The posters are everywhere around campus: four hot girls, some art, some making out. All the right ingredients for a killer art show! I may be a little biased since I am part of this art show, but I'm going to keep this article professional.
Saturday night, seniors Audra Caler , Lenora Ditzler, Laura Jefferis and myself, Sarah Moran, are taking over the Visual Arts Center with the opening of "Natural Selection." The work spans different media and a variety of subjects ranging from trees to fish to girls, but comes together to show the many ways paint can be used.
Audra Caler takes expressive drawings of scenes from a trip she took to Nicaragua and blows them up to a poster size.
"In general I liked turning drawings I make into posters because they are such personal concerns and experiences that I am able to de-personalize to some extent through losing traces of my hand in the reproductions," she said. "They become something everyone is witnessing and not just a look into something I've experienced." The lush colors seem even more saturated contained by the smooth glossy paper of the poster print.
Lenora Ditzler goes to the other extreme in her art zeroing in on the smallest details on her plywood board paintings. Ditzler explores "lifecycles and biology as they relate to my aesthetic sensibilities as an artist.
"All of the images I choose relate to what I'm excited about in my life at the moment?I'm planning my summer gardens so painting fruit seemed like a natural direction to go in; and I'm planning on working on a fishing boat soon so the dynamics of fisheries are on my mind and so that theme ends up in the paintings, too," she said.
All of these seemingly unrelated elements delicately placed together on candy colored waxy surfaces create a serenely surreal environment unique to each square of wood.
Laura Jefferis also takes on the topic of nature in her paintings on paper. Jefferis creates topographical lines using an electrically bright under painting to create patterns over scenes from nature.
"Places and locations have different meanings for everyone and have many different ways of being represented," she said. "I am trying to combine topographic representation with a more visual and emotional content to represent different aspects of the same environment or ecosystem."
As for myself, I created a series of self-portraits. I have been focusing on self-portraits because it's more personal, like a journal entry. It is the easiest way for me to reveal something private in a confident manner. I also think that graduating from college is making me analyze who I am, what I want to be and how others perceive me. I put all of that into my paintings as well. I also have been working with a traditional painting technique of building up layers of paint to create a sculptural and glowing flesh tones.
It is a strong show of student work that is well worth the walk down the flight of stairs in the VAC. And make sure to stop by the opening reception Saturday from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
On view in the Visual Arts Center, Bowdoin College until April 28.