2023 December

Matt Koewler ‘15: Finding Your Creative Way

When you meet Matt Koewler ‘15, you will know a couple things right off the bat: he loves his two white kitties, and he has an amazing creative and technical mind. He graduated from USI in December 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design with a minor in entrepreneurship. “The entrepreneurship minor was a no-brainer for me because it was three classes taken in succession and uses class credits from your major.” 

Koewler started his journey at USI as a computer science major because he was very interested in 3D modeling and rendering software programs such as Blender and Sketchup in high school, but after encountering some struggles with the coursework, he went undecided for a semester to find what he truly wanted to do. After learning a few of his relatives were graphic designers at Berry Plastics, he landed in graphic design. “It felt like coming home when I was able to decide on my major and learn about perspective, composition, and, for the first time, learn about digital art.” 

Although Koewler had found his passion, this didn’t come without challenges. “I really struggled with traditional 2D art techniques such as vertical drawing, mixing paint colors and drawing from real perspective. I also struggled with getting satisfaction from my work. There comes a certain point where your changes become smaller and smaller, your excitement about what came out of you feels stronger and you feel a sense of confidence about what’s in front of you. To this day, that’s what I chase, even in my current profession.” 

Koewler struggled with making friends on a commuter campus, but once he started to get involved on campus in Art Club, the radio station and religious gatherings, he gained confidence and branched out socially. “When I started out at USI, I’ll admit that there were a lot of times where I felt lonely and even isolated. Being a commuter student living at home with your parents, it’s much slower to make new friends and to socially interact with people outside of class,” he says. “These activities helped me find some confidence in meeting new people, coming out of my shell and making friends.” 

While at USI, Koewler took advantage of every opportunity he could to deepen his understanding of design and the history behind it. “I did go on several international trips with Dr. Shannon Pritchard at the helm, to Italy, the UK, France and the Netherlands.” 

His study abroad experience shaped who he is today and opened his eyes to other cultures and designs from around the world. 

Koewler was (and still is) very interested in 3D printing especially when it was really starting to take off. “In April 2015, I received an Endeavor grant through USI to explore 3D printing and design firsthand with access to new materials and software I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise,” he says. “A major mentor for me at USI was Joan DeJong. While when I started in the Art Department there weren’t ‘3D rendering’ classes, so she encouraged me to explore 3D printing. Ultimately, I was able to participate in one of the first ever 3D printing classes the Art Department offered to students on campus outside of dedicated high-level engineering classes.”   

Koewler also worked as a paid intern for the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville (GAGE). He was a graphic designer and tool guru. “I helped develop a makerspace and assisted with the acquisition and assembly of equipment (CNC’s, 3D printers, 15 custom built CAD computers and even a laser cutter) and helped incentivize people to use the space and learn the tools.”   

This extensive 3D rendering and printing experience shaped his future. When Koewler graduated, he was looking to start his career, and through networking, he got his big break. “When I was an intern, someone had mentioned my 3D experience to Hafer through a networking event I’d helped facilitate called Tech on Tap." Hafer needed someone who could work in 3D, 2D, graphic design, assist their marketing department, and render architectural visualizations to present to clients, the community and to the greater public. "I had no idea such a job existed and I’m happy to say even after seven years here, it was the right fit for me.”  

Outside of work, Koewler loves to work with his hands and design some pretty intriguing, challenging and groovy projects. “Most recently, I’ve been designing and building custom lava lamps using cast concrete parts, mid-century forms and refill kits for commercial lamps. After restoring a vintage space-age lava lamp from the Soviet Union with my own DIY wax and fluid, I realized I could easily make an entire lamp from scratch using 3D printing and materials like concrete. One of my designs took grand prize in the Autodesk Instructables Stone Concrete Cement Contest in 2022.” 

Koewler has also built his own furniture, crafted stained glass for his home, restored and built watches and made a branded giant Jinga game for his backyard get togethers called Terrible Tower. He attributes his tinkering in so many mediums to his “starving artist” tendencies, always searching for the next cool project or challenging tool to learn.  

“‘Starving’ can have a positive interpretation too. For example, someone could be starving for inspiration, the next project or cool build idea, or their next design. I attribute it to a high standard for satisfaction or insatiability one’s own work. No one expects you to be a god of boundless inspirational genius, an Einstein of innovation, or a bottomless font of ideas. We all build on the shoulders of giants who built on the shoulders of giants before them.”  

So, go forth and find your inspiration, your next project, big move in life or whatever you're starving for.

