The opening ceremony for the Senior Art exhibit took place at the Huber Arts Center’s Kauffman Gallery on Saturday, March 23. Each student talked about their artwork and the meanings behind them. 

The gallery featured seven senior art and design majors: Jalen Brownson, Dylan Hiestand, Kaidon Kraemer, Kelsey Krainaker, Colby Page, Lea Youngman and Addison Zimmerman.

Brownson displayed a three-panel illustration that told an overarching story of human experiences. The middle panel titled, “If You’re Willing to Take the Time” was very detailed and gives the viewer so much to look at. 

“If you’re willing to take the time to look at the piece because I guarantee every time you look at it, you’ll find something you didn’t see last time,” Brownson said. 

Students like Hiestand, Page and Zimmerman had sculptures, but all used different mediums. Hiestand’s overarching theme with his pieces were mythic creatures. He sculpted a wendigo, a dragon and a viper fish. The piece called “Viper Fish Leviathan” was Heistand’s biggest challenge out of the three because he was not used to working with some of the material. 

Using wood and metal to capture human form in an abstract way was Page’s goal in creating his sculpture, “Shame.” Page challenged himself to use wood, so he took what was once a tree trunk and sawed at it to get the result.

Zimmerman used clay to sculpt her nature-inspired art. She is fascinated with nature’s process of fossilization and wanted to capture that process to show appreciation.

Unlike anyone else, Krainaker used photography to create industrial reflections.

“A lot of things I’ve learned in the last few years was taking an image and removing it’s context,” Zimmerman said. The objects depicted 

in the images are unknown to the viewer, but they are actually objects that are seen very often, according to Zimmerman. 

Taking ’70s-inspired horror comics and incorporating real-world issues in the film industry, Kraemer created comic book covers called “Hollywood Horrors.” Zimmerman is very passionate about both the comic and film industry and wanted to focus on the problems he thinks are very important, one being technology taking over with the increase in AI, the other being underpaid and overworked. 

Youngman used art as an emotional outlet when she created her three acrylic paintings. She