Two MFA candidates at the Lamar Dodd School of Art were among the 2019 Winners of ArtFields, an annual competition and exhibition in Lake City, South Carolina offering more than $140,000 in cash prizes. MFA Candidate Kim Truesdale won a Merit Award and incoming MFA Candidate Forrest Lawson was awarded the 2019 Grand Prize worth $50,000.

ArtFields started in 2013 with a simple goal: honor the artists of the Southeast with a week’s worth of celebration and competition in the heart of a traditional Southern small town. The winners of two People’s Choice Awards are determined by the votes of people visiting ArtFields; a panel of art professionals selects all the other awards, including the $50,000 Grand Prize and $25,000 Second Place award. Up to 400 works of art are displayed in locally-owned venues, from renovated 1920s warehouses and professional art spaces such as Jones-Carter Gallery and TRAX Visual Art Center to the library, the history museum, restaurants, boutiques and other shops. During ArtFields, what was once one of South Carolina’s most prosperous agricultural communities becomes a living art gallery as we recognize, celebrate and share the artistic talent of the Southeast.

Third year MFA Candidate Kim Truesdale was born in 1984 in Camden, South Carolina. She graduated from Coker College with a BA in Fine Arts in 2008 and the University of South Carolina with a MAT in Art Education in 2013. Her work explores the loss of women's identity and individuality referencing erasure, power, and domestic labor. Her mixed media series, Fed Up, was inspired by observing the conservative Southern women in her family serve others to the point of exhaustion. After a loved one, who was a homemaker, was subjected to a tragic and mysterious case of neglect she turned to look for physical, societal, and psychological evidence.

Kim Truesdale, Fed Up, Polymer Clay, Polymer Gel, Acrylic, Pastel on Found Photographs

Forrest Lawson is a multi-media sculptor who explores complicated issues experienced within the LGBTQ+ community. Lawson has participated in multiple exhibitions throughout Florida, was featured in Artbourne magazine in 2017, and was commissioned to install a public art sculpture on the University of Central Florida campus. Lawson will obtain his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Central Florida in December 2018 and plans to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. His work titled “6/12/16” is a tribute to the 49 victims of the Pulse tragedy on June 12th, 2016. Lawson explores the array of complexities experienced by individuals within the gay community. He creates work to reveal internal and external resentments with a variety of mediums and symbolism. As a tribute and a memoir, his practice touches on feelings that resonate personally and universally.

Forrest Lawson, 6/12/16, Acrylic, Vellum, Monofilament, Hand-Stamped Type, Paper Wristband