The MGCCC Jackson County Fine Arts Gallery is proud to announce the opening of the exhibit “Drawings” featuring the artwork of Jerrod Partridge. The show will open Thursday, March 12, at 12:15 p.m. with a reception and Artist Talk.

Partridge is a full-time artist in Ocean Springs and also teaches drawing and painting workshops. His work can be seen by appointment at his studio and the Local Creatives Gallery in Ocean Springs, Southside Gallery in Oxford and at various Art Space 86 events. He is owner and co-creator of Art Space 86, which uses events to provide opportunities for artists and enrich communities through art. He and his wife have led Visual Explorations to Tuscany, Italy, each summer since 2013.

Partridge earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the New York Academy of Art in 2004. During his undergraduate years studying graphic design at Mississippi College, he also spent a semester in London, England, studying art history.  Jerrod is a 2011-2012 recipient of a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission, and was named distinguished Alumnus of the Year for the Mississippi College Department of Art in 2017. His website is www.jerrodpartridge.com

“My friend Richard Kelso, a celebrated Mississippi artist, once said to me, ‘If a painting is like a novel, a drawing is like a love letter.’” Partridge said. “Drawings, as this quote suggests, are intimate and sincere. The artist’s vision and ability are exposed. Each mark represents a decision that can’t be covered up like layers of paint. Even erased marks leave a detectable ghost. Mistakes become the very thing that makes the work unique because it highlights the fact that it is handmade and human observed.”

He said that he has loved to draw since his early childhood. “As a kid, my best friend down the street, and I would draw cartoon characters with his mom, often picking out one to buy for a quarter. We may have had a bit of natural ability, but this wasn’t a unique experience. Most children enjoy drawing until they get discouraged along the way. Fortunately, no one told me to stop, so I’m still doing it.”

This exhibition will be the first time many of Partridge’s pieces have been exhibited. The work goes back to 2003, when he began his graduate studies at the New York Academy of Art and continues to the present.

“It is my hope that from this exhibition you will see my passion for the immediacy of the process, often using nonerasable mediums,” he said. “I hope that you will feel my love for experimentation with different mediums, including graphite, chalk, ink, charcoal and metal point. And mostly, I hope that you are encouraged to explore and engage with the world through the act of drawing.”

The exhibition will run through April 16. For more information, contact Gallery director Marc Poole at 228-497-7684 or marc.poole@mgccc.edu.