Senior Art Exhibition 2005

Unlike last year and the one that will follow, we have a small group of students presenting their works this year. While larger group exhibitions tend to offer a wider variety of media and expression, a show with a limited number of artists sets a more intimate tone. Three of our visual art students displaying their works this spring are department majors, while one student is a Fine Arts senior. The difference in categories pertains to the level of concentration of art courses. Christy Beall, Jesse Mace, and Anne Raynor are three art students who have chosen art as their major. Their visual art education has culminated with a comprehensive year-long capstone experience that concentrates on practical field matters. Maria Minnelli is a senior art student who will be presenting her body of work in the art gallery alongside these three art majors. 

Christy Beall and Anne Raynor

Christy Beall’s and Anne Raynor’s interests in art focus on printmaking. Simply put, the printmaking process is one that creates a series of multiple originals on paper. Generally, artists sign and number these prints. The process involves cutting, etching, or drawing on a master plate and then printing it through various means and with a variety of permanent solutions, primarily ink. Woodcut, intaglio, lithography, and serigraphy are the four most common types of printing techniques. Christy and Anne have chosen to concentrate on woodblock, screen, and digital inkjet printing.

Jesse Mace

Our third art department major, Jesse Mace has moved in a different direction. Painting is her forte. The painting process tends to be more direct as opposed to the printing process because nothing stands between the artist and the canvas other than the brush the artist holds. This direct link to paint and canvas creates an immediacy that encourages intuitive responses and frequently produces a work of integrity. 

While painting can refer to watercolor, oil, or acrylic, when applied to a canvas stretcher, oil or acrylic paint is usually involved. Jesse Mace’s medium of choice is oil. This medium is often preferred for its forgiving quality (mistakes can quickly be eradicated by painting over them) and for its ability to create a lustrous depth through the layering of paint. The plastic quality of acrylic paint can become brittle over time, whereas oil paint is a pliable medium. Further, a mixture of oils and solvents can assist with the flow of oil paint to create fluid brushstrokes. Oils and varnishes are commonly applied to preserve the painted surface. 

Maria Minnelli

Maria Minnelli, our senior art department student, works with photography and film, the former being her main thrust. While most of us have a general knowledge of the camera and its operation, few of us have delved into the photographic printing process. Where most nonprofessionals use photography for the purpose of recording information accurately, artists often use photography as a means of fabricating reality. Since black and white photography is known for its journalistic representation of realism, Minneli uses this common perception to her advantage. She produces black and white photos to spin fictional narratives instead.