Photography: Evolution of Ideas

Join us as Marianne Woodside shares her photographs each illustrative of specific subjects, techniques, and creative contexts of her photography. She will introduce topics that include photographing glass, manipulating images, and capturing images during travel. She will also discuss learning in a workshop setting, establishing a body of work (e.g. home place, wildlife, and birds), and establishing partnerships.

Marianne is known for her use of color and light, and her emphasis on creative approaches to digital photography. Embedded throughout the presentation will be themes of surprise, joy, creativity, and learning as Marianne traces the evolution of her work from its beginning to the present date.

Artist Bio: Marianne Woodside was born in 1948. She spent her early years in Orange, Texas. At the age of 17, she moved with her family to the Kuwait City and graduated from the International School of Kuwait in 1966. She then left to attend college at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Subsequently, she received a University Fellowship to study at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, graduating with her Masters in Counseling and Curriculum Studies. This graduation was followed by a move to Blacksburg, Virginia where she studied Counselor Education and graduated with an Ed.D. in 1974. While in Blacksburg, Marianne worked as a school counselor and then assumed an Assistant Professor position in Teacher Education.

Marianne spent the remainder of her professional career holding professorships in Teacher Education, Human Services, and Counselor Education at Virginia Tech, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She also held various administrative positions as Coordinator of Advising and First Year Studies, Executive Assistant to the Chancellor, and Program Coordinator in Human Services and Counselor Education. During Marianne’s career as an academic, she was recognized as an outstanding teacher and researcher. Areas of expertise include human services, case management, supervision, and counselor development. She continues her writing in human services and counseling today.

It was during Marianne’s years in Wyoming that she developed an interest in photography. There, she developed a love for the wide open spaces of the plains and the rugged Rocky Mountain vistas. After her move to Knoxville, she was mystified as how to photograph the flora and fauna of East Tennessee, especially the dense wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains. Today the perplexity has turned to a deep appreciation of the East Tennessee landscape and the photographic opportunities it offers.

During the last ten years, with the encouragement from family and friends, especially photographer Tom Owens, Marianne has expanded her interest in photography and her ideas of artistic expression. Opportunities for travel to such venues as Central America, South America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Iceland have offered time to capture exotic photographs beyond her daily experiences. And, because of her husband Phil’s willingness to make time for photography (stopping the car at a moment’s notice), Marianne is able to find intriguing subjects close to home. An interest in photographing glass has provided Marianne an additional way of expressing the relationship between man-made objects, nature, light, and color.

Marianne has been fortunate to find support from the Arts and Cultural Alliance and has shown her work at the Emporium Center. Her art has been selected for McGhee Tyson Arts and the Airport exhibit, the Arts & Cultural Alliance National Juried Exhibit, the Knoxville Photo Exhibition, and the Oak Ridge Art Center. She has also shown her work at the Knoxville Golden Roast Coffee Shop, the Knoxville Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Gallery, the Westminster Presbyterian Art Gallery, and Maryville’s Asbury Place.

Photography is an important part of her life. Marianne also spends time writing, playing the guitar, hiking, and traveling. She is devoted to her husband Phil, their three children, Michael, Cathy, and Donna Lee and their respective spouses and significant other and grandchildren. And then, there is, of course, their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Clyde, who resides with Marianne and Phil at Asbury Place in Maryville, Tennessee.

Website: mariannewoodsidephotography.com