As campus is getting ready to say goodbye to our 2018 seniors the Hillstrom Museum of Art, located in the basement of the Charles Jackson Campus Center, is one step ahead of the game.
ADIEU: Senior Studio Art Majors Exhibition 2018 opened honors weekend (May 5) and will continue until after finals, ending on June 2, featuring the artwork of graduating seniors.
Georgia Bebler, Sara Blinn, Jenna Hansen, Laura Ihle, Carly Maslowski, Marisa “Rita” Morgan, August Henry Moehrke, Caitlyn Riese, and Jane Skodje are the featured senior art majors featured this semester.
Each student has a variety of pieces displayed from their senior portfolio, ranging from oil paintings to comic book slides to clothing pieces.
“In our senior class exhibition, I would say my favourite piece is either ‘Kannokkan’s Body’ or ‘Hummingbird Peaks,’” Senior English and Art Studio major Moehrke said, when discussing the pieces he chose to display in the Hillstrom.
“The former has allowed me to begin exploring textiles, while Hummingbird and I have a history of development, mostly its colour palette sitting in my head for months, not knowing where to go.
“Finally, I had a burst of release and in a 24 hour session, it came into being.”
“My favorite piece is ‘As Winter Passes through,’” Senior art studio major Morgan said.
“Mainly because it was the beginning of what made me even start photo transfers. I was in a bit of an art block and my professor told me to take a photo and manipulate it in 5-6 different ways.
“With ‘As Winter Passes through’, I was honestly just messing around and was about to throw the piece away until I got some spray paint on it. I just fell in love with the way the water color, photo transfer and spray paint looked together on this random piece of paper that I put it on.
“The medium is photo transfer, watercolor, and spray paint.”
Hillstrom student workers Anh Tran and Alex Perez are enthused to host the Senior Exhibit in their workplace.
“While our exhibits are incredible,” Tran said, “there are some days that no one comes. But for the Senior exhibit, we’ve had people coming in every single day.”
Despite their differing majors, both Tran and Perez have a love for art, clear from their love of the current exhibit.
“I love ‘A Day in the Park,’” Tran said, referencing a piece by Moehrke. “There are so many abstract spaces and shapes, but if you look closely you can see human figures in there.”
“We always have a mix of artists over the year,” Perez said. “[However], this exhibit is special because it comes from Gustavus students.”
Besides stemming from Gustavus studio art majors, ADIEU: Senior Studio Art Majors Exhibition 2018 is also connected to the greater Gustavus community via the hard work of Economics and Management Professor Shu-ling Wang.
For Sophomore Vy Nguyen’s Money and Banking class, Professor Wang encouraged students to attend the Senior exhibit.
The assignment was in order to connect a piece of artwork with a class concept, challenging the interdisciplinary abilities of her students.
“The exhibit is very interesting,” Nguyen said. “All my friends were asking what each picture meant. Everything shows each artists’ perspective on life.
“For my project I picked a photo of a mother and a baby [“What’s Gonna Happen to Us” by Georgia Bebler] and talked about how it related it to how the Fed injects money into the economy. It’s a metaphor.”
The exhibit will be open through finals, so students searching for a relaxing study break are more than welcome to explore the Hillstrom Museum and bid adieu to the senior art studio majors of 2018.
The Hillstrom Museum will be open 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday through Sunday.