Studio Art Senior Show

March 12, 2021

This is the capstone experience for Studio Art Majors. In this show, you will see traditional prints, photography, oil paintings, pottery, sculpture and installation.  Each Senior Student has chosen an area of emphasis in which they work with a media or process that they feel best visually communicates their ideas and interests as an artist. Each artist has built a unified body of work to represent their strengths and creative vision, and they have all worked collaboratively in curating, designing, and hanging this exhibition. View 2021 Senior Studio Art Exhibition at Baldwin Wallace University for more information.

 

Department of art

Develop your artistic talent and build analytical thinking and technical skills that prepare you for career opportunities in education, advertising, arts management, design and more.

Virtual Show Gallery Walk-Through

Check out our virtual gallery tour of the 2021 Senior Artist Exhibition at Fawick Art Gallery featuring Kesha Dalal, Shae DeVito, Amanda Dilisi, Jake Knowlton, and Kylie Toronski.

KeshaDalal-Headshot

KESHA DALAL

My work focuses on recontextualizing uncomfortable images in order to challenge common assumptions about these images. I change the perspective of a familiar image by bringing the beauty out of imagery that can be seen as uncomfortable, which I also use as a tool to attract the viewer’s attention. Each piece is intentionally crafted in a way that allows the viewer to make their initial assumptions for a moment before developing more questions that lead to deeper complexities behind the piece.

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I intend to create a deep connection with the viewer by working in three dimensions, which easily brings unfamiliar imagery into the familiar, tangible world. My process involves obtaining mostly found and recycled materials such as plastic bags, newspaper, and cardboard to create the atmosphere I have envisioned for each piece. Using these materials, I combine familiar and uncomfortable imagery to encourage new perspectives that can aid in progressing our society toward acceptance of one another. We tend to avoid images that we believe are disgusting, disrespectful, or terrifying when they don’t serve us directly. As a way to educate and bring awareness to certain topics, I aim to bring images like these into a gallery space where the viewer is encouraged to stare, analyze, and reflect.

ShaeDevito-HeadshotSHAE DEVITO

I love the way one can find the complex in the simple. The way a sun glints off of a person’s face and lights up their eyes. Sure, one could think that it is just a person and the sun. Everyone has an image they conjure in their minds eye when you ask them to think about someone’s face glinting in the sunlight. The average person might think of their friend or family member and a happy memory attached to that image of a good day spent at the park or the fun weekend at the beach. But the artist, the artist has something different in mind.

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When the artist thinks of someone’s eyes glinting in the sun, they think of the way that that person’s normally dark brown eyes explode with glints of gold and deep red that swim and intertwine to create the most beautiful and dynamic brown you have ever seen. Or how their hair blooms with highlights of blonde and strawberry and how they dance in the slight breeze. Or even how the average pale pink in their cheeks reddens under the blaze of the hot summer sun. The artist is able to see the complex in the simple, even if something is utterly and truly simple.

My aim is exactly that. I want my art to look so simple, yet have so much complexity behind it. Whether that be from the creative thought that inspired the work, the actual process of making it, or the final product. I want my final work to look effortless to the viewer; for them to say “I bet I could do that”, while I know full-well how much work actually went into the piece. I aim to assess every detail and to take into consideration every portion of the work so my final creation highlights the complexity within the simple form.

ShaeDevito-HeadshotSHAE DEVITO

I love the way one can find the complex in the simple. The way a sun glints off of a person’s face and lights up their eyes. Sure, one could think that it is just a person and the sun. Everyone has an image they conjure in their minds eye when you ask them to think about someone’s face glinting in the sunlight. The average person might think of their friend or family member and a happy memory attached to that image of a good day spent at the park or the fun weekend at the beach. But the artist, the artist has something different in mind.

Read More

When the artist thinks of someone’s eyes glinting in the sun, they think of the way that that person’s normally dark brown eyes explode with glints of gold and deep red that swim and intertwine to create the most beautiful and dynamic brown you have ever seen. Or how their hair blooms with highlights of blonde and strawberry and how they dance in the slight breeze. Or even how the average pale pink in their cheeks reddens under the blaze of the hot summer sun. The artist is able to see the complex in the simple, even if something is utterly and truly simple.

My aim is exactly that. I want my art to look so simple, yet have so much complexity behind it. Whether that be from the creative thought that inspired the work, the actual process of making it, or the final product. I want my final work to look effortless to the viewer; for them to say “I bet I could do that”, while I know full-well how much work actually went into the piece. I aim to assess every detail and to take into consideration every portion of the work so my final creation highlights the complexity within the simple form.

AmandaD-HeadshotAMANDA DILISI

I have had a passion for art for as long as I can remember but it wasn’t until 2010 when I developed a chronic illness that I used art as therapy and a distraction from everyday life. I found myself becoming preoccupied by the process of creating art and would often lose track of time. More importantly, using art as therapy allowed me to develop an appreciation for the simple things in life that are often overlooked and taken for granted. I find beauty in simple everyday objects that I portray as the subjects of my art.

