Interdisciplinary
Course Covers Religious Diversity ::
Troy
University Department of Art and Design continues to pioneer
collaborative and cross-disciplinary learning experiences.
One such course that bridges various academic disciplines
is a course entitled humanity+divinity=art.
This
page is devoted to the general content of the course and
a sampling of visual solutions rendered from students engaging
in vibrant academic discourse about "otherness."
The discourse was about various human quests for spiritual
understanding that seemed to always manifest themselves
into artifacts.
Below
is an overview of the instructors, the course, and the Department
of Art and Design. Follow the links to the right side of
this page to sample some of the religions studied and the
student artifacts.
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INSTRUCTORS
Robert
Pullen, sociologist (L)
Jerry
Johnson, designer (R)
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Dr.
Robert Pullen, Ph.D.
Former Dean of Arts and Sciences;
Professor of Sociology
Dr.
Pullen was born just before Christmas 1952 in Southwest
Georgia, the first son of a peanut farmer. It was such a
cold night that his Daddy had to replace the water that
he had drained from the radiator of the two ton truck before
he could drive his Mama the ten bumpy miles to the hospital.
He came up hard but happy on that farm and didnt know
he was poor until he was transferred to the consolidated
county school in the ninth grade. By that time he had discovered
that hard work was deeply satisfying and that being well
educated was more important that having fancy clothes and
a flashy car, so he did well in high school and went to
Valdosta State College on a Ty Cobb scholarship.
The
young Robert Pullen struggled to choose a career from a
range of interest including vocational agriculture, nuclear
physics, astronomy, history, and preaching. God spoke and
the decision to become a Baptist Preacher displaced other
plans. Rev. Pullen was ordained at the age of 18 and for
the next 20 years he was Pastor of a series of small country
churches while he was a student, then a professor. He is
not currently pastor of a church but preaches occasionally
and considers himself the Pastor of the College of Arts
and Sciences at TROY.
His
academic accomplishments include B.S. and M.S. degrees in
Sociology from Valdosta State College and a Ph.D. in Marriage
and Family Living from Florida State University. He has
spent 25 years at Troy University where he has served as
Professor of Sociology, Chair of the Department of Social
Sciences, and most recently, Dean of the College of Arts
and Sciences.
Dr.
Pullen's wife, Harriett, is an Instructor of Mathematics
at TROY and is the financial brains of the family. They
have two sons, Nathan and Joseph, who are both graduates
of TROY. Nathan and Joseph both majored in graphic design
and are the computer brains of the family.
The
little leisure time that he has is divided between vegetable
gardening, woodworking, reading, restoring and building
musical instruments, and repairing "Lazrus" his
1963 Ford F100 pickup truck.
Mr.
Jerry Johnson, M.F.A.
Chair of Department of Art and Design;
Professor of Design
Mr. Johnson grew up in rural Oklahoma where wind and dust
were as ordinary as breakfast. He was one of three children,
an older brother and a twin sister. Dad was a Chief Master
Sergeant in the Air Force and expressly believed in "God
and Country." Mom was the merciful balance when kids
stepped out of line.
From
a very young age, Jerry Johnson was recognized as having
a gift for drawing. Although he didn't grow up in a school
system that even offered art as a subject, he was granted
a competitive art scholarship to a regional college in his
home state. During those college years, the artist discovered
yet another love of his that would take him through the
next decade of his life- that was music. At the age of 19,
the idealistic Johnson was out to change the world through
his Christian song-writing and musical performance via a
contemporary rock band. Although the money wasn't there,
the passion was and so for the next decade of consistently
practicing, writing and touring, Solid Rock's third album
(Real 2 Reel- 1985) finally hit the national charts and
appeared in the top ten.
Throughout
Jerry Johnson's musical career, he continued to create paintings
and do design work. Mostly, his graphic design work was
for his band. Eventually, this led him to his first position
as a graphic design instructor at Oklahoma State University.
Years later, Johnson's journey has guided him to become
the chairman of the Department of Art and Design at TROY.
Outside of managing an academic department, Johnson continues
to work as a freelance designer and consultant. He has specialized
in print and packaging media but is now developing a portfolio
in multimedia and web design. His work is noted in the international
publication American Corporate Identity in which
he received an Award of Excellence for corporate identity
design. Mr. Johnson is also the recipient of multiple ADDY
Awards for his design work in print and for the web.
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