It is the goal of the senior art majors in the third and final senior art show of the semester to not only communicate with their audience, but to elicit a response as well.
Seniors Elizabeth Brady, Lisa Graham, Aaron Sandford, and Lauren Wierenga will open their exhibit on April 22 and will hold their reception on April 25 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Daughtrey Art Gallery in Sage Center for the Arts. The exhibit will remain open April 22 to 25.
“It’s a lot of each medium. Everyone has their one medium they’re focused on, and it’s neat to have artists who are so good at their medium,” Wierenga said. “Aaron and Bitsy sculpt –– I can’t sculpt to save my life –– Lisa does painting, and I do do a lot of photography and graphic design. All the mediums are represented, and they’re all represented very well.”
Each student overlaps with another, but has a unique focus among the four. Brady focuses on sculpture, though including a variety of painting and sketches; Graham tends to focus on painting as well as sculpture and drawing; Sandford generally does a lot of graphic design, but he is focusing on fine arts for his show with primarily photography and sculpture; Wierenga focuses mostly on photography and graphic design but also will include drawings and oil paintings.
Each one takes the art in a different direction, but each aims to express and communicate something, oftentimes not entirely consciously.
“I tend to have a religious bend to a lot of my work,” Brady said. “I’m not sure it starts out that way, but it definitely ends that way, especially with the sculptures. I think three out of four of my sculptures are religious.”
Though he won’t show very much of it in the exhibit, Sandford said a huge part of his work is in graphic design, which is a medium that principally aims to communicate with an audience. It also requires a response to fulfill any purpose. He aims to represent more of the creative fine arts aspect of his work.
“Without response, art is really just sad –– like graphic design is all about communication, so its great to see people seeing your art,” Sandford said.
Similarly, Graham said she looks to other artists and their work for influence on color and theme, but she doesn’t pull too deeply from any given artist because she wants to be her own artistic self, not an imitator.
The artists emphasized the importance of the opportunity to show their work, to have friends and family see their work exhibited, and to see and read responses of others to their work in person and in their sign-in books.
