Degrees:
M.F.A., University of Cincinnati; B.A., Bellarmine University
Biography:
Professor Walter joined the University in 1988, and during her 36-year career taught a wide range of fine arts courses in drawing, painting, figure sculpture, ceramics handbuilding, freshman and senior seminars on research and writing about art, independent studies, and served as an advisor for Art Pre-Thesis and Thesis.
She was on the team that designed and team-taught the University’s first interdisciplinary course in the Liberal Arts, and continued that work with Dr. Meg Riestenberg in “The Naturalist as Artist/The Artist as Naturalist.” In addition to summer work on the archeological excavation of the Roman site Torre de Palma in Portugal with the University of Louisville, she taught a summer drawing course at Huron University in London. She was awarded the University’s Clifford Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2005. She served as Chair of the Department of Art: Fine Arts/Art/Art Education/Art History from 2009- 2015.
A native of Louisville Kentucky, before completing her MFA at the University of Cincinnati, Professor Walter earned her B.A. at Bellarmine College. Her study at the Blackhawk Mountain School of Art in Colorado and post baccalaureate work in the Master of Arts program at the University of Louisville’s Hite Institute (1980 – 1986) while teaching art at Presentation Academy contributed to her pursuit of the M.F.A and academic tenure at Mount St. Joseph.
As a Mount St. Joseph professor her teaching was motivated by her desire to share the artist’s power of seeing both outwardly and inwardly – guiding students through formal lessons and in the discovery of confidence exploring with materials, scale, and their own imaginations. She created meaningful collaborations: three campus visits of Zen Master Keido Fukushima Roshi of Tōfuku-ji Temple Japan, exhibitions co-curated with Studio San Giuseppe gallery directors incorporating visiting guest artists including University of Louisville Professor painter Mark Priest, three campus visits and sand mandalas made by the Tibetan Sacred Arts Tour of the Drepung Gomang Monastery for which she acted as local coordinator, and several Cincinnati visits of internationally-known artists with the GCCCU Visiting Artist Alliance. She was faculty advisor for the student-initiated group MEDUSA (Movement and Education of Student Artists) and with them created the campus-wide Dream of the Earth environmental awareness program.
From drawing rare native plants and orchids in the Red River Gorge area to public commissions including the life size bronze Francis of Assisi installed above the Liberty Street entrance of Franciscan Media’s Cincinnati Headquarters, Professor Walter uses her own practice of drawing, painting, and sculpture to immerse herself in the power, wonder, and sacredness of creative expression. Currently focusing her work in ceramic sculpture, she has studied on scholarship at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, and, with a sabbatical and a series of MSJ summer grants, with master ceramicist Laura Ross. This work is ongoing. Currently she is working with a team of historians, artists, community leaders, Loretto sisters and administrators documenting the work of sculptor Jeanne Dueber SL. in Nerinx, Kentucky.