Tennessee’s Young Visual Artists

Michael Baggarly is an Associate Professor of Art at Middle Tennessee State University where he teaches Sculpture and 3-D Design. He lives and works in Murfreesboro, TN with his wife Melodie and two children Kaia and Caedryn. Michael earned a BFA (Magna Cum Laude) from Western Kentucky University in 1998 and MA and MFA degrees from University of Iowa in 2001 and 2002 as an Iowa Arts Fellowship recipient. His art has been exhibited nationally and internationally in juried and invitational exhibitions. As an artist, Michael is drawn to a range of materials. Working between cast iron, complex steel/ wood fabrications, and 3D printed mixed media provides him a range of options to address his conceptual interests.

Michael Baggarly is an Associate Professor of Art at Middle Tennessee State University, where he teaches Sculpture and 3-D Design. He lives and works in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with his wife, Melodie, and their two children, Kaia and Caedryn.

He earned his BFA (Magna Cum Laude) from Western Kentucky University in 1998 and completed both his MA and MFA at the University of Iowa in 2001 and 2002 as an Iowa Arts Fellowship recipient. His artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally in both juried and invitational exhibitions.

Michael has been involved with the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts for a total of ten years—serving as the Sculpture Instructor from 2002 to 2011, and returning to the role again in 2025. This is his first year as Chair of the Visual Arts Program.

Ambrose Prince is an artist and educator originally from Oakland, California. He earned an MFA in Studio Art from Mills College in Oakland, California, and currently lives and works in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where he is a Lecturer of Art at Middle Tennessee State University, teaching Foundations, Figure Drawing, and Watercolor.
Ambrose is primarily an oil painter, while also working in watercolor, acrylic, and drawing. His practice is rooted in representational and figurative traditions, with a focus on portraiture, the human figure, and domestic subjects. He also paints landscape, particularly in watercolor, drawing from direct observation and lived environments.
Ambrose is interested in the subtleties of observation and the ways painting can move beyond likeness to suggest presence, character, and nuance. His approach is informed by a sustained attention to material and process, and a broader interest in the labor and skill of painting.

Website: ambroseprince.com

Ashton Ludden is a printmaker, educator and sign artist.

Her prints explore our relationship with other living creatures as we become further removed from the natural world. As she researches human impact on endangered animals, Ludden develops images of wildlife coping with humans’ influence on their livelihood. She makes use of multiple printmaking processes, such as hand-engraving on copper and monotype, to link the fragile existence of each animal to a subtle pattern of its threat, such as plastic pollution or logging. Collectively, Ludden’s prints are alert to the wild around us and consider our everyday actions that affect it directly or indirectly. Her work aims to evoke a renewal of attentiveness, conversation, and respect for other living beings.

Currently, she is developing a body of work focusing on issues closer to home in the East Tennessee region. The first print in this series is of the North Carolina Flying Squirrel, which is losing its habitat due to the invasive woolly adelgids attacking the Eastern Hemlocks. Ludden is interested in the ramifications of invasive species in our own backyard, such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Ashton Ludden received her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Tennessee in 2013 and her BFA in Engraving Arts and Printmaking from Emporia State University in 2009. Ludden’s prints have been exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally as well as at animal education and welfare conferences. She teaches printmaking and bookmaking workshops regionally and nationally.

Currently, Ludden is an artist member of the Vacuum Shop Studios Collaborative (vacuumshopstudios.wordpress.com) and the head sign artist for Trader Joe’s in Knoxville, TN.

Instagram: @ashton_ludden

Bryan Wilkerson is a TN Native and Professor of Art and Design at Roane State Community College. His creative practices are focused primarily on Ceramics and Public Art but extends into design and drawing. His work explores humor, craft, irony, and play through common symbolic references. He is also the creator and director of the ArtMobile traveling gallery and pop up workshop space.

Dawn Martin Dickins is a drawing/installation artist originally from a small farming community in Georgia. Dawn loves the performative nature of drawing large scale in public spaces, which allows the viewer to experience the evolution of the drawing. Her goal is not to create permanent art works, but to create experiences. Dawn earned a BFA from Georgia Southern University and an MFA at the University of South Carolina. She currently lives in Clarksville and teaches as a full-time instructor at Middle Tennessee State University in the Foundations Department.

www.dawnmartindickins.com

Kimberly Dummons is a Professor of Art and Design at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN, where she primarily teaches Two-Dimensional Design and Three-Dimensional Design. Originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she earned her B.A. in Art from Xavier University of Louisiana, and her M.F.A. in Studio Art, with a Sculpture concentration, from the University of New Orleans.

In her studio practice, she uses cast metal sculpture, print, and collage to explore perceptions of identity and place, referencing the female figure and movement, and quilt motifs, respectively.

Her work has been exhibited nationally, is included in several public and private collections, and has been reviewed and published, both regionally and nationally, in various publications, including Sculpture magazine and Art Papers. Additionally, she has a public sculpture, commissioned by the City of New Orleans, Buddy Bolden, located in Louis Armstrong Park. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance as well as the Advisory Committee to the Board of Directors for the Helis Foundation John T. Scott Center.

Melody Tang is a graphic designer and educator based in Middle Tennessee. She holds a B.F.A. from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). She has worked professionally for 10+ years, both at a fast-paced creative agency and as a freelancer, designing for a range of brand needs from printed marketing materials to website development. As an educator, she has taught various courses in design, such as Graphic Design Technologies, Typography, Intro to Interaction, Interface Design, and Senior Project. Melody now runs her own design business and teaches graphic design courses as a lecturer at MTSU.

When she is not pushing pixels, Melody enjoys frequenting her many hobbies (building Lego, potting plants, reading) in the company of her husband, Patrick, and their dog, Theodosia.

Michael Kaczmarek is a 3D artist, and tenure track professor at Middle Tennessee State University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and a master’s degree in 3D Animation from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Michael worked in the video game industry for over 15+ years working on top selling games like the James Bond Franchise, Lord of the Rings, Tiger Woods Golf, Knock Out Kings as well as Star Trek Online. After years of work in the video game industry, Michael transitioned into teaching at multiple private art colleges before finally ending up at MTSU. Currently he is teaching multiple 3D classes including Character creation & rigging and Texturing, Lighting and Rendering. Michael is also working on his latest short, animated film project entitled “Cuckoo for an Angel” which he hope to premiere in film festivals in 2028.”

Dave Rollins is a book maker, sculptor, Alchemist, and self-proclaimed Wizard. He received his MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book (UICB) and his BFA in Sculpture from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). He has taught courses in Book Arts, 2D and 3D Design, Drawing I, Drawing II, Art Appreciation, and Introduction to Art at the UICB, MTSU, and Motlow State Community College (MSCC). His books and sculptures have been shown nationally and he has had several solo exhibitions, the most recent being Caput Mortuum, exhibited at the UICB. At present, Dave resides in Murfreesboro, Tennessee where he teaches and continues to make art while pondering the great mysteries of the universe.