Returned to School in 1995
"They're all my favorites," said Janet Oliver's young son, Bret. He was looking around at her monoprints displayed in UNCG's Elliott University Center during the opening reception for her summer exhibit. She had just finished her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting in May, 2000, but immediately plunged back into the studio to be ready for the summer show. The long hours and the pressure felt familiar.
Janet decided to return to school in the summer of 1995. She, her husband Michael, and her two young sons had just seen Apollo 13. The family had loved the movie, but she felt down. "I really want to do something with my life," she told her husband. "Why don't you go back to school?" he asked. "That's just what I was thinking!" she said.
Janet's early major in school had been Astronomy. Like many adults, she shifted fields when she returned. In choosing Art, she found a way "to honor what I loved as a child." Drawing for her had created a sense of stability and alternative worlds of her own making during chaotic times in her childhood; it showed her a path toward something "higher, yet within my grasp . . . just as literature had done for Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes."
Her first class was in Art History with Richard Gantt. "I was so excited to find that in Greensboro we had people like Richard teaching. . . It was great . . . I thought, 'I did the right thing!'"
In nervous preparation for the first exam, she made lists and more lists. Her son Lauren drilled her with flash cards. This was one of a series of responsibilities the boys would assume over the next 5 years, as the whole household accustomed itself to Janet's return to class. It was the first of many exams on which she did very well; her cumulative GPA was 3.95.
Her work toward the BFA has been multifaceted. As a painter and printmaker, she has had the opportunity to enter several juried shows. Not chosen
for the first show she entered, she has gone on to see her work selected and has felt the satisfaction of winning awards. He eyes light up as she describes how monoprints and collographs are produced. "You don't know what you'll get. It's a wonderful surprise every time." One unexpected accomplishment occurred the semester she broke her arm--she discovered a way to draw with her left hand.
Outside the studio, Janet learned what it means "to work hard on an idea, pushing it and seeing how far it would go." After completing a directed research project on Whistler with Professor Gantt, she was chosen to prepare a paper for an Undergraduate Art History Symposium at the Mint Museum in Charlotte. There were two Whistler etchings in Mint's collection. Using the research skills she had developed, she was able to date one of them for the museum. Ultimately she gave her paper on two other occasions, at a Southeastern College Art Conference in Miami and for the Weatherspoon Guild Association. She enthusiastically praises the UNCG Art faculty for encouraging her efforts, "We have a gold mine here."
Now as a result of her accomplishments as an undergraduate, she has been awarded the Mary Elizabeth Barwick and Carl Jackson Sink Fellowship in Humanities for graduate studies. She will begin full-time work on an MFA in Painting/Printmaking this fall, continuing to juggle school and family responsibilities, as well as an internship and volunteer activities at UNCG's Weatherspoon Gallery.
To others contemplating a return to school, Janet says, "If you're thinking about it, you're probably ready." She recommends starting slowly to learn to balance school with other responsibilities (she took two courses in the beginning); as her own experience shows, you may eventually take on a whole lot more.
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Page updated: 06-May-2009
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