The flavorful and diverse tastes of student artists are filling the McComas Hall Art Gallery for “Thesis Pieces,” the art department’s senior thesis exhibition.
Eight graduating seniors debuted their works Monday with the exhibition’s unofficial opening. The exhibit will stay on display through April 29.
The exhibit is truly a mixture of artistic technique, exploring how mediums like photography, sculpture and drawing can be integrated with a theme, content, or subject issue within that media, said Bill Andrews, the gallery director for the art department.
“The students chose the name (“Thesis Pieces”) because it reflects the variety of the work in the show, and it’s a light-hearted foil to all the heavy work that went into producing the show,” Andrews said.
Students participating include Josh Abrams of Edwards; Trent Falgoust of New Orleans, La.; Timmell Graham of Jackson; Renee LaBruyere of Meridian; Lana Lancaster of Pheba; Brad Luke of Preston; Daniel Shumaker of Ecru; and Jessica Weimer of Horn Lake.
Abram’s work, named “Tales of my Dad,” is a tribute to his recently deceased father Andy Abrams. His black-and-white charcoal drawings serve to let the viewer see his dad’s character. His five movies use characters made of foam, paper, felt and pipe cleaners, depicting scenes from his father’s life.
Falgoust, a painter, works to achieve a balance between classical, representational and abstract painting styles in his self-portraits. Each piece is painted on a wooden panel with plaster and acrylic paint and particular emphasis is given to elements of texture and marking.
Graham’s terra cotta sculptures of human faces are used to highlight human expression. His compositions symbolize moments of emotional change, sexual fixation or verbal desecration.
“Light and Space” by LaBruyere creates a paradox of ordinary and unordinary by using contemporary objects and an alternative photographic process. LaBruyere’s series focuses on subtle rather than obvious beauty by using lines, light, design and composition.
Lancaster, who grew up around horses, showcases them in her work titled “Abstracting Equus.” Equus, a word of Semitic origin, means “horse.” Lancaster uses closely cropped images of the equine form and pairs black-and-white photos with complementary ceramic pieces.
Luke’s “Adam and Eve” series in large-scale mural, charcoal drawings acts as a metaphor for the relationship between man and woman. The series depicts the story of the first man and woman but is not meant to be seen as a religious text. Luke uses symbols in a non-conventional and non-evangelical manner to show how this story has shaped how men and women have viewed themselves throughout history, how the time period changes how they view themselves and how time shapes how people view the story.
Shumaker’s series of oil paintings utilize the human figure as a design element. Each piece uses specific color environments and live models. Models’ clothing, background color and shape are specific o each piece.
Weimer’s “The Williams Family” uses the Barbie doll, which is often seen as an ideal, and puts her in corrupt situations. She uses props in these environments to focus on problems families may have to confront and uses 20-by-30-inch photographs to bring these struggles to life.
All graduating seniors in the art department must participate in a senior exhibition in order to graduate.
The art gallery is open Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, contact the art department at 325-2970.