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Merryday to present on Ed Ruscha

Dr. Michaela Merryday was

Dr. Michaela Merryday, associate professor of art, will host a free presentation “Westward Route 66 Takes Its Way: Ed Ruscha and the Promised Land,” on Nov. 2 at 6:30 p.m. in Room 151 of Holcombe-Norwood Hall.

The event, free and open to the public, is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Merryday was selected by the Delta State University Department of Art as the 2015 Mississippi Humanities Council award recipient.

Her current work examines the role of culture in promoting sustainability, which is the subject of her publication, “Westward the Course of Route 66 Takes Its Way: Ed Ruscha and the Promised Land.”

In 1956, Ruscha set out on Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles. The sites he encountered along the road eventually became the basis for his book, “Twenty-six Gasoline Stations,” and reappeared in paintings such as “Standard Station,” “Hotel,” “Norms, La Cienega, On Fire” and the large Hollywood sign.

The Hollywood sign not only marks the final destination, but also stands for the dreams and promises that have beckoned thousands to California.

“I want to suggest that Ruscha’s work presents a contemporary version of the myth of Manifest Destiny given visual form in the landscapes of 19th century painters such as Thomas Cole, Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze or Albert Bierstadt,” said Merryday. “Bierstadt presented the West to viewers weary of the trials of the Civil War as a beautiful and benevolent land, a paradise where one could start over again.”

Merryday completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, and earned a doctorate in art history from Florida State University. Her research also focuses on contemporary public and political art practices.

Most recently, she contributed a feminist reading of Marie Hull to Bruce Levingston’s monograph “Bright Fields: The Mastery of Marie Hull,” which was published this year by The University Press of Mississippi.

For more information, contact the Department of Art at 662-846-4720.