Feature Story
Becoming a Full-time Artist: Allison Walker (‘13) and the Pillars She Developed at SVU
Ignited at Southern Virginia University, Allison Walker Gaughan’s (‘13) artistic career has led her from studying at Scotland’s University of St. Andrew’s and working at national museums, to recently making the leap to open her own studio in New York.
“My last two years at SVU produced more long-term pillars in my life than any other season of my life. It was such a lighting burst,” said Walker. “It led to printmaking and art, meeting John (my now husband), my best friends, my life values and philosophies, the museum world, discovering spiritual art as a life pursuit, and then going to St. Andrews.”
Attending Southern Virginia University as a double major in art and liberal arts, Walker participated in the early stages of the museum studies program while heavily involved in the art program under the mentorship of Emeritus Professor of Art Doug Himes, who guided her to printmaking as a good medium for her and inspired her interest in religious work.
“I really started just taking art even more seriously than I already had been and having this vision of bringing good and heart glow art to the world,” said Walker. “And so I was looking at masters programs, and there was really only one program in the world doing what it was doing at the time, and it was Institute of Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at St. Andrews in Scotland.”
Walker applied to the University of St. Andrews, one of the oldest in Scotland and 3rd oldest university in the English-speaking world, and was accepted. She credits her acceptance to the letters of recommendation she received from the professors and administration who personally knew her at Southern Virginia University.
“I will never forget feeling the blessing of my small school campus,” said Walker. “Maybe if I’d been at a bigger school or not as close to my professors, the opportunity may not have unlocked…I’m so grateful to my mentors, and everybody was so excited for me.”
While working on her masters at St. Andrews, Walker was given permission to do an art show with her master’s dissertation, receiving a grant to put on a full show including her work and the work of other students and mentors, along with poetry by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Bishop of Durham N.T. Wright. While preparing for the show, she was able to visit Southern Virginia University with a friend and collect art from Professor Himes and others to take it back to Scotland to feature in the show as well.
After graduating from St. Andrews, Walker returned to the East Coast where she worked at several museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Martha’s Vineyard Museum, saving up to buy her own printing press. She later moved to New York City to work and brought her press with her to her apartment on the 4th floor.
”It reached a point where I was getting so many commissions on the side that it was like, ‘I’m either going to start turning down commissions or I’m going to make the leap and quit my job, and start doing this full-time,” said Walker.
With the support of her husband, John Gaughan (‘18), Walker made the transition to a full-time artist, recently acquiring her own private studio space and participating in four local shows in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Notably, her art was recently selected to show in the New Britain Museum of American Art.
“It feels like things are really coming together,” said Walker. “I’m trying to swing for the fences now, trying to just get rid of all of the hesitations I have and just go for it.”