprint of desire, a desire of a material to be something more than its process will allow.

keywords

  • Drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, digital media, and conceptual art practices

Teaching

courses taught

  • ARTS 1212 - Painting for Non-Majors
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2022
    Explores varied painting techniques. Introduces concepts relevant to the understanding of painting and the creative process. May not be repeated.
  • ARTS 2222 - Beginning Painting
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2020 / Fall 2023
    Emphasizes color and descriptive mark making through observation based painting. Students are introduced to various painting materials and learn to translate what they see into painting media using two basic subjects: still-life and the figure.
  • ARTS 3017 - Special Topics in Studio Arts
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2019
    Introduces timely subjects in studio arts courses that cannot be offered on a regular basis. Information concerning the topics in any given semester is available prior to pre-registration from the department of Art and Art History. May be repeated up to 7 total credit hours.
  • ARTS 3212 - Figure Painting
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
    Explores varied painting techniques. Introduces concepts relevant to the understanding of painting and the creative process. May not be repeated. Formerly ARTS 2202.
  • ARTS 3222 - Intermediate Painting
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024
    In addition to being a continuation of Beginning Painting, this course focuses on a non-traditional approach to making paintings encouraging conceptual development, experimentation and research. Moving beyond observation based painting multiple thematic possibilities will be explored. Emphasis will be placed equally on ideas and technical execution.
  • ARTS 4002 - Advanced Drawing/Portfolio
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2020 / Fall 2022
    Continuation of Drawing 3. Advanced studio class in drawing for creative expression and individual portfolio development. Emphasis varies by semester;contact individual instructor for more information. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours.
  • ARTS 4118 - Graduate Visiting Artist Program
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018
    Artists of national and international reputation, interacting with graduate and advanced undergraduate students, discuss their studio work at seminar meetings and at public lectures or events. Provides continuous input of significant developments and a comprehensive view of contemporary issues in the arts. Same as ARTS 4118.
  • ARTS 4202 - Advanced Painting/Portfolio
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2020 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2024
    Continuation of Painting 3. Advanced studio class in painting for creative expression and individual portfolio development. Emphasis varies by semester;contact individual instructor for more information. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours.
  • ARTS 5118 - Graduate Visiting Artist Program
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018
    Artists of national and international reputation, interacting with graduate and advanced undergraduate students, discuss their studio work at seminar meetings and at public lectures or events. Provides continuous input of significant developments and a comprehensive view of contemporary issues in the arts. Same as ARTS 4118.
  • ARTS 5202 - Graduate Painting
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018 / Fall 2019 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2023
    May be repeated up to 18 total credit hours.
  • ARTS 5717 - Graduate Studio Critique
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2019
    May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours with any single faculty member.
  • ARTS 6957 - Master of Fine Arts Creative Thesis
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2024
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Background

International Activities