Billyo O’Donnell, a 1980 graduate in art and design, will receive the Missouri Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award for 2012. This award is the highest honor the state can confer to an artist. O’Donnell will receive the award on Feb. 8, 2012 in a 2:00 p.m. ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City, Mo.
O’Donnell says that Art and Design professors Bill Armstrong, Jerry Hatch, Dwaine Crigger, John Careggio and Maury Cooper contributed to his development as an artist. He practices the plein air style, in which artists paint outside to be closer to their subjects. It was in this style that he depicted scenes from Missouri’s counties in a 2009 book, Painting Missouri: The Counties en Plein Air, which he published with author Karen Glines. The book received a 2009 Missouri Humanities Award. O’Donnell toured the state with a “Painting Missouri” exhibit, which the University’s Art and Design Gallery featured in September 2009. Governor Jay Nixon, who will participate in the award ceremony, visited Springfield to view the exhibit.
The Missouri Arts Council, a division of the Department of Economic Development, provides grants to nonprofit organizations to stimulate arts participation, art-related economic development, and education through the arts. The council established the Missouri Arts Awards in 1983 to honor individuals and organizations who have contributed to Missouri’s arts culture.
O’Donnell was profiled in the Fall 2009 issue of Expressions. Visit his artist page at http://www.billyoart.com to learn more about his life and work.