Dr. Shannon Pritchard, Associate Professor of Art History: Pritchard presented her paper titled, Seeing Through Giovanni di Paolo’s Eyes in Fifteenth Century Siena on Friday, October 27at the Sixteenth Century Society Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Her presentation was part of a panel titled, What’s New is Old…Again: Sixteenth Century Artists’ Use of the Past.

Rob Millard-Mendez, Professor of Art: Millard-Mendez won the second-place award in The Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana annual spooky show in October. First place went to a USI Art and Design Department alum, Aly Smith.  

Dr. Kristin LaFollette, Assistant Professor of English: LaFollette’s research article, Exploring Embodiment Through Rhetoric of Health and Medicine: An Arts-Based, Transgenre Pedagogy, recently received the 2023 Article of the Year Award from the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine (ARSTM). LaFollette completed this research project with the assistance of a USI Early Career Faculty Grant.

Dr. Stella Ress, Associate Professor of History, and Dr. Denise Lynn, Chair of the History Department, wrote introductions for a website called Mapping Inequality. 

• Buffalo/Lynn
• Evansville/Ress 

Dr. Denise Lynn, Chair of the History Department, will release her book, Claudia Jones: Visions of a Socialist America, on January 30 in the U.S. 

Nancy Raen-Mendez, Instructor in Art: 

• Hers (painting), 45th Annual Whitewater Valley Art Competition, group exhibition. Indiana University East Art Galleries, Richmond, Indiana, October 13 through December 18 
• Bayard Park Bird, Backyard Egg, and A Schnucks Cupcake (painting), Still Life – 2023, Gallerium online, October 12 through December 12 

Dr. Dan Bauer, Professor of Anthropology: Bauer was invited by the French Institute for Andean Studies to present at the colloquium, La Concha Spondylus: Balance y Perspectivas desde la Arqueologia Andina y Mesoamerica. The colloquium was held in Lima, Peru November 15-16 and was funded by the French Museum of Natural History and the French Institute for Andean Studies (Lima). The colloquium consisted of 15 invited speakers (12 archaeologists, two biologists and one cultural anthropologist (Bauer)) from seven countries. Bauer’s presentation was titled La Cuna del Spondylus: Perspectivas Etnograficas desde la Costa Ecuatoriana.

Additionally, Bauer was invited to give a presentation in the Amazonian city of Iquitos, Peru at the Biblioteca Amazonica on November 21. The presentation was titled Spondylus a Chambira: Perspectivas Antropologicas desde la costa ecuatoriana a la Amazonia Peruana and was sponsored by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, the Escuela de Artes y Culturas Amazonicas and the Asociacion Cultural Miguelina Acosta Cardenas. 

Dr. Taylor Petty, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, and Dr. Laura Lutgen-Nieves, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice: Petty and Lutgen-Nieves recently had an article published on Feminist Criminology. In 2022, Lutgen-Nieves conducted 101 semi-structured interviews of individuals held at Vanderburgh County Jail related to substance use and mental health issues.  

Dr. Joy Santee, Associate Professor of English: Students in this semester's ENG 411: Writing in the Digital Age course have been writing blog posts, event proposals, marketing materials and recommendation reports as part of a semester-long service-learning project with community organization Seton Harvest. The first publicly available document has now been posted on Seton Harvest's blog. It was also posted on the organization's Facebook page. The author of the post is senior USI student Clarissa Botello, who is majoring in English with a concentration in professional writing and rhetoric. Posts from other students will be published in the coming months. 

Jenn Horn, Instructor in English: In September, Horn attended and volunteered at the Midwest First-Year Conference in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of which she is on the planning committee. The conference theme was The Whole Scoop: A Holistic Approach to FYE, and presentations were given about all the offices and departments that are necessary for first-year student success. 
 
In October, Horn co-presented with Taylor Horsley, Adjunct in English, at the Indiana College English Association Conference held at USI. The theme was Making the Invisible, Visible, and Rokicki and Horn discussed placement reading (how students end up in their composition courses) and had some audience participation where the discussed ways they might make the process more visible to those outside the English department and the College of Liberal Arts. 
 
In November, Horn was the Panel Chair for Folklore, Art, and Education and presented her paper titled Disentangling the Discontent: Planting New Roots in Academia at the Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society in Portland, Oregon. The theme was Roots, Rootlessness, and Uprooting. 

Dr. Andy Buck, Buck, Andrew. 2023. “Critical Letter Writing and Deliberation During the Brezhnev Era.” Europe-Asia Studies. DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2023.2277138 

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