UNM ART STUDENT TACKLES POLITICAL ART, COSTUME DESIGN

April 4, 2003

UNM ART STUDENT TACKLES POLITICAL ART, COSTUME DESIGN

Jessi Murphy-Blevins Jessi Murphy-Blevins, a 2000 graduate of Las Cruces High School and Art Studio major, is on the Dean's List at the University of New Mexico. With an interest in political art, she hopes to present her artistic commentary on factory farming and slaughterhouses on Earth Day, April 22. A diverse creative talent, her work as a costume designer is likely to be seen in the form of an actress's jacket.

Murphy-Blevins, daughter of Bruce Blevins and Geri Murphy has been influenced and inspired by her family.

"My mother is an artist. She volunteered at the costume shop at NMSU, so I hung out with her a lot there as a kid," she said, adding that her mother continues, "to create fabulous art."

Her father, a scientist, has given her an appreciation for power tools and technology. "That knowledge assists in the sculptures I make. My dad also has given me an understanding of materials. My dad probably doesn't see it, but he, too, is an artist. He creates awesome antennas and mechanical things that, although they serve a direct purpose, are also pretty awesome to look at," she said.

A drawing teacher at UNM, Deborah Gavel, introduced Murphy-Blevins to the book, "Stolen Harvest."

"The book led me to one of my most successful pieces on the subject of factory farming and animal treatment," she said. It also inspired her to become a vegetarian and buy organic products. "Not only did Deborah influence my art, but also my way of life," she said.

"I'm taking Modern Art History so I've seen lots of art from the world's many wars. It is very interesting to me that the art from the French and Mexican Revolutions and World Wars I and II, mirrors exactly how people feel today. The span of hundreds of years doesn't change the effect war has on people," she said.

Murphy-Blevins works in various media, "I work in everything - sculpture, painting, drawing, you name it. I really would like to incorporate every medium in my work, but in academic study it can be difficult," she said.

She had good early training at Las Cruces High School. "Leslie Zerr is probably the best art teacher I have ever had. She let me do pretty much whatever I wanted and encouraged me all along the way. She helped me with my AP art portfolio that got me credits in college before I was even enrolled," said Murphy-Blevins.

She came to UNM instead of NMSU because she'd practically grown up at State, but still wanted to be close to her family. She added, "Also, UNM is a much more liberal school and in a larger city. I wanted to get that experience."

Aside from Gavel, UNM Theatre and Dance Associate Professor Dorothy Baca has influenced Murphy-Blevins. Baca assigned Murphy-Blevins to co-design two main stage shows at UNM. "It was a grueling project that helped me learn and appreciate a great deal about costumes and fashion," she said.

Baca also took the class to a movie set where they got to see how movies are put together and designed. "[Baca] assigned me to design a jacket for the lead actress which may actually be in the movie," she said.

Murphy-Blevins has found a good friend at UNM. "My best friend is Jessica Streit, who is not in art studio but is an art history major, and has been my most personal mentor. She helped me get excited about and find new appreciation in art history, which I was kind of scared of. We now have long discussions about Baroque art and the Surrealists. Its great," she said.

Murphy-Blevins said she wants to travel. "I want to see the world so much! I want to absorb everything out there, not just art in museums but culture and life and people and landscapes and feelings. I feel like a sponge in the desert."

She's also thinking about graduate school because she'd like to teach, but not necessarily right away.
Her long-term goal is happiness, she said, and quoted Picasso, "I'd like to live like a poor man, only with lots of money."

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