Bridgewater College Art Majors Exhibit Senior Thesis Work April 23 – May 4
April 17, 2018
BRIDGEWATER, Va. — Bridgewater College art majors and an art minor will exhibit their works in a senior art thesis exhibition on campus April 23 – May 4.
The art majors are Lauren Flora from Bridgewater, Va., Laura Folger from Stephens City, Va., Conner Henry-Morgan from Harrisonburg, Va., Kirsten Lambert from Crimora, Va., Isabel K. López from Timonium, Md.., Rose Schippell from Chesapeake, Va., Sarandon M. Smith from Harrisonburg, Va., and Jerlisa C. Williams from Columbia, S.C. The art minor is Gina Auteri from Frederick, Md.
A reception for the artists will be held Monday, April 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. at each exhibition site. Artists’ talks will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the Boitnott Room. Maps for the exhibition sites will be available in the Cleo Driver Miller Art Gallery on the second floor of the Alexander Mack Memorial Library. The receptions, exhibitions and talks are free and open to the public.
Flora, Folger, Smith and Williams are exhibiting work in the Alexander Mack Memorial Library. Flora’s work will be shown on the second floor of the library next to the Brethren Room. Smith’s exhibition will be on the main floor to the right of the front entrance, and Folger’s and Williams’ work will be in the Cleo Driver Miller Art Gallery, located on the second floor.
For her exhibition, Flora combines hand-built and wheel-thrown elements to create abstract sculptures based on nature.
“I have been drawn to work with this medium because, in many ways, the things I find most interesting about clay apply to my own life – its malleability, possibilities and endless challenges,” Flora said.
Folger is presenting a series of acrylic portraits of friends and acquaintances.
“In this portrait series featuring people in my life, I aim to evoke the mystery and confounding aspects of communication,” she said. “The subjects’ expressions and poses are spontaneous and can be interpreted in a variety of ways, reflecting the nature of real relationships.”
For her show, Smith will exhibit the logo, website and bridal magazine she created for her business, Sarandon Mara Photography.
“My hope is that the work I have done through my senior thesis project will strengthen my business and ultimately allow me the freedom to work as a full-time wedding photographer,” she said.
Williams' exhibit presents photographs that were taken by encasing flowers in spherical and cubic forms of ice and then photographing the forms as they melted.
“In repeating this cycle of creation and destruction, the idea of control came into play,” she noted. “I had control of the arrangement of the flowers as I created every piece, but by letting the ice melt, I relinquished that power—power that I, through this project, had come to learn was not always going to be in my possession.”
Henry-Morgan and Lambert are exhibiting work in the Kline Campus Center. Henry-Morgan’s work will be in the lobby on the ground floor and Lambert’s exhibition will be in the main floor lobby.
Henry-Morgan is showing ceramic sculptures that convey personal emotions throughout her life. The sculptures demonstrate how good things can come from bad situations.
“As humans we experience times of stress and defeat throughout our lives,” she said. “It is how we choose to overcome these experiences that shapes us. The pieces have been damaged and/or smoothed – both in physical texture and firing techniques – to tell the story that there will always be an opportunity for redemption.”
Lambert will exhibit resin-coated photography of farmers and their livestock and the interactions between them. Inspired by Paul Harvey’s speech “So God Made a Farmer,” and her grandfather – who was a farmer – Lambert shares her memories of and experiences of farmers.
“By photographing the intimate interactions farmers have with their animals and the interactions the animals have with each other. I want to change how people view farming and animal agriculture, Lambert said.”
López is exhibiting hubcaps painted in concentric designs. She is showing her work on the main floor of the Center for Engaged Learning. Lambert, who began collecting hubcaps two to three years ago, was drawn to their shapes and different designs.
“I draw inspiration from different cultures who use circular, concentric designs and integrate similar patterns into my hubcaps,” López explained.
For her exhibition in the first floor lounge of Moomaw Hall, Schippell is presenting an original poetry book with abstract watercolor paintings.
“The words in the poems are used to create imagery and evoke emotion,” Schippell said. “I believe the visual art of the watercolors helps activate the mental art of the words and creates a relationship between the two that makes the audience want to keep reading.”
Auteri, a theater major with a minor in art, is exhibiting mixed-media pieces of photography and collage that are transferred onto wood and glass.
“I experiment with how far one can take a photograph and turn it into a physical object,” she said. “I’m also interested in seeing how far I can push the image into abstraction.”
Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to more than 1,900 undergraduate students.
The art majors are Lauren Flora from Bridgewater, Va., Laura Folger from Stephens City, Va., Conner Henry-Morgan from Harrisonburg, Va., Kirsten Lambert from Crimora, Va., Isabel K. López from Timonium, Md.., Rose Schippell from Chesapeake, Va., Sarandon M. Smith from Harrisonburg, Va., and Jerlisa C. Williams from Columbia, S.C. The art minor is Gina Auteri from Frederick, Md.
A reception for the artists will be held Monday, April 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. at each exhibition site. Artists’ talks will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the Boitnott Room. Maps for the exhibition sites will be available in the Cleo Driver Miller Art Gallery on the second floor of the Alexander Mack Memorial Library. The receptions, exhibitions and talks are free and open to the public.
Flora, Folger, Smith and Williams are exhibiting work in the Alexander Mack Memorial Library. Flora’s work will be shown on the second floor of the library next to the Brethren Room. Smith’s exhibition will be on the main floor to the right of the front entrance, and Folger’s and Williams’ work will be in the Cleo Driver Miller Art Gallery, located on the second floor.
For her exhibition, Flora combines hand-built and wheel-thrown elements to create abstract sculptures based on nature.
“I have been drawn to work with this medium because, in many ways, the things I find most interesting about clay apply to my own life – its malleability, possibilities and endless challenges,” Flora said.
Folger is presenting a series of acrylic portraits of friends and acquaintances.
“In this portrait series featuring people in my life, I aim to evoke the mystery and confounding aspects of communication,” she said. “The subjects’ expressions and poses are spontaneous and can be interpreted in a variety of ways, reflecting the nature of real relationships.”
For her show, Smith will exhibit the logo, website and bridal magazine she created for her business, Sarandon Mara Photography.
“My hope is that the work I have done through my senior thesis project will strengthen my business and ultimately allow me the freedom to work as a full-time wedding photographer,” she said.
Williams' exhibit presents photographs that were taken by encasing flowers in spherical and cubic forms of ice and then photographing the forms as they melted.
“In repeating this cycle of creation and destruction, the idea of control came into play,” she noted. “I had control of the arrangement of the flowers as I created every piece, but by letting the ice melt, I relinquished that power—power that I, through this project, had come to learn was not always going to be in my possession.”
Henry-Morgan and Lambert are exhibiting work in the Kline Campus Center. Henry-Morgan’s work will be in the lobby on the ground floor and Lambert’s exhibition will be in the main floor lobby.
Henry-Morgan is showing ceramic sculptures that convey personal emotions throughout her life. The sculptures demonstrate how good things can come from bad situations.
“As humans we experience times of stress and defeat throughout our lives,” she said. “It is how we choose to overcome these experiences that shapes us. The pieces have been damaged and/or smoothed – both in physical texture and firing techniques – to tell the story that there will always be an opportunity for redemption.”
Lambert will exhibit resin-coated photography of farmers and their livestock and the interactions between them. Inspired by Paul Harvey’s speech “So God Made a Farmer,” and her grandfather – who was a farmer – Lambert shares her memories of and experiences of farmers.
“By photographing the intimate interactions farmers have with their animals and the interactions the animals have with each other. I want to change how people view farming and animal agriculture, Lambert said.”
López is exhibiting hubcaps painted in concentric designs. She is showing her work on the main floor of the Center for Engaged Learning. Lambert, who began collecting hubcaps two to three years ago, was drawn to their shapes and different designs.
“I draw inspiration from different cultures who use circular, concentric designs and integrate similar patterns into my hubcaps,” López explained.
For her exhibition in the first floor lounge of Moomaw Hall, Schippell is presenting an original poetry book with abstract watercolor paintings.
“The words in the poems are used to create imagery and evoke emotion,” Schippell said. “I believe the visual art of the watercolors helps activate the mental art of the words and creates a relationship between the two that makes the audience want to keep reading.”
Auteri, a theater major with a minor in art, is exhibiting mixed-media pieces of photography and collage that are transferred onto wood and glass.
“I experiment with how far one can take a photograph and turn it into a physical object,” she said. “I’m also interested in seeing how far I can push the image into abstraction.”
Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to more than 1,900 undergraduate students.
Contact:
Mary Kay Heatwole, Marketing & Communications | Editorial Assistant in Media Relations
bridgewater.edu , 540-828-5684
