1957-2013
Sandy Chism, Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the Tulane University Newcomb Department, died January 2, 2013 at the home of her sister in Great Bend, Kansas. Born December 7, 1957 in Great Bend, she was the daughter of Charles and Dorothy Chism. She received her MFA from the University of Arizona where she studied with Robert Colescott and Luiz Jimenez. She married Lane Ikenberry on April 4, 1998, two years after relocating to New Orleans.
Her research interests centered on the cycles and flux between opposites. She was particularly interested in change and exchange from the single to the multiple, the coming and the going, the macro and the micro and the quiet and frenetic. Her approaches, consequently, varied both within and between paintings.
Chism’s work has been exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans, the Birmingham Art Center, the Mobile Museum of Art, the Kansas City Artists Coalition, the William and Joseph Gallery of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Cultural Center in Debrecen, Hungary, the Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. She was represented locally by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. Her inclusion in a 1999 exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara led to her becoming one of the first artists that Mr. Ferrara represented. Ms. Chism's work has been reviewed in Art in America, The Times-Picayune, Gambit Weekly, the Santa Fe Journal, Forum Magazine and the New Orleans Art Review. Chism was a visiting instructor at Anderson Ranch Arts Center near Aspen, Colorado. She received an Artist’s Fellowship from the State of Louisiana, a Pollock Krasner grant through the Santa Fe Art Institute and a purchase award from Liquitex paint.
Survivors include her husband, Lane Ikenberry, of New Orleans; one sister, Shari Chism and her companion Thomas Brown of Great Bend, KS; a stepdaughter, Emily Elston of Salina, KS; a stepson, Myles Ikenberry of Manhattan, KS; a niece, Taryn Mayhew of Southgate, KY; a great nephew, Dax Mayhew; and three step-grandchildren, Anthony Allen, Dorothy Elston, and Douglas Elston.
A memorial service will be held this spring at the Myra Clare Rogers Memorial Chapel on the campus of Tulane University. She will be deeply missed by the students, staff, and faculty of the Tulane University Newcomb Art Department, both present and past.
