(Posted November 4, 2013)

"Chickens" is one of Patricia Howard's photographs that will be on display at the Juniata Museum of Art starting Nov. 7
"Chickens" is one of Patricia Howard's photographs that will be on display at the Juniata Museum of Art starting Nov. 7

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Patricia Howard, assistant professor of art at Juniata College, will reveal how her eye for photography has informed her art in the exhibit "Migrations,"on display at the Juniata College Museum of Art from Thursday, Nov. 7, through Feb. 8.

There will be an opening reception at 5 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7, at the museum. The reception is free and open to the public.

Howard, who teaches various photography courses at Juniata, including the college's very popular Digital Art, has been artistically influenced by photography since helping her father set up a makeshift darkroom in the family kitchen. Later in high school, she attended an arts camp that cemented her interest in expressing her artistic talent through the camera.

She describes her art as sort of a "magic realism" style, where she finds a moment or a detail in a photograph that takes the viewer out of the otherwise realistic photo. An example is the photograph "Chickens," which reveals something unexplained in the image that the viewers can interpret for themselves.

In the museum show, Howard will display individual images, but she also will display several photographic series, such as the Grange Fair in Centre County and a series showing the eight houses Howard's mother lived in during a childhood spent in the same Indiana small town.

She describes her art as sort of a "magic realism" style, where she finds a moment or a detail in a photograph that takes the viewer out of the otherwise realistic photo.

Howard has been a member of the Juniata faculty since 2008. She also has worked as a Pennsylvania Artist in Residence for the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and Galaxy/Arts in Education since 2001.

She also works as an instructor for Penn State University's Continuing Education photography course, Photo 100, a course she has taught since 2009. Howard taught drawing at Penn State's School for Visual Arts from 2006 to 2011. At Penn State she also worked as a program director for a Mexico Summer Study Abroad program in 2005 and was program director for the university's summer study abroad program in Ireland from 2007 to 2008.

Howard earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Delaware and went on to earn a master's degree in fine arts in 2005 from Penn State.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.