Modesty.

It is a virtue that is not easily come by, especially in the art world. However, it is one that Bruce Shobaken, artist and professor of printmaking, has mastered.

Everything from the subtle placement of a Rembrandt self-portrait on his office wall to his simple style of dress (gray corduroy trousers, Nike sneakers and a comfortable blazer) hints at modesty.

Although he has recently been named the recipient of the Arts and Architecture/Performing Constituent Society Alumni Faculty Teaching Award, Shobaken coyly admitted that he isn't quite sure why he was chosen for this honor.

"I guess it's because I've been here so long," he said.

Grace Hampton, vice provost and former director of the school of visual arts, expressed different reasoning for Shobaken's selection. She said Shobaken has served "with a strong quiet dignity which has won him the respect and admiration of students and colleagues."

According to a news release, the award recognizes excellence in teaching and honors memorable educators.

In an interview, Shobaken spoke of his role as artist and professor.

Artistically, he said, the central theme of his work is landscape. In fact, he said one of the reasons he left the University of Illinois and came to Penn State in 1958 was Pennsylvania's landscape. He said he remembered riding through Pennsylvania as a child.

Because his father was an Associated Press bureau chief, Shobaken spent most of his childhood moving about the country, becoming a skilled observer of American landscape. His family never lived in one location for more than two or three years, he said.

According to Shobaken, his renderings of landscapes don't strive toward verisimilitude. "They don't look like trees, streams and rocks," he said, adding that he tries to impose a sort of order on his subject not always understood by the viewer.

He often goes to extremes to capture his theme. "Sometimes I'll sit in the middle of a stream and draw," Shobaken said. This unlikely location provides him with a unique perspective on the landscape, he said.

While describing four methods of printmaking -- lithography, relief, intaglio and planography -- Shobaken searched his office for examples to visually demonstrate them.

Citing postage stamps and newspaper illustrations, Shobaken said printmaking as an art form evolved from processes that were initially commercial.

"Artists eventually take (printmaking processes) over for their own purposes," he said.

It was a sense of individuality that led Shobaken to heed the artistic calling. He described being an artist as achieving a "kind of identity."

In Shobaken's case, it is an identity he rarely glamorizes. He said, for example, he is not sure how one of his works was acquired by the collection of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III: "I don't know whether that collection exists or not."

He did offer a possible explanation. He said he believed Rockefeller purchased one of the drawings that he had entered in a Museum of Modern Art drawing show.

Shobaken categorized his teaching as the kind "most people would like to do." He said the nature of his subject allows him to elicit immediate feedback from his students. Gratification comes when the student understands what is being communicated, he said.

Shobaken sees the teaching of printmaking techniques as a basis from which students can begin to explore artistically. He said the student's ability to implement ideas and concepts is more important than the ideas and concepts themselves.

Although he tries to work every day, Shobaken said on less fruitful days playing tennis serves as a good diversion. "If I have a social life that's probably it," he said.