Susan Morrison, assistant professor of art and design at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, will display work in three major shows during the coming year.

Morrison has been accepted for juried solo shows at Hood College in Frederick, Md., and at Gallery 110 North, in Plymouth. She also will show her work in a three-person juried exhibition sponsored by the Wisconsin Arts Board in Madison.

She received a $5,000 grant from the University Personnel Development Committee (UPDC) to pursue her work in painting and sculpture and to allow her to participate in the exhibitions.

The Maryland show, titled "Soundings," will be at Hodson Gallery in the Tatem Arts Center from March 3 to 28 with an opening reception on Wednesday, March 3. It will include 11 works on 16 separate canvases, many six or seven feet high. Some works are comprised of two or three canvases, called diptychs or triptychs. The scale of her work is critical to understanding her painting, Morrison said. She takes her inspiration from nature and expresses her feelings about it in a way that can only be done on the large canvases, she said.

"Summer River," a triptych, will be among the paintings sent to Maryland. It was shown in the faculty exhibition at UWSP�s Edna Carlsten Gallery last fall.

The Madison show will be Monday, May 24, through Friday, July 23, in the Department of Administration Building, 101 E. Wilson St. Parking is available in the Government E parking ramp.

The show in Plymouth, sponsored by the Plymouth Arts Foundation, opens Aug. 27 and runs through Oct. 10. There will be a reception for the artist on Sept. 10.

These two exhibitions will include steel and fabric sculpture as well as paintings. Her sculptures, like her paintings, are "expressive works that use color and line," she said. The line is developed in steel and the fabric creates the color.

"Having sculpture with the paintings changes the dynamic of the space," Morrison said. The pieces all work together.

Her sculpture, "La Luna y El Sol," which was exhibited in the Wisconsin Biennial at UW-Madison, also will be shown at the Wisconsin Arts Board show this summer.

Morrison came to UWSP in 1999 from Arizona Western College in Yuma, Ariz. Featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the country, she has worked in an array of media including stage design, ceramics, painting and welded metal sculpture. This is her fourth grant for painting and sculpture from UPDC. She was assisted by Bill McKee, associate lecturer in art and design and woodshop supervisor in the art department, who made crates for shipping the artwork to the three shows.

"I am very grateful to UPDC for helping to make these shows happen," Morrison said.

She has recently shown work in juried exhibitions including "Book Arts Exhibition" at UW-Milwaukee, "First Biennial Exhibition" at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts in Wayzata, Minn., "Expressions of a Lifetime" in Lexington, Ky., and "Womens Works" for the Northwest Illinois Arts Council in Woodstock Ill.

Morrison recently returned from Germany, where she led 17 students on a semester abroad through UWSP International Programs. During the study trip, she taught painting and drawing to UWSP students that culminated in a show at a caf� in Munich.