Paintings, sketches, sculptures, photographs, textiles, graphics, and more will adorn the walls and podiums of the final senior art exhibit of the year, as seniors Hannah Akin, Jill Frasier, and Esther Olson present the collected works from the last four years.
The grand opening of the exhibit is April 14 at 3 p.m., featuring a wide selection of works in all kinds of mediums.
“My mediums are pretty broad because we are required to take a variety of classes, and since I am a double major I haven’t had as much of a specialty,” Akin said. “It’s really interesting because I have stuff ranging from freshman year till now, so some of the pieces I was crazy about I am not so much now, and others I have just grown to love. It’s a good variety.”
Of the three artists, Frasier has the greatest focus in photography, though all of the women are double majors, so each of their collections are slightly smaller and reach across the mediums that they have experienced.
“Photography is definitely my focus and my main interest,” Frasier said. “I think it’ll be a really great mix. Esther and Hannah are both a bit more focused on painting, I think, but we all like to dip into a bit of everything.”
Wedding photography has rapidly become of Frazier’s favorites, as it allows for both intimacy with her subjects and a focus on people and portraiture, she said.
Similarly, Olson has taken to textile arts, which Hillsdale has the capacity for but tends not to offer classes within the art department.
“I’m a bit of a dabbler,” she said. “I’ve been sort of doing an independent study that I am not getting credit for with Dr. Bushey. A while ago I realized it was a resource that I really need to take advantage of and learn from in the department.”
Each of the artists expressed her interest in a closeness with the arts they create, and a sort of weakness for more abstract expression.
“I tend to do the things I love, things I do in my life that I am really passionate about, places I have been,” Olson said. “I have one from the Upper Penninsula and another from Austria. I don’t do as well with abstracts; I do much better with people I love and places I have been.”
Akin agreed that on a whole this art exhibit had a definite leaning toward people as the subject matter, but Akin added that, in addition, she enjoys playing with light in her artwork.
“I would say I really love light. I love the strong sense of contrast in lights, with deep darks and light lights,” she said. “The illustration class I took was probably my favorite I have taken at Hillsdale. I think it is because it is about a genre of art rather than a medium, so there is such a broad spectrum and each of us could choose how to represent it.”
tsawyer1@hillsdale.edu
