Graduate student imprints program at SCAD-Atlanta

Photo by Freddie Bennett
Omar Richardson is the first student in the SCAD-Atlanta graduate printmaking program.

By: Jennifer Long

Published: Friday, February 9, 2007

Savannah College of Art and Design student Omar Richardson is a pioneer of sorts. Richardson (B.F.A., painting, 2006) is the first graduate student in printmaking. From this unique position, he is taking advantage of the college’s cutting-edge facilities to experiment with new media and collaborate with students in other programs to expand his series of culturally influenced pieces.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts in printmaking are all new and available only at SCAD-Atlanta.

Richardson was born in Nassau, Bahamas. In high school, he discovered and developed his love for art. His first exhibition, at age 16, was held with well-known Bahamian artist Chan Pratt.

Growing up in Nassau, Richardson participated in the street parade Junkanoo, which occurs every Christmas and New Year’s Day. His family members danced in the annual celebration, which features music and colorful, elaborate costumes.

“This festival is a major influence in my work,” Richardson said. “The best way for me to capture Junkanoo is to take pictures of it. I try to depict the energy from it, the passion that goes into it, in some of my pieces.”

After high school, Richardson pursued his interest in art at the College of the Bahamas, where he studied painting and ceramics. Soon his professors encouraged him to further his education abroad. Richardson said that he was drawn to SCAD because he wanted to be in an environment surrounded by artists.

“It was my first choice of art colleges,” he said.

Richardson transferred to SCAD’s Savannah location, where he majored in painting and minored in printmaking. He also became involved in several extracurricular activities, including the SCAD rowing team, SCAD Student Ambassadors, a Savannah Phi Beta Sigma fraternity chapter and SCAD Radio, where he worked as a DJ. He graduated in 2006.

Richardson began his graduate studies at SCAD-Atlanta the following quarter. Throughout college, he had known he wanted to pursue a graduate degree, but he had been considering painting, rather than printmaking. However, printmaking chair Richard Gere convinced him otherwise.

“Richard Gere was a major influence on me going to SCAD-Atlanta and pursuing my graduate studies in printmaking; he inspired me to push my creativity in printmaking,” Richardson said. “I thought it would be a good major, a good career, to pursue.”

He explained that his art reflects his life experiences.

“I’m trying to discover who I am, who I can be in my body of work, how far can I go, how far I can push my work,” he said. “I try to bring out a cultural view, my cultural view, and see if people can experience this cultural view, capture it and draw their own interpretation.”

“Omar’s strength lies in his values of his culture that serve as an impetus for his work,” said Gere. “He is a student with a tremendous spirit and passion for incorporating all of his life and history into his work.”

While being the only graduate student in his major is a bit unusual, Richardson said it enables him to interact more with students from other disciplines and work collaboratively on projects.

“Our departments are friendly with each other. The painting, printmaking and photography majors try to work together,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing that they’re encouraging collaboration between the three majors.”

Richardson said he also thinks that being the only printmaking graduate student has pushed him to work harder.

“I have to set the boundaries high,” he said. “When I leave, I have to make sure that people will say that Omar Richardson was here by himself and produced this body of work. I want to be happy to say that I achieved this body of work in this program while in Atlanta.”

Richardson said that while he loved attending SCAD in Savannah, SCAD-Atlanta also has been a great place to take classes.

“Being in a big city is a big change for me,” he said. “But I love Atlanta. It has its advantages.”

In particular, Richardson said he’s enjoyed experimenting with different media in the new SCAD-Atlanta facilities, including silk screening, woodcuts and linoleum.

“I’ve started to get into a lot of culturally related images,” he said. “Right now, I want to see if I can create my body of work of cultural expression and symbols.”

In addition to pursuing a graduate degree, Richardson has been busy exhibiting his work. In fact, SCAD recently bought two of his pieces for the college’s permanent collection. His recent group exhibitions include the 17th Annual Savannah Black Heritage Festival exhibition at Starland Gallery, the “One World, Many Visions” exhibition in Northbrook, Ill., and the “COUNTERPOINT” exhibition in Ingram, Texas.

Whether he remains in the United States or moves back to the Bahamas after graduation, Richardson said he wants to be active as an artist and possibly also teach.

“I have a passion for teaching,” he said. “I want to try to help others, show them where you can go in life with your talent, how far your talent can push you and make you.”

To view Richardson’s work, visit www.omar-richardson.com.


Long is a publications editor.