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The world is complex with modern technology and I want my paintings to reflect a simpler time. In addition, my artwork reveals the theme of time and its inevitable impact. Most of my pieces portray the effects of time passing, with its unavoidable weathering, despite efforts to maintain and preserve the original condition. Aging and efforts to hold onto the past are aspects of life we all eventually face. My artwork also conveys the importance of family. Many of my pieces depict aspects of my family history, including familiar family objects that have deteriorated due to the passage of time. My artistic style is realism, which is depicted through detailed paintings and intricate linoleum prints. Through realism, I am able to express the themes of my artwork by presenting subjects from my perspective and the reality of everyday life.

JakeKnowlton-HeadshotJAKE KNOWLTON

By nature, art is about identity and self. Whether it’s an assertion of the artist’s experiences or ideals or a connection made by a viewer, it is a glimpse at the truer self. My most important breakthrough in art was when I started examining what that true self was. I found very quickly that just about everything I made could be considered a self-portrait, at least a piece of one, as all my work is representative of some facet of my mind, my world view, and my experiences.

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For a long time I wondered if self-portraits were egotistical, but the answer to that is based on the intention, and my intention is never vanity. In fact, I’m actively trying to distance myself from using my face in self-portraits because I am not my body. I am consciousness encased in bone armor, piloting a meat robot, with no inherent existence outside of myself.

“Appearance is quite an unstable basis for truth.”

— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

“We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together.”

—Terence McKenna

I’m drawn to all forms of printmaking for making my work. The ability to reproduce the same image over and over makes one of the core principles of my ideology, the accessibility of art, more achievable than any other medium. I experiment with a lot of different styles that are dependent upon the desired mood. Often, it’s a darker theme, so the line work may be abrupt or haphazard. For my more introspective work, usually lighter in tone, I’ll start to lean into surrealism and exaggerate the proportions of things. And for more spiritually influenced work, I prefer naturalism and there will almost always be circles, imagery pertaining to the moon, or motifs of time and mortality. All my work is typically very high contrast to create drama and impact. The inclusion of color is always vibrant, often red for the alert, anxious reaction it provokes. My preference toward highly saturated colors comes from Pop Art, mainly for how effective its attention-getting ability is since it’s rooted in advertising and pop culture.

JakeKnowlton-HeadshotJAKE KNOWLTON

By nature, art is about identity and self. Whether it’s an assertion of the artist’s experiences or ideals or a connection made by a viewer, it is a glimpse at the truer self. My most important breakthrough in art was when I started examining what that true self was. I found very quickly that just about everything I made could be considered a self-portrait, at least a piece of one, as all my work is representative of some facet of my mind, my world view, and my experiences.

Read More

For a long time I wondered if self-portraits were egotistical, but the answer to that is based on the intention, and my intention is never vanity. In fact, I’m actively trying to distance myself from using my face in self-portraits because I am not my body. I am consciousness encased in bone armor, piloting a meat robot, with no inherent existence outside of myself.

“Appearance is quite an unstable basis for truth.”

— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

“We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together.”

—Terence McKenna

I’m drawn to all forms of printmaking for making my work. The ability to reproduce the same image over and over makes one of the core principles of my ideology, the accessibility of art, more achievable than any other medium. I experiment with a lot of different styles that are dependent upon the desired mood. Often, it’s a darker theme, so the line work may be abrupt or haphazard. For my more introspective work, usually lighter in tone, I’ll start to lean into surrealism and exaggerate the proportions of things. And for more spiritually influenced work, I prefer naturalism and there will almost always be circles, imagery pertaining to the moon, or motifs of time and mortality. All my work is typically very high contrast to create drama and impact. The inclusion of color is always vibrant, often red for the alert, anxious reaction it provokes. My preference toward highly saturated colors comes from Pop Art, mainly for how effective its attention-getting ability is since it’s rooted in advertising and pop culture.

KylieT-HeadshotKYLIE TORONSKI

My paintings are a combination of what I consider to be both decoration and abstraction. I find joy in the process of painting and learning how the paint behaves. For each painting, I start by choosing one color or color combination to focus on. Spending time with the colors and seeing how they react with each other before the paint even hits the canvas is the most fascinating part of the painting process to me, so this preliminary planning and preparation stage is very important in my work.

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The fluidity and uncertainty in the process of painting is something that I like to embrace. Planning can only take me so far: I reevaluate the concept for each work consistently as the work progresses. Brushstrokes may create something more interesting than previously intended or I may decide to introduce a new shade of blue, but this fluidity is part of what I find enjoyable and effective in my work.

The subject matter of my work consists largely of abstract, organic forms that create an interesting, unfamiliar atmosphere. Although they are unfamiliar, these atmospheres are meant to be a calming and intriguing place for the viewer to transport into as a distraction from the real world. We tend to focus so much on the things in life that cause us stress or discomfort, but what I would like to provide for the viewers is a different place to focus their attention. Ultimately, I consider my paintings to be an experience rather than a product for both myself and the viewer.

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Photography of the event will be used to promote the University and your attendance provides permission to use your likeness in promotional material.

95 East Bagley Road
Berea, Ohio 44017
(440) 826-2152
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MONDAY:           2:00pm - 5:00pm
TUESDAY:           2:00pm - 5:00pm
WEDNESDAY:     2:00pm - 5:00pm
THURSDAY:        2:00pm - 5:00pm
FRIDAY:               2:00pm - 5:00pm
SATURDAY:         CLOSED
SUNDAY:             CLOSED

BY APPOINTMENT (440) 826-2152