Strickland ‘transforms’ curiosity into art

    “Great appreciation, love, passion and enthusiasm,” is the way Bailey Strickland, a senior museum studies major, described her feelings towards art. Recently, she has shared these feelings with faculty, students and the Milledgeville community through her presentation of the exhibit,  “Transformative Collection.”
    “Transformative Collection” is an amazing title; however, the inspiration behind the title has an even deeper meaning. “I wanted to see their work (faculty) when they were my age. I wanted to see the transformation of old work to new work,” said Strickland.
    “I was assigned the faculty show and was required to create a concept that identified with myself and inspired faculty, students and the community,” said Strickland.
    She began creating a concept for the exhibit by coming up with about 100 questions that she always wanted to know about her professors. For the final questionnaire, Strickland narrowed down her list of a 100 questions to 18 of what she considered the most interesting.
    Strickland said, “Questionnaires were used to find out the basic background of the faculty.”
    When entering into the exhibit, which was located in Blackbridge Hall Art Gallery, one would find the responses to the questions from each faculty member that was included in the exhibit.
    “I was not originally going to display the responses, but I changed my mind because they were very interesting,” Strickland said.
    The exhibit included the works of Emily J. Gomez, William Fisher, Valerie Aranda, Elissa Auerbach, Sandra Trujillo, Fadhili Mshana, Michael Murphy, Ernesto Gomez, Donna Reidland, Tina Yarborough, Carlos Herrera, Sang Wook Lee and Roxanne C. Farrar. The works of these faculties ranged from acrylic to photography and even tapestries.
    “Emily J. Gomez and Roxanne C. Farrar really took on the concept of the idea (old to new), and they were willing to work with me,” said Strickland. It seemed that their works, “got into the idea of growing into an artist, even with the very high level of vulnerability that was present.”
    As for Strickland, she is truly enjoying her last year as an undergraduate student, and she “wants to go to a master’s program in art education or museum management.” Looking back on her time here at GCSU, she remembers always enjoying painting and how she contemplated studio art; however, she found that museum study was the field for her.
    She sees her dream career allowing her to become a “director of a children’s museum” or a “curator for a larger institution.”
    “Art is a constant in my life, and we all are artists,” said Strickland. “We each have a different eye for a different style.”
    The faculty exhibit, which was held Jan. 14 through Feb. 7, fulfilled Strickland’s capstone thesis project and certainly shined a light on the growth of an artist.
    Within the exhibit was a tree that was carved to create music, and through Ernesto Gomez’s work, one can see a possible metaphor of how artists grow and change. The growth of all the artists is seen thorough out their works, and this exhibit is definitely “Transformative Collection.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 15 2008. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry