Associate Professor, Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts (VCDMA) Program Coordinator and Academic Advisor, VCDMA Internship Coordinator VCDMA Labs and Suites Supervisor (Edit Suite, Digital Media Lab and Green Screen Studio)
Area: Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts, Visual Arts/Design
Office: Fine and Performing Arts Center (FPAC) Bldg. RM 2130
Visual Communication, Art/Design, Animation, Motion Graphics, Digital Video Production, Editing and Compositing, Video and Installation Art, Cinema Studies, Film, Multimedia, Hip-Hop, Urban Art and Contemporary Art and Digital Imaging. Topics in world and African and African American Art, culture, history, music, cinema, animation, science fiction, and folklore.
Tewodross Melchishua (pronounced Tay-oh-droze Mell kay-shoo-ah) received a B.A. Degree in Art and Photographic Media from Morgan State University. He also completed his MFA in Imaging and Digital Arts, at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He has years of experience as an animator, filmmaker, designer, visual artist, educator, curator and creative consultant in the Washington, DC, and Baltimore metropolitan areas. His animation, art and films have been shown to audiences nationally and internationally.
He has also been a featured speaker and consultant on several workshops, panels and television programs discussing issues and topics such as digital art & multimedia, design, animation, filmmaking and the cultural and historical aesthetics of the moving image, technology and animation. Some of these programs/venues included:
The National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NYC
The Walters Gallery of Art
The Maryland Institute College of Art
Johns Hopkins University
Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
American University
Morgan State University
Reality Check: A Conference Of The Design/The Organization Of Black Designers
In The Mix (PBS)
On Time (WJZ-TV)
The Bottom Line With Kweisi Mfume (WBAL-TV)
Right To Fight (Sarah Lawrence College)
XM Radio
WEAA 88.9 FM (Baltimore)
WPFW 89.3 FM (Pacifica)
The Annual Black Engineer's Conference & Black Families Technology Network (IBM Corporation).
International Visitor Project: Film in the US - Women & Minorities in the Film Industry Panel, sponsored by The US Department of State, Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, World Learning for International Development/Delphi Int'l.
The AFI SilverDocs Documentary Film Festival
He has also received numerous awards and recognition for his work in video and animation, such as:
The FLIK International Film Festival, National Harbor, MD.
The SONY Innovator's Award in Animation; Sony Corporation, New York, NY.
First Place for Animation from The Maafa Film & Video Festival, Brooklyn, NY.
The Paul Robeson Award in Film and Video, Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ.
The Annual Rosebud Independent Film & Video Competition, Washington, DC.
The National Black Programming Consortium's Prized Pieces, Columbus, OH.
Individual Artist Grant, The Maryland State Art Council, Baltimore, MD.
Artist Grant, The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Wash., DC.
CETL Summer Faculty Fellows Grant, The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Bowie State University
In 1999, he received a Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Fellowship. The seminar was titled, Faces of Islam in Africa, and allowed him to travel to Senegal and Morocco. It was from this experience that he was able to visit these two nations to research African and Islamic art, music and culture.
Tewodross is also a member, and serves as the chair of the Education Committee for FOCUSONDESIGN Publicity and Outreach Coordinator. He is also a member of The National Association of Artists of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (NAAHBCU), AIGA-DC, The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF); SIGGRAPH and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. He currently teaches animation, multimedia & design as an Associate Professor of Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts in the Department of Fine & Performing Arts at Bowie State University.
He curates and was a featured artist in M3: MCs, Mics and Metaphors (M3) at the Flashpoint Gallery in Washington, D.C. The exhibition featured artists, photographers, designers and filmmakers from across the country all focusing on words, metaphors, lyricism, and poetics used in hip hop music and culture. Particular focus was on the "golden years" of classic hip-hop music. Most recently Tewodross was a video artist/vj for Paige In Full: A B Girl's Visual Mixtape , Galactic Ritual and Slam Theatre 1.0. Tewodross also produced animation for The Thunder Thigh Revue, featuring famed visual artist Joyce Scott, and actress Kay Lawal-Muhammad, directed by Rain Pryor (video above).
He was also a video artist and co-writer of the multimedia theatrical production, Nacirema, part of the Source Theatre Festival in Washington, DC. Most recently, he partnered again with Paige Hernandez/B-Fly Entertainment as a vj/video projection designer for the multimedia, performance, Liner Notes, and resident VJ for Shaolin Jazz, a project that explores the musical connections between hip-hop and jazz via the Blue Note jazz musicians and Wu-Tang Clan.
He also received a 2008-09 Summer Faculty Fellows Research grant from CETL that targeted student recruitment and retention, in which he created a two-fold project that focuses on creative research, production and program development in fashion and textile design and animation, motion graphics and music video production. This involves BSU students, alumni, mentors, professional artists, designers and strategic partners/consultants. From this the fashion design concentration under VCDMA that launched in 2012, and was co-deveoped by designers and educators, Dyanne Marte, Carmen Webber and Tewodross Melchishua.
As a professor of visual culture, hip-hop studies and digital media production, he has produced and conducted interviews with the likes of Angie Stone , B.o.B., Dead Prez, Bilal, E.P.M.D., Brand Nubian, God'Silla, RA the MC, Oddisee, the Broadway cast of the hit musical, FELA! and more. Tewodross remains the consummate student and observer of popular culture, as he is a scholar of historical movements, influences and trends in technology and media. He is also the founder of That Soul Cinematic/The Soulsuite, an online media arts, animation/film studio and collective, where he also serves as creative director, producer, video designer and animator.
Statement:
"My work consists of a variety of mediums and genres including digital art/multimedia, design, animation, film/video, installation, sculpture and painting. However, there seems to be one underlying theme: rhythm or movement. As a digital artist, designer, filmmaker and animator, I am interested in preserving cultural memory; and to use visual narrative to communicate life experiences. These experiences are universal and it is my intention that they generate movement (rhythm) on many different levels.
For the last few years, I have been inspired by music, theatre and specifically the work and imagery of artists/filmmakers such as Ralph Bashki, Julie Taymor, Takashi Murakami, Keith Piper, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock, Haile Gerima, Akira Kurosawa and Margot Lovejoy. I am intrigued by the relationships and connections between art/design, film and music (specifically jazz, hip hop, soul, reggae/dub and electronica) and narrative. I enjoy working in digital art, video/film, because of the ability to transfer visual concepts easily and maintain the essence of light and sound.
Animation, motion graphics and digital art are my preferred mediums, however, I have been exploring ways to also incorporate traditional media (painting, sculpture, installation and design) with technology. Furthermore, I explore this media with the elements of sound (music), motion, image and text. It is through the integration of art with video/film and digital technology that I seek to affect my audience will "experience" my work rather than simply to passively observe it."
