Senior art majors exhibit capstone projects

Senior art majors now have the chance to display the artwork from their capstone experiences at Blackbridge Hall at Georgia College & State University.

“This is a graduation requirement for every senior student artist,” said Roxanne Farrar, art professor. “It is a combination of a whole year of work in which they worked with the entire art faculty.”

The first exhibits on display are Steven Shaw’s “Trial of Impulses” and Samantha Goodson’s “Cos-Medic Altar-Nation.”

Shaw’s “Trial of Impulse” focuses on expression using earth materials, such as dry clay, rocks, trees, blueberry bushes and muscadine vines. It is based on Shaw’s personal, spiritual and physical life experiences.

“Grounded in my love of ceramics and painting and my desire to venture beyond the studio, I was introduced to a technique of staining aging fabric by grinding dried clay into it with a rock on a rough surface,” Shaw said. “After acquiring a few stained canvases I began leaving them under potential dyers. I took this a step further and began introducing my own ideas of dyes.”

Shaw used rusty chains, dumb bells, trash, coffee and poke weed to give his paintings a new touch.

“Marking the canvases gave me a way to exhaust tension and create,” Shaw said. “[But] most importantly, nature was in control of the process and the entire body of work reflects life and the scars and stains that make it beautiful and memorable.”

Shaw’s inspiration came from artists such as Julie Ryder and Radcliffe Bailey.

Each piece in Shaw’s exhibit was a part of a part of a silent art auction. All earnings will go toward the purchase of equipment for Shaw Studios and the GC&SU Art Department.

Goodson’s “Cos-Medic Altar-Nation,” offering much insight into the female mind, is full of creativity and bright colors.

Believing the television is “the role of an informal alter in the typical middle class home,” Goodson made the television the visual focal point of the room of her exhibit. Surrounding the television on the walls are numerous ceramic faces in an array of colors. Goodson based the faces on the rituals in her life, including school, her job as a makeup artist and studying.

“I see makeup as a mask or a form of armor and different applications of makeup or ‘looks,’ as the assumption of different identities,” Goodson said. “The repetition of ceramic faces on the gallery walls serves to further explore the possibility of one person having multiple identities.”

Goodson was inspired to do this exhibit by ideologists, authors and artists, such as Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Roland Barthes, Ellen Fein, Shelley Schneider and Amalia Mesa-Bains.

“Cos-Medic Altar-Nation is the product of many hours of introspect and manual labor,” Goodson said. “My hopes are to give the audience insight into my search for a meaning in a life I am only beginning to live, and to inspire others to think before they trust what is given them, especially by the media.”

Each senior displaying an exhibit opens with an art talk, open to both GC&SU and the public.

Mary Elizabeth Watson and Carrie Fox will display their work, starting Monday, Nov. 15. They will kick off their displays with art talks at noon at Blackbridge Hall.

For more information, the GC&SU Art Department may be contacted at 478-445-4572. Blackbridge Hall Gallery is located on South Clarke Street.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 12 2004. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry