On Wed., April 23, Concordia hosted the Senior Studio Art Capstone Show, featuring the work of six senior art students. The show, held in Grimm Hall South, was composed of a reception with exhibit viewing and refreshments, followed by artist slide talks with each of the student artists.

The seniors highlighted in the show were Dylan Arant, Kathryn Englehart, Kelly Esquivel, Joseph Molettieri, Shane Perry and Madison Zuniga. The artists are all part of the Senior Show class and have been working on designing and creating their pieces for “a year long process” according to art professor Sara Fletcher. The gallery has pieces in many different media, from oil paintings to sculptures to carvings.

Joseph Molettieri, an Art major with an emphasis in Graphic Design, said, “One piece I created for this show is my Fall Of Lucifer painting. It was created for the Bible illustration project in a studio art class. It is a depiction of Lucifer falling into sin on a 14 x 18 inch canvas using oil paint.”

Kathryn Englehart, a Fine Art major, said, “I created a number of paintings for the show. I started the year with a few paintings of tropical fish…I discovered live wedding painting and couldn’t say no to paints and canvas.” Englehart’s wedding paintings capture the beauty of love and strive to make memories last.

Madison Zuniga, a double major in Art and Liberal Arts: Creative Writing, said, “I was inspired at the end of last year, my junior year, to do pieces on the Biblical women…I was inspired actually by a Taco Talk we had on women as witnesses to the revelation of Jesus.” She continued, “I knew I wanted to do sculptures, and it was really fun figuring out what they would look like.” 

Fletcher noted that during this process, her students have grown in how they create art. “I saw them focus more and more on the experience they are giving other people,” she said. 

Zuniga said she was excited “to have everyone’s family and friends and other professors who haven’t seen the work yet and be able to react to it together …we’ve been working on it for a year, so it feels like a culmination.” 

The experience they gave others was certainly tangible. From the looks of delight on friends’ faces at many of the paintings, to the small crowd surrounding Zuniga’s beautiful sculptures, the show highlighted the best of these talented seniors’ abilities. 

Kelly Esquivel said, “At Concordia I felt I was given artistic freedom, and I was pushed to really think about what I want to do as an artist. What I gained from my final year at Concordia was self discovery, learning what it takes to become the artist you want to be.”

Molettieri, Englehart, Zuniga, Arant, Esquivel and Perry all will be graduating next week from Concordia, but their contributions to the art program will remain.

The show will be on display in the Grimm Hall South second floor until May 3. For more information about Concordia’s visual arts program visit https://www.cui.edu/arts/visual-arts/events. 

 

Tags: Visual Arts, Exhibits

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