Opening night of the Spring 2014 Senior Art Exhibition drew in dozens of family members, friends, students, fans and artists to celebrate and support 30 graduating seniors for their art.
The art exhibition was scheduled from May 8 through May 17 and held in the Contemporary Art Gallery. The showing represented all studio areas in the department. The exhibition was free of charge and open to the public.
"This is always one of the more special events. For these seniors that are graduating, this is more important than when they walk to get their diploma," said Dale Newkirk, gallery director and associate professor of sculpture. "This is the showing of what they have accomplished that has been the result of their training in the art department."
Kait McKey, a senior majoring in visual arts, created a mixed media piece entitled "Fig Leaf" that contained 361 digitally edited versions of the same photo of a female face. Her inspiration for this work branched from being diagnosed with clinical depression at age nine.
"I was able to distance the work from being autobiographical because regardless of whether or not someone is diagnosed with the same disease, everyone has a story," said McKey. "The piece itself was more about conveying a feeling, more so than telling a story. I wanted the viewer to come up and feel uncomfortable and feel judged and feel overwhelmed. We all have these individual hardships that are impending on us daily, but at the same time, we have obligations and responsibilities that we need to take care of."
Zachary Slough, a senior visual arts major with a concentration in sculpture, is the creator of "Impetus I," "Impetus II" and "Impetus III," all hand-crafted wing sculptures primarily made of metals like aluminum and copper. Together, the undertaking of these works took about 850-900 hours.
"[The word] 'impetus' means the beginning of something, and the original inspiration was the myth of the Greeks. Almost every culture of the globe shares the idea of a man, or a deity or demi-god that has wings and can fly. I think humans, until the last 150 years or so, have looked to the bird with envy," said Slough. "Wouldn't it be great to have that sense of freedom, to go anywhere and see things that you couldn't see? I wanted to use that myth as a grounding point and create an object that was so beautifully crafted, aesthetically beautiful, to invite them in and have them imagine themselves wearing these things and flying in them."
The seniors were astonished at how they and their classmates have grown as artists.
"I've watched these people grow and become who they are, so I'm super impressed to see how everything turned out, the visual majors, the craftsmanship, the man hours, the work, the concepts that have gone into their final product is just phenomenal," said McKey.
Overall, the success of the exhibition is a positive reflection on the seniors and faculty.
"It is a reflection on how we are doing as a department as well as to evaluate the senior shows," said Newkirk. "It is concrete evidence that we are meeting our goals as faculty."