Artist's Statement

“The mind… yearns for some hard task, lifelong, longer than life, to concentrate it and make it whole…” —Wendell Berry

Drawing and printmaking are my chosen tools for exploring the most basic aspects of being human. So much has already been drawn, painted, sculpted, by great, historic masters that the “hard task” of the quote above has, indeed, proven to be life-long. And, while it is certainly true that work has given meaning to my life, whether I am achieving the elusive sense of “wholeness” cited by the poet Wendell Berry is up for grabs at the end of each day in my studio. I get close when what is personal in my own work communicates the beauty and complexity I find in life.        Priscilla

I was raised in New Jersey, just outside of New York City where regular trips into New York and Philadelphia opened to me a large, somewhat daunting, but very exciting, cosmopolitan world.

With the promise of extensive work abroad, I chose to study at a small liberal arts college in northern New York state: Saint Lawrence University. Four years later, I had spent a productive academic year in Europe, gained an intellectual foothold and appreciation for the major shifts within Western art, and developed a strong interest in drawing and printmaking.

After graduating in 1973, I moved to the Midwest and balanced printing and drawing with theatrical design and painting, as well as furniture design with my husband, Craig Campbell. It was during this decade that we also had our three children: Maggie, Charlie and Willa.

In 1986 we moved to Iowa so that I might attend graduate school at the University of Iowa for an MFA in printmaking.  For several years I enjoyed teaching with the excellent faculty at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and for over 40 years have been a working artist, focusing on figurative and botanical subjects.

"All is forgotten. Nothing is lost." I heard this statement while I was working in my studio and listening to public radio, and I scrawled it across the brown paper tape that I use to stretch drawings on boards. It resonated because so often successful work necessitates the willingness to surrender any initial vision to the unforeseen shifts of process.

My work begins with drawing from observation. From this point, visual expression radiates outwardly in an ever-widening spiral. Scale changes. Subject changes. Viewpoint changes. New drawing materials are introduced. Marks and subject are almost obliterated, and then rediscovered. Imagery is collaged. This dynamic evolution of work from such a simple starting point has been my primary method for developing the emotional and conceptual direction of what I do. For me, this way of working results in drawings that reveal the entirety of the process- marks made and materials used over time. And finally, nothing is lost. Priscilla

Education

1992 M.F.A. Printmaking, University of Iowa

1990 M.A. Printmaking, University of Iowa

1981-86 Creighton University, audited printmaking and life-drawing

1974-75 Kansas City Art Institute, evening classes, printmaking and drawing

1973 Art Students League, New York City, printmaking

1973 B.A., St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, magna cum laude

                    Phi Beta Kappa

1971-72 Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, Madrid, Spain

Selected Exhibitions

2019       Gilded Pear Gallery, Solo Show, Cedar Rapids, IA

2019       Blanden Art Museum, “Line”, group show, Fort Dodge, Iowa

2018       The Foundry, “Out on a Limb”, Saint Charles, Missouri, group show

2018       Gilded Pear Gallery, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, “Figured”, 3 person show

2017       Black Earth Gallery, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Vernal Equinox exhibit, group show

2016-17 Dubuque Museum of Art, "Dialog Human", with Thomas C. Jackson, curator Stacy Peterson

2016 7th Annual Discourse on Drawing, University of North Carolina

2016 Coe College, solo show, “A Thousand Calling Voices”

2015 Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Summer Exhibit

2015 Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland, Oregon “Living Mark”

2015 University of Northern Iowa Museum of Art, Cedar Falls, Ia. “Drawn Together: Dialog Human 2015”, with Thomas C. Jackson

2014 Olson-Larsen Gallery, Des Moines, IA (Solo Exhibition)

2014 Icon Gallery, Fairfield IA (with Tom Jackson)

2014 Waterloo Center for the Arts, Waterloo, IA (with Tom Jackson)

2014 Chait Galleries Downtown, Iowa City, IA (Group Show)

2014 Gallery ‘C’ Dubuque, IA (Solo Exhibition)

2013 Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha, NE (Solo Exhibition)

2012 “Voices from the Warehouse District, V8”, Dubuque, Iowa

2012 Olson Larsen Galleries, Figurative Show, (group show)

2011 Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa salon exhibition

2010 Olson Larsen, December group show

2010 University of Iowa, “Botanical Drawings”, exhibited with IA Summer Rep

2009 Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, “Beneath the Surface”, group show

