Studio art and graphic design majors pushed their creativity to its limits. Students, and even some professors, showcased their paintings, sculptures, posters and pictures. On April 17, at the Sarah Spurgeon Gallery, students and their families gathered to view and celebrate 245 studio art and graphic design pieces done by CWU’s art department. Attendees were given the opportunity to roam the gallery and even cast a vote for their favorite piece.
Both the studio art and graphic design sides had separate jurors, Alumni’s Steve Gardner and Jay Hilburn respectively. After allowing guests to walk about the gallery and mingle, Gregg Schlanger gathered everyone’s attention to announce the awards granted to the winning students.
After the awards ceremony concluded, a few students spoke about their winning pieces. Caleb Cleland, Senior graphic design major, won the Punch-Choice award for his three works, along with having his piece, “Burn through the dark” being chosen to remain in the SURC.
Speaking on his design for the piece, “I don’t think I’ve really seen much graphic design in general in the SURC, they usually pick the fine art, like paintings and whatnot, I also feel like I don’t see many like monsters or horror type stuff in there, so that’ll be really interesting,” Cleland said.
Referring to movies such as “The thing” and “The twilight zone,” along with mention of comic book artist Mike Mignola, Cleland spoke on how these were his inspirations towards his take on the “Burn in the Dark” movie poster. Senior graphic design professor, David Bieloh, would oversee most of the graphic design works submitted, noting that professors Justin Beckman and Matthew Wenz would have their own works in the gallery as well.
One of the students, majoring in art and design, Lars Kent, had been awarded the Spirit Award of Excellence in Painting, for his work, “Fifteen”, an oil painted canvas. The piece, “Fifteen”, evokes a sense of dread and nostalgia, with its beautiful and well thought out color palette, the stroke of each brush and the eerie aesthetic.
Even when reading the title, you can’t help but feel that it’s supposed to represent the dreaded and gloomy days of being a teenager. Kent elaborated further on what inspired this piece. “I did it for my abstract painting class last year. We had to depict a space. And abstraction was difficult for me. So, my professor told me when I was coming up with ideas to think of something happy, I did the exact opposite for that. I was trying to depict the strongest emotion I have ever felt. I was thinking about when I was 15, hence the title. And that was the time I was hospitalized for suicidal ideations.”
Kent explained his process for the piece, “It was interesting, because it was last year and I was still new to painting. I just sketched the blocks out, and I kind of knew what colors to use. I always print out, kind of like pictures of inspiration. So, I was painting out blocks on this huge canvas I was unprepared to do, and going with a palette knife, putting down colors. Trying to scrape it away and what felt right.”
When asked about his biggest inspiration for art in general, Kent responded with, “For inspirations, anything regarding the human body and human experience. I’m at a point getting away from just depicting humans, to depict more conceptual ideas. And for me, a lot of that’s going to be the idea of memory and our attachments to objects.”
All projects are now open and on display at the Sarah Spurgeon art gallery in Randall Hall, room 141, and will continue to be on display until May 17.
