For every Art and Design major, there is a clear goal to achieve before graduating from Asbury: the creation and presentation of their senior art show. This show leaves creativity entirely up to the students, with them deciding the medium, theme, skills and format that they wish to use. On March 5, five of these galleries had their official opening and reception.
To prepare for this, members of the program take various seminar classes throughout their time here to develop their talents.
The first of these artists was Kaja Jaques. Her show was called “A Meditation.” Jaques took a very different approach to her gallery, using articles of clothing as her foundation rather than the traditional oil pastels or watercolors. “My show is all about the process of creativity and sort of capturing the feeling of that,” said Jaques.
Every piece she crafted was made entirely from secondhand materials.
“Some of the pieces in the show are like genuine sweaters that I have knit and I wear every day, so there is a sweater titled ‘My Favorite Sweater’,” said Jaques. She has taken art classes at Asbury since she was sixteen as an academy student and credits many of her skills to her time here.
The next student was Vanessa Fischer. Her gallery was called “In Between Branches.”
“That’s kind of a play on words…it’s like, in between stages of growth or life decisions,” said Fischer. Made of sketches, acrylic paintings, linoleum prints, video and a song, the show represented the times of change that have passed and are to come. Fischer’s favorite piece was a two-panel linoleum print derived from the story of Icarus. “It’s one of my more emotive pieces. I tend to stay in a more neutral area, but that one has a lot more expression in it,” said Fischer.
Fischer also mentioned her appreciation for the Art and Design professors during her time in the program. “I really appreciate how all the professors are more focused on growing your practice rather than emulating their practices and how they just ask good questions that get you to develop better, rather than prescribing, you have to do things this specific way,” said Fischer.
The third artist was Hope Eland. Her work was entirely graphic design and inspired by the concept of the seven deadly sins.
“It took a while to actually formulate the idea, but I did want my gallery to at least elicit some sort of reaction,” said Eland. Each poster had many different layers representing pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth.
“I ran with this idea that sin is propaganda, but can you look past it in order to see what God has for you on the other side,” said Eland. The pieces also had a hidden symbol within each of them for the viewer to find.
The fourth student was Ella Nelson Biller. Her gallery was called “Eclose.” Made up of oil pastels and linoleum prints, the show largely had a color palette of reds and blues.
“When developing my show, I realized that all my art came back to one idea: how my past has influenced my present and how my present will influence my future,” said Biller. Each of her pieces told the story of a girl growing and gaining knowledge, but also the struggle it took to get to where she was.
Her show also credits her experiences as inspiration. “My past experiences are what make me who I am today. Everything I create, what I believe, and how I interact daily is influenced by the people in my past who have shaped me,” said Biller.
The fifth student was Josh Owen. His gallery was called “Meaningfully Mundane.” His show was entirely photography and reflected upon the unimportant moments of life.
“We all have these things in our lives that are everyday and routine, but often fail to realize how important and meaningful they can be to us,” said Owen. Many of his images had titles such as “Dollar General Run” or “In His Hands.”
He also expressed his love for photography in his artist’s statement.
“Expressing the personality and life of someone through photos is one of my favorite things to do,” said Owen. The expression of the show was finding the little things that might seem inconsequential and giving them new life through another person’s eyes.
These shows portray so much of the artistic process and the value of art within society. “In a world where everything moves so fast and everything is about the project and deadlines, it is really important to just stop and savor the process,” said Jaques.
While creating a lot of stress for the students, the end results are something for them to be proud of and to look upon with a lot of satisfaction.