2009 Olson Larsen Galleries, West Des Moines, Ia., Botanical show

2008 Priscilla Steele Studio and Gallery, Marion, Ia. Grand Opening, October

2008 Olson Larsen Galleries, West Des Moines, Ia. “New Work”, group show

2008 Campbell Steele Gallery, “Spring Gallery Tour”, group show

2007 Olson Larsen Galleries, West Des Moines, Spring Invitational

2007 Uptown Art Festival, Minneapolis, ‘05, ’06 (best in drawing)

2006 Olson Larsen Galleries, West Des Moines, Spring Landscape show

2006 Chait Galleries Downtown, Iowa City, Iowa (group show)

2005 Augustana College Art Museum, Best in Show, Rock Island, Illinois

2004 Quad Cities Arts, Rock Island, Illinois (two person show)

2003 “Face to Face”, Peoria Art Guild, Peoria, Illinois

2002 Olson Larsen Gallery, Holiday Invitational, group show

2002 “New Art”, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, curator, Jane Milosch

2002 Arts Iowa City, solo show, Iowa City, Iowa

2002 Kirkwood Community College, Area Faculty Show, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

2001 Cornell College, Area Faculty Show, Mount Vernon, Iowa

2000 Peoria Art Guild, Peoria Art Festival, (best in 2D) (best in show ’90)

2000 Mount Mercy College, solo show, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

2000 Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver Colorado

1999 Henry W. Myrtle Gallery, Cedar Falls, Iowa (solo show)

1999 Luther College, solo show, Decorah, Iowa

1999 Milwaukee Art Museum, Lakefront Festival of the Arts (best in graphics 98,97)

1999 Arts Iowa City, “Corporeal Reality”, (best in show), Iowa City, Iowa

1998 Madison Art Center, Art Fair on the Square, (best in show) ‘88, (best in graphics) ‘93

Collections

Saint Lawrence University, Canton, New York

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois

University of Iowa, Iowa City

University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa

Selected Publications

2014 Cityview, Des Moines, Ia., “Same Subject, Different Points of View”, Oct. 16, 2014

2014 Waterloo Courier, “Dialog Human” April, 2014

2014 Telegraph Herald, Dubuque, Ia., Gallery C Exhibit Jan. 2014

2009 “Beneath the Surface”, Grinnell College, Lesley Wright

2008 Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 23, “Cooperative Competitors”

2008 Corridor Business Journal, Iowa City, Iowa “Entrepreneur 101”

2007 Art Scene (February) Des Moines, Iowa

2006 Des Moines Register, Iowa, “Landscape paintings reveal views of nature”, June 11

2005 Augustana College, Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, April

2005 Des Moines Register, Des Moines, Iowa, “Celebrate beauty of land, water”, June 5

2004 Coe College, Faculty Scholarship and Grants

2004 Quad Cities Reader, Rock Island, Illinois

2002 Iowa 2002, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

1999 Peoria Art Guild, Peoria Art Festival (poster)

1996 Saint Lawrence University, Canton, New York, Third Biennial Alumni Exhibition

1992 Cummington Press, Omaha, Nebraska, Dance Music, Barry Goldensohn (frontispiece)

1991 Cummington Press, Omaha, Nebraska, A Final Antidote, Louise Bogan (frontispiece)

1986 Cummington Press, Omaha, Nebraska, A Voyage to Cythera, Ralph Bobb (frontispiece)

1986 Cummington Press, Omaha, Nebraska, Bathsheba on the Third Day, Jane Greer, (frontispiece)

Related Professional Activity

2010-present Moderator, “Talk in the MUD”, Campbell Steele Gallery

2011 Moderator Portraiture panel, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

2007-present Board of Trustees, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

1995-present Instructor, Drawing and Printmaking, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

1994-2015 Marion Arts Festival Advisory Board

1991-2017 Co-owner Campbell Steele Gallery, Marion, Iowa

1993-1996 President, Marion Arts Council, secured grant (Greater Cedar Rapids Foundation) for installation of public art in Marion Public Library

1994 Instructor, Art History, Mount Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

1988-1993 Co-scenic designer Theatre Cedar Rapids, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Workshops Conducted

1993 Open life drawing sessions twice weekly, year round, Coe College (on-going)

2003 Carlos Ferguson, drawing/ tonality project

2002 Nancy Erskine, monotype

2001 Gerald Auten, drawing

2000 Kathy Caraccio, printmaking

1999 Stephen Cone Weeks, drawing

1998 Joe D’Uva, aluminum plate lithograph