Exhibition at the Rueff gallery by the seniors from the Studio and Technology, Fine Arts and Photography Program
I really enjoyed this exhibit, and seeing what other students at my school are working on and creating. I appreciated that many of them had artist statements written about their work so that I could understand their concepts and processes better. Before seeing this exhibit, I didn’t really know what the school of Studio and Technology did. I was also excited to see how expansive the fine arts field was, I always seemed to imagine mostly painting, drawing, and sculpture for fine arts for some reason. My three favorite pieces (not in any particular order) in the exhibit for their uniqueness and meaning, were the textiles work done by Sara Gordon, the videos by Tyler Warfield, and the giant camel sculpture by Dillon M Mills. I loved how Sara incorporated mixed media, her prints woven into a cloth. She represented how disjointed we can feel by trying to fit into the person the world wants us to be, as her portraits became more and more fuzzy, but then in the final portion the picture was clear again as the person realizes they can have confidence in being the person they want. I just thought it was an amazingly creative way to depict such a deep concept and in an aesthetically pleasing way. Next, my attention was grabbed when I saw another student whom I recognize, Tyler Warfield. I had taken a photography course with him first semester senior year, and didn’t really know what his artistic focus was. In the gallery he displayed two humorous videos about himself walking through history and art. In his artist statement he said his concept was to make something that stands out, something that people can relate to, that was humorous, and finally that people would remember and discuss. I believe he was successful in all of these goals as I stood and watched all the way through both videos laughing to myself. Finally, the artwork that captivated me from the start because I saw it peeking through the gallery when I walked by was a life-sized sculpture of a camel’s mounted head made out of used camel cigarettes and boxes. This unique medium was used, according to the artist, to represent the destructive habit of smoking and how he uses art as therapy to get out of them. I found this confession to add so much more meaning to the already stunning sculpture. As a whole, the exhibit was stunning, full of an incredible variety of works, and helped me to continue to grow in appreciation of art and the work artists put into it.
Gallery visit: Undergraduate Exhibition 2017
This is a juried exhibition for all undergraduate students
to submit their best work from any Art and Design classes at Purdue University.
I cannot imagine being a juror because there were over 200 works submitted. They
have to be entirely subjective and rate each work according to a set of
guidelines. I believe that the jurors chosen this year did just that. This
exhibition has a wide variety of different styles, works, and mediums that
reflect the diversity of Purdue’s Art program.
This year having my poster accepted into the gallery has been
an honor. I am a senior and this is the first time I had work accepted. The
piece is an infographics poster about coffee from Starbucks. I designed an
interactive website to go along with it, but when the work was juried they did
not look at that portion even though I included the link information a few
times on the form. I feel like my piece would have been stronger and attracted
more attention if I had the interactive version next to it, like Sara Gordon’s
red hair work.
There were so many talented people who submitted wonderful
art it is hard to narrow down the very best, so here are a list of some of my
favorites and why. First, I enjoy looking at “Fantastic Beast” by Carly Conley.
She created a creature that is a mix of all different animals, using graphite
pencil. The head is that of a lion, it
has insect eyes and wings, a wooden stomach, the neck of a snake, the back is
exoskeleton-like, the legs are both very different, and the tail is a jumper
cable. I love the mixture of textures of
each distinct part. I think it would be
very hard to make it as proportional as she did and still it is recognizable with the intricate contrasting textures.
There is something about realistic pencil drawings that always capture my
attention and I love how realistic this looks despite being a mythical
creature. Part of this drawing, especially on the edges, has sketchy pencil
lines. Even though it makes it look less precise (when you study it closely), I
like that she left them there. It shows the creative process behind this drawing
and shows that it is not a real animal. This drawing is hidden in the corner of
the gallery where it is harder to see, and I think that makes it even more
special when you find it. Other works I
really liked were Sarah Gordon’s red hair study complete with the interactive program,
Zoe Lang’s mixology series because of the color and aesthetic balance, the
fancy yacht inspired sunglasses, and the wooden knife.
Some works I was disappointed in were by Michelle Blackburn
and Ariel Richie. Both are interior design concepts and floor plans. Their
concepts and floor plans are very beautifully constructed, but as a graphic
designer, I cannot fully appreciate them because their presentation boards are
messy. Some aspects that really stood out to me were: pixelated images, fonts
too large that they take up extra margin space (but they are not large enough
to read from far away), alignment of images and text for crisp lines, and some
poor Photoshop work of imaginary people using the space. I understand that they
are not graphic designers but if they paid more attention to these details it
would improve upon the impact of their concept.
Overall the exhibit was well put together; the awards
ceremony was very nice and official. I felt like I was part of something
special and could actually touch people’s lives with my art someday.
