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• 2007 Senior Art Exhibition

 

Senior art majors display their work April 25 – May 19 in the Hofheimer Library Art Gallery.

By Melissa Fowler '09

Every year senior art majors from Virginia Wesleyan College show off their hard work and dedication in a Senior Art Exhibition. This year, the show highlights the senior thesis artwork of Ellen Bryant, Katie Heilenday, Sara Mullen, Lee Ann Morton, Danielle Fiedler, Pierrette Swan, Taylor Boyd and Scott Roberts. Each art student will display between one and ten pieces of their best artwork at the Senior Art Exhibition, April 25 – May 19 in the Hofheimer Library Art Gallery.

The Senior Art Exhibition is a requirement for the capstone ART 450 course. To graduate, all art majors must take this course.

John Rudel, assistant professor of art, said, "The Senior Art Exhibition is the capstone experience for studio art students. They will create a unified body of work around a theme. Their theme will be thought out in the process of making the work and also through individualized research."

The exhibition is an attempt to help students create a meaningful work of art that they are able to deconstruct and explain.

"I would argue that the sincere engagement in, and subsequent deconstruction of one's own creative process is as close to the perfect project for a liberal arts student as could possibly be designed," said Rudel.

For many students, like Pierrette Swan, this will be their first experience with having their artwork in a show. The students will be responsible for hanging their artwork and publicizing the exhibit.

Swan has four pieces ready and is still working on four more, which she hopes will be completed by the time of the exhibition. She uses various materials in her works; she has a painting, a charcoal drawing, a photo transfer and a clay piece. For the unfinished pieces, she is using live glue, pastels, ink and paper mixed.

"I tried to incorporate a lot of different materials because my work is about the experience of making it, just as much as the end result," she said.

Swan's theme of the exhibition is manipulated self portraits. Swan is interested in self portraits because all artists and even non-artists have felt compelled to draw themselves at some point in their lives, she said. Self portraits also help the person have a better understanding of him/herself, forcing the artist to face all of his/her physical flaws. This process is both a physical and mental experience.

The different ways to create a self portrait also interests Swan. She is influenced by things like personal ads in the paper and especially MySpace. She really likes the style and aesthetics of the MySpace photo.

"You know you best, so it’s interesting to portray and manipulate yourself on paper. I know a lot of people are going to see my exhibit and think I'm just vain, but I can guarantee there was a lot more to it than that," she said.

For Scott Roberts, the exhibition, and what he will get out of it, is the gratification of the culmination of his career at Virginia Wesleyan College. He also hopes it will help him find the role of art in his life.

The majority of Roberts' artwork created for the show was done over the course of the semester. He hopes to have a total of ten mixed media pieces.

"I really enjoy working in different areas of fine arts including acrylic painting, ceramic sculpture, glass etching and wood working," he said.

Roberts is not sure if he wants to be strictly a professional artist; however, he does hope that he will make some sort of income with his art. The exhibition is helping him develop the skills that he would need to work in the field of art.

All of the things he has learned in College, as well as all of the people he has met, has influenced his works.

"The inspiration of my artwork comes from my association with other artists while involving my emotions and feelings. I use my education and historical references to create compositions involving human separation and exploration of the natural environment," Roberts said.

Passion and drive motivates Sara Mullen to create her artwork.

"I am a firm believer in following your dreams and doing all you can to make them come true," said Mullen. "I don't believe that anyone should be stuck doing something they are not passionate about. Art is my passion."

Mullen will have two pieces in the exhibition. Both pieces are done in acrylics. One, entitled "Shadow Play," is painted on canvas and the other, "Reverb," is on actual rotted fence planks from her back yard.

"'Shadow Play' is an abstract painting done in a loose and free style. When I was painting it, I was trying to respond purely to my emotions, totally immersed in the moment," said Mullen.

Mullen explained that to create "Reverb" she painted a different layer every day for a few days, then sanded the painting down to expose the underlying layers. To complete the piece, she went back over it with a thin glaze of acrylic paint.

"'Reverb' is the physical imprint of frustration, as if a scream had been recorded against the wood, like music is imprinted into vinyl," she said.

Mullen does plan to pursue a career in art and hopes that doing well in the exhibition will help her get into graduate school and showcase her work in other exhibitions. She firmly believes that art is meant to be seen. She hopes that the people who have seen and enjoyed her work will keep an eye out for her in the future and possibly attend other shows that she participates in.

Like Mullen, Ellen Bryant also uses acrylic on canvas for her pieces in the exhibit. She will have ten pieces by the time of the show, with the theme of the ocean. Her love and respect for the ocean is what inspires her to do her work and she hopes to convey the awe and wonder that she feels for the ocean wave to others.

Bryant describes her paintings as, "An impressionistic approach to portraying a glimpse into the eyes of someone who loves and appreciates the ocean wave."

The Senior Art Exhibition will be the first time Bryant has ever shown her work in a formal setting. She appreciates learning the process now because this is what she will have to do if she chooses art for a career.

"I think the process is essential for a working artist, and therefore will be of value to me if I do end up being lucky enough to pursue painting as a career," she said.

As with all of the other artists in the show, Bryant's biggest hope is that people will walk away with a sense of appreciation for their efforts and that people are touched in some way by their art.

The Senior Art Exhibition will be on display April 25 - May 19 in the Hofheimer Library Art Gallery during Library operating hours. Opening reception will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on April 25.

04.09.08