Senior art students display work on campus

Several senior art and design majors at the University of Southern Mississippi currently have their work on display in the Museum of Art on campus. Some are displaying projects to the public for the first time, while others are having their work shown for the last time as students.

The exhibits, which were created earlier this semester for a capstone class, will remain open until the end of the semester. The gallery features examples of painting, sculpting and graphic design, and the works range from installations to video. Artists include Karli Renz with oil paintings; Holly Loyd, Grace Kelly and Katie Peoples with sculptures; Skye Bailey, Franz Gambe, Kiza McDonald, Amanda Lucius, Nikki McClurkin, Jesse McDonald and Pamela Vitteck with graphic design, which range from advertisements to album art to pictures of food.

“This is the first time you get to work on a full body of work,” Peoples said.

Peoples’s exhibit, “Baptism by Fire,” consists of examples of a style of ceramics called raku. She described her works as her “objects of healing.” At the beginning of the semester, she explained, her early pieces often involved broken hearts with sharp objects, but as the semester went on she created objects visually similar to African figures that are traditionally used to heal.

“It was cathartic for me,” Peoples said.

Loyd primarily uses a style of ceramics called slip dipping, but for the show she experimented with a variety of materials and found objects that she modified.

“I have a hard time putting myself into my work,” Loyd said.

Though her work has been exhibited in a few galleries, most of Loyd’s pieces were small. She tried to craft her physical interpretation of a memory, but it ended up reflecting a few of her own memories.

“I had been building parts for this, and the idea had been forming subconsciously,” Loyd said.

The concept that art is a reflection of the artist is not limited to a few students but is a common theme that can be seen in many of the statements from the seniors who participated in the gallery.

“It’s really about the pieces for me,” Peoples said. “I just want people to see it.”

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday on the ground floor of the Fine Arts Building. For more information, call 601-266-4861 or visit the Museum of Art’s website at www.usm.edu/visual-arts.