Pelican State News

Goats and rabbits and sheep? Oh my! 

Louisiana Christian University Art Professor WangLing Chou  gets lots of variation on that exclamation from her students who may  find themselves on any given day creating pottery while a goat nibbles  on their shoelaces. 

Recently, she began doing “goat ceramics,” and it’s gotten some buzz around campus. 

There’s goat yoga; why not goat ceramics? 

“They [goats] are very therapeutic,” she said. “They just  walk around the class, and they are very slow. The students love it. The  goats will try to drink from their water buckets, nibble on their  pantslegs. I usually bring a goat in once a semester if the students are  good. Plus, animals are the best models.” 

Chou’s most recent work “Two Rooster Tea Pots” won a merit award at the 54th Annual  Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival in Alexandria in April. Over the  years, she has received much recognition for her unique use of trash to  express her philozoic life. Her love of animals permeate everything she  does. 

Chou said she is happy to participate in this arts  festival regularly, as it’s important to the Central Lousiana community  and features outstanding original works. 

“I need to be able to show my students I am still  creative,” she said. “Besides teaching, I’m always creating my work. My  work centers on my love of animals.” 

Fellow LCU faculty member Kathleen McGinty-Johnson, director of the ESL program and English instructor, said she has loved Chou’s artwork for many years. 

“Ling’s art gives new life to the things we consider to be  trash,” McGinty-Johnson said. “What I truly love is the way that she  incorporates her love for animals and nature in her pieces. Her earlier  work often featured rabbits, but as she continues to grow her menagerie  (sheep, cows, goats, and a horse), she increasingly focuses on them as  her subjects.” 

Chou, who is a native of Taiwan, has taught at Louisiana  Christian University for 14 years. She and her husband Matthew Stokes,  an LC alumnus who teaches English at Louisiana State University –  Alexandria, have 25 animals currently—a horse, donkey, calf, goat,  sheep, cats, and dogs. 

“I mainly teach beginners,” she said. “I go to the basics.  The more years I teach, I like the fundamentals, the simple things. I  can see the beauty in the beginner. They cannot see it—the innocence,  but the beginners’ purity is so beautiful.” 

Chou admits she finds beauty in bizarre places—like things most people discard. 

“I hate trash,” she said. “Everything needs to get the best use it can.” 

She looks for ways to reuse things creatively. Many of her art works take their forms from recycled soda bottles. 

“I take this thing, this Coke bottle, for instance, that  was only used once, and I ask how can I use it again,” Chou said. “I  press and alter it. And immediately, I see it’s a chicken. I give trash  life and personality.” 

Her personality can be seen in the wonder and pop art feel  of her work, and it resonates with her students, who often bring her  beautiful garbage, like attractive packaging that has been discarded but  can be reused in art projects. 

“My students love me so much they bring me trash,” Chou laughs. 

Jocelyn Holt, a junior studio art major concentrating in ceramics from Salinas, California, said Chou’s art is inspiring. 

“She has such a strong style that shows through in all her  work,” Holt said. “I love how she incorporates her love for farming and  her animals into her work and I aspire to do the same one day. Ling  Chou is not only my professor, she is like a mentor to me, and my life  has forever been changed since I met her.” 

Another former student of Chou who graduated from LCU in  2019, Michael Williams, of Pineville, said she pushed him out of his  comfort zone—so much so that he is now completing his MFA at Mississippi  College. 

“She had me entering juried art exhibitions before I would  have pushed myself to do so,” Williams said. “She always pushed me to  go further with my art, never allowing me to settle. I knew I wanted to  pursue a career in ceramics in some form after my first class with  Ling.” 

LCU President Dr. Rick Brewer said Chou’s art is a  reminder that the Lord, also, can take trash, broken and discarded items  and turn them into masterpieces. 

“Chou’s work is a faithful reminder of the  transformational work of the Lord who takes our brokenness and brings  restoration,” Brewer said. God majors in producing pottery from clay.  This worldview is at the heart of the Louisiana Christian University  educational experience.” 

Original source can be found here.