Last Friday, the Graduating Senior Art Majors Exhibition titled "departing" opened to the public. Most of the students, who have their work in the show are graduating next month, and a few are graduating in December.
With the reception being held on opening night, FLC’s art gallery was packed with attendees including students, staff, faculty and community members.
Kelsey Wright, a senior art major, participated in the exhibition and presented a black and white photograph that she took while studying abroad in Italy.
The photograph was taken in Florence’s Boboli Gardens during an assignment for her Photography for the Media course, she said.
It is of a leaf she placed in a puddle. She said the photograph is both simple yet representative of orchestration meets the natural elements.
“One of the things I wanted to document was man’s effect on nature,” she said.
Though Wright was studying abroad at the time and with different professors, she said that what she learned at FLC played a major role in understanding her new teachings.
She said when one passes a certain point in the art education world, one realizes that the lessons learned along the way are crucial, even if one resented those teachings at the time.
“Art education is always in the back of your head, and your fundamental courses are something you live everyday,” Wright said.
The preparation for the Senior Exhibition was a collaborative effort by both graphic design and fine art seniors. It included a student jury made up of three design students and three fine art students who ultimately decided what pieces were going to be in the show, Wright said.
Chad Colby, associate professor of art and art and design department chair, teaches the Senior Seminar class that is participating in the Senior Exhibition and has assisted his students with their works.
Colby said that it is mostly the students who put the exhibition together, and they are the driving force behind the set up.
“We really try to put it on their plates. They do the most to get it organized, get it curated, get it hung, have the reception... It’s really on them,” he said.
The separation of teaching art and being an artist is hardly evident, especially in the case of Colby, who said that one of his struggles with being an art professor is putting his own projects on hold so that he is able to assist his students with their own.
“I’ve been through a lot, both as a teacher and as a professional artist, and I feel like I have a lot I can offer them,” he said.
Though the Senior Exhibition marks the end of the school year, and for the graduating seniors involved with the show, the end of their time at FLC, it also presents the best works of art that these students have put their time and effort into.
The works that are put in the show are determined by a student jury composed of three graphic design majors and three art majors who decide not only what the best works are, but also what works provide balance with the rest of the exhibition, said Wright.
“Moments like these are great. There’s this rush of energy. Helping to mentor young people that are really on the verge of making important contributions to the discipline, to the art world, the ones that really do stick with it and make the most of this kind of experience, it’s great. It’s really rewarding for me,” Colby said.
The art exhibition is free, open to the public and will be showcased until the afternoon of the commencement ceremony on May 3rd.