Watercolors to the left, oils to the right, portraits behind and a wall of computer graphics straight ahead. Each senior art show exhibits the best works of the seniors that year, and each show has a separate repertoire that makes it individual and beautiful.
“The five of us girls are very similar and have similar styles, but all of us have excelled in different media and different ways,” senior Anna Saewert said. “I think there is a lot of coherence there.”
The upcoming art show, exhibiting the work of seniors Becca Brill, Bonnie Cofer, Natalie Kerner, Anna Saewert and Laura Wegmann, opens on April 15 with a reception on April 20.
The show will display a mix of classically inspired art, which is the focus of Hillsdale College’s art department, as well as a selection of photography and a large section devoted to graphic design.
“The Hillsdale art department really celebrates the classical inspirations of art and we really focus on fine art,” Wegmann said. “But Bonnie has taken all those things she learned and incorporated them into this newer genre.”
“The kinds of pieces I’m putting in the show are kind of different from the other artists. I am putting a couple of drawings and two or three paintings, but mostly graphic design pieces,” Cofer said. “Most of the pieces I’m putting in the show are pieces I’ve done outside of class.”
The variety makes the show, Brill said. Especially with the media variety in the upcoming show, the artists may be using unorthodox approaches to show their work.
“I’m thinking of getting a bunch of T-shirts and hanging them from the ceiling, creating a sort of mobile arrangement,” she said.
One primary aspect of the show is picking which pieces should be in the show.
“It’s the best stuff I’ve done in all four years so it’s kind of a big deal,” Kerner said. “It’s which ones were most successful in capturing the essence of the person.”
“I’m getting really excited,” Saewert said. “It’ll be even more exciting when I get all of my pictures framed to see them all come together.”
The show is a culmination of years of hard work.
“I’m going to be so relieved when I walk into the Daughtrey Art Gallery, that I’ve walked into so many times, and be able to see all my work from freshman year up to this semester,” Wegmann said.
tsawyer1@hillsdale.edu
