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Painting
BFA 252, 931-372-3068
ckoczwara@tntech.edu

Professor Koczwara has taught painting in the Tennessee Tech University Department of Music & Art since 1972. She came to TTU with a BFA from the Ringling School of Art & Design and an MA from William Paterson University of New Jersey.

Chris has won numerous national awards, including two Grand Prize trips to Europe from the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit in New York City and the Moorestown National Art Exhibit in New Jersey. In 1967, her paintings from the Lehman Collection were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That same year the NJ Senate passed a resolution of commendation honoring her artistic achievements, and she was selected as a member of the US Marine Corps Combat Art Program, and was invited by the US Navy to be a civilian combat artist at the New London Submarine base and at Cape Canaveral. Spacecraft Check is exhibited at the NASA Headquarters Collection in Texas, and was included in a special 1969-1970 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In 1972, Apollo 7 Launch Commanded by Capt. Walter Schirra, USN, was featured on the cover of the US Naval Institute Proceedings Magazine and is now included in the US Navy Combat Art Collection in Washington, DC. Several other paintings in the permanent collection of the Pentagon.

In 1969 Chris was on the cover of the NJ Music & Arts Magazine and the feature story of the April issue was about her work. In 1970 her career achievements garnered her an invitation to Vietnam as the only USMC female civilian combat artist. She also covered several art assignments for the US Coast Guard, beginning in 1970. Some of the paintings are included in the US Coast Guard Art Collection in Washington, DC.

In 1979 she taught for the Western Michigan University International Art Workshop in Italy and Austria. Chris was the recipient of the TTU Outstanding Faculty Award in teaching in 1981.

In 1986 she was the educational representative for Governor Lamar Alexander’s trade Mission to Toyko, Japan, and returned that same year as a delegate to China in the Citizen Ambassador Program. In 1986 her paintings were featured in Joseph F. Anzenberger, Jr.’s book, Combat Art of the Vietnam War. Chris spent the summer of 1987 at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in China studying traditional Chinese painting, and completed assignments for the Navy at the US Naval Base Cecil Field, Florida. Her artwork was featured on the cover of the June, 1987, issue of USMC Leatherneck Magazine and “Lady Combat Artist” article was about Chris and her work.

In 1990, as a recipient of a TTU Non-Instructional teaching award, she produced and directed Painting with Trella, a television series consisting of sixteen segments.

In 1992 several of her paintings were featured in Dennis Nobel’s book, Forgotten Warriors, Combat Art from Vietnam, and her painting, American Spirit, was on the cover of The Khe Sanh Veteran Magazine. Chris participated in the Citizen Ambassador program as the first delegation to return to Vietnam, to meet with museum officials, artists, educators, and politicians.

She was invited back as a USMC combat artist in 1992-1993 to cover Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, Africa. In 1997, Chris was the State of Tennessee nominee for the National Medal of the Arts, an award that is given by the President of the United States.

Chris’s international and national exhibits include: The Archbishop’s Palace, Salzburg, Austria; The US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, MD; The National Arts Club, The National Academy, and The Salmagundi Museum, in NY; The Jersey City Museum and Seton Hall University in NJ; University of Tennessee, Nashville International Airport, and The Parthenon Museum in TN; Owen’s Corning World Headquarters; The Air Force Museum and the Washington Navy Yard Historical Museum in Washington, DC.