Students Intern with Misty Gamble
“Sunday” by Misty Gamble
Monica Turner (junior) and Erika Hiebert (special status student) are currently wrapping up an internship with Misty Gamble, a local sculptor and Assistant Professor in the School of Foundation at KCAI.
Each semester, Misty selects two interns to work with her in a three-person team. “I always think three heads together are better than one, or even two,” she said. They are currently working on one of Misty’s long term projects, an accumulation of bedazzled panties. Misty paints up to 7 layers of slip onto underwear for a burnout firing, and then her interns bedazzle them, and together they decide on final compositions for the installation.
Both Monica and Erika were first interested in working with Misty because of the subject matter of her artwork. “I was super interested in her work, especially because she is a female artist,” Erika said. “She deals a lot with concepts of femininity and gender roles, and I’m very interested in those concepts.” Over the course of the internship, they also developed an admiration for Misty’s professional practice and all the business and preparation work that goes into making her art.
“I really like our interpersonal relationship with Misty,” Monica said. “We’re often working in really close quarters with her in her studio and we just talk. She tells us all these things we need to know about our professional practice and it’s always really spectacular advice.”
Erika says that working with Misty taught her that attitude is crucial in professionalism, as much as making good work. “I see the hustle there is involved in it,” she said. “I see her personality, and I feel like the reason she’s making it is because she’s super independent, she’s very passionate about the work she’s doing.”