Bayou Artist | Cliff Tresner

ARTICLE BY STARLA GATSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

A decade after his last feature in BayouLife, artist and educator Cliff Tresner returns with Swimming in the Sky—a new solo exhibition that reflects his evolving creative journey, curiosity, and enduring passion for making and teaching art.

August 2015 was the last time Cliff Tresner sat down with BayouLife. Back then, a joint exhibition featuring the Indiana native, titled “Makers’ Mark,” had just opened at the Masur Museum of Art and would run from July to October of that year. The list of things Tresner has done since is long, and it includes participation in an international group exhibition in Germany in 2019, a summer residency program at the Vermont Studio Center in 2023, and a solo show at the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council in 2023. 

Now, Tresner is preparing for the next thing he’ll add to the exhibitions section of his curriculum vitae: a solo show at the Masur titled “Swimming in the Sky,” opening August 21st and closing November 1st. The exhibition’s name is a callback to his childhood: “I used to lie on my back, looking at the sky, and I moved my arms and legs to push myself through the grass. I called it swimming in the sky,” he says.

As he walks around his large workspace, Tresner admits he’s still not sure which pieces will make the cut for the show. His creations are scattered about everywhere. Some are finished, while others remain incomplete. Which already-started work he’ll return to for the show has yet to be determined. It’s only mid-July, so he still has a little time to finish all of the pieces. But he’s not really worried; he knows he’ll get it all done, and the pressure of an approaching deadline fuels him. 

“Swimming in the Sky” will feature a few of Tresner’s older works, some of which have been shown before, plus brand-new creations. That sounds like a retrospective. However, Tresner jokes that he won’t be calling it that, adding, “In the art world, ‘retrospective’ means you’re getting old.” 

Perhaps a better way to describe the body of work is to call it a look at his evolution as an artist. While pieces in his tried-and-true genres like woodworking and sculpting will be on display, work in newer mediums that have recently piqued his interest — 3D printing, for instance — will also be shown. There’s no central theme that ties all of the art together, he says, noting that he has a hard time with those. Instead, there’s a broader “why?” to it all: acknowledging and celebrating the concept of consistently making art. 

Tresner says the pieces he’s showing don’t have any specific meanings yet, either. Those will come when the exhibition is underway, when others have laid eyes on the work and have offered their interpretations of it. 

“The work isn’t complete until the viewer sees and responds to it,” he says, explaining that viewer reaction plays a role in deciding what messages the artwork conveys. Besides, he muses, “If you make art and no one ever sees it, is it really art?”

It makes sense that Tresner would ask such a question. He’s a curious soul, a big fan of questioning, as he notes in the artist statement on his website, “I tend to question everything and doubt the answer. I learned quickly from my father and in public education to temper my questions and accept answers for what they are. In the studio, I have the freedom to question and doubt.” 

Tresner’s curiosity remains after the work is finished, and he wonders what viewers will pull from his work. But, of course, he can’t stay at the Masur all day every day, polling everyone who sees the exhibition from open to close. That isn’t feasible for any artist, and especially not for Tresner; he’s a busy man. When he’s not puttering about his workspace prepping for a show, he’s probably in a classroom or studio, standing before a group of students and sharing what he knows. 

Tresner had been working in Memphis when he ran across the opportunity to work at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Back then, ULM had no sculpture program. But because Tresner had “big ideas” and the experience to back them up, courtesy of his undergraduate years at Indiana State University and post-graduate years in the University of Georgia’s study abroad program and at the University of Mississippi, he was hired to create one. Since then, the sculpture concentration Tresner built has been discontinued at ULM, but he still does plenty for the program. He’s a tenured associate professor, teaching painting and drawing courses now, but before that, he held the positions of Art Program Coordinator and William D. Hammond Endowed Professor of Liberal Arts. 

He’s no doubt passionate about creating work of his own — he says learning how to sculpt made him “feel as if [he’d] found what [he’s] meant to do” — but he’s just as invested in being an educator for several reasons, one being that it keeps him engaged with the art world and another that it affords him a good bit of creative freedom. Because the job offers him enough security to prevent him from relying solely on commissions for survival, he can spend his studio time making the kind of art he wants to make, not the kind he thinks will sell. 

The greatest perk of teaching for Tresner is interacting with the students. In his 2015 BayouLife interview, he said, “My students are really what inspire me the most here…the visual arts have grown significantly during the time I’ve lived here, and that is because of the students who come through the university and want to invest in the arts community here.” 

The sentiment still seems to ring true. When the conversation shifts to his students, Tresner’s face lights up. His pride in them is clear, and several of them have established themselves in the community. Some of them, like May 2025 BayouArtist Sara Beth Howard, for example, are pursuing art professionally. Others, like BayouLife owner and publisher Cassie Livingston, have chosen different paths. Those are but two of the previous students he speaks highly of; there are many more, he says. When he’s told the feeling is mutual and that many of his past students speak just as highly of him, the humble artist and educator chuckles and shakes his head. 

“Look a little further, and I’m sure you’ll find plenty that don’t,” he quips. 

Surely, though, the number of students he’s positively influenced outweighs that of those who aren’t his biggest fans. His approach to teaching is simple: create spaces for the students to belong, be understood, and work in. 

“[Art] is how I understand the world,” Tresner shares, explaining that, during the times in his life when he felt misunderstood, art gave him a sense of belonging and a means of self-expression. In teaching environments, his goal is to create spaces for students to freely express themselves as well. 

Tresner says he’s had a fascination with creating new spaces since he was a child, recalling days of building forts and turning a crawlspace under the porch into a hangout spot with his siblings. Speaking of Tresner’s childhood activities, swimming in the sky — at this point, it’s time for the conversation to end and for him to get back to work on the same-named exhibition. 

Like many of his peers in the art industry, Tresner finds the creative process rewarding. After all, he says, making art can provide a much-needed escape. 

“Work is a place of comfort,” he says, “ a distraction from all that’s distressing.”