After 30 years of teaching at Milligan University, Assistant Professor of Art Nick Blosser will retire at the end of the spring semester.
The pandemic did not play a role in Blosser’s decision to retire now. He had always planned for his retirement to closely follow that of his wife, Mindy, who retired from pharmacy in September of last year. He is excited to focus more on painting, his primary artistic medium.
During his time at Milligan, Blosser also created his own paintings, many of which are exhibited in galleries across the United States. His work is currently shown at the PDX Contemporary Art Gallery in Portland, Oregon. He also has pieces in private collections and the Portland Art Museum.
“I’m not really ‘retiring’ retiring but just focusing more on doing my own work and being able to pick up and go places when I want to,” Blosser said. He also plans to take a family trip to Italy that was cancelled last year because of COVID-19.
Blosser has played a vital role in the creation and growth of the fine arts program at Milligan. According to the Milligan catalog, he teaches courses required for both fine art and graphic design majors and minors. His classes include design fundamentals, drawing, painting, ceramics, printmaking and art history, among others.
Senior Jordan Clark has taken multiple classes from Blosser while completing her fine art major with a concentration in art.
“He has made me a better artist,” Clark said. “He knows what each person needs to do to achieve success and how to respond to each student’s concerns with their artwork.”
Clark and fellow senior art major Sam Musgrave are currently working with Blosser to create socially distant gallery shows that will debut in April.
Associate Professor of Communications Art Brown encouraged his mentees to take one of Blosser’s courses this year if it would fit into their schedules. Brown serves as an adviser to students pursuing degrees in art, theater, communications and graphic design.
“I wanted to make sure students had the opportunity to learn from his expertise, experience and approach to painting,” Brown said. “He will be sorely missed.”
Brown even encouraged students to take Blosser’s courses over his own, resulting in the cancellation of Brown’s Graphic Design 1 class for the spring semester. The course will be offered again in the fall.
As a graphic design professor, Brown is especially grateful for Blosser’s expertise.
“Graphic design would not be possible at Milligan without the strong foundational skills that Nick Blosser has taught in his courses, skills that designers will use every day as a part of their career,” Brown said.
Although he will miss his students, Blosser will not especially miss teaching.
“I don’t consider myself a natural teacher,” he said. “I’ve always, ideally, thought of myself as an artist who teaches, rather than a teacher who does art on the side.”
In 1991, Milligan hired Blosser as a humanities professor because of his background in art. The fine art major did not yet exist at Milligan, but he taught studio art courses in addition to humanities. Although he did not mind this arrangement, he soon focused his attention solely on art classes.
“After a while, I just couldn’t stand how long it took to grade humanities exams,” Blosser said.
Blosser hopes Milligan’s fine arts program will continue just as strongly, if not more so, after his retirement. He would like to see Milligan hire a replacement who could teach art full time.
Clark, however, believes Blosser shouldn’t be replaced with just anyone.
“I think it’ll be hard to find someone who is as passionate about each person’s ability to create artwork,” she said.
Headline photo: Nick Blosser advises student Lauren Petty in his Printmaking Studio class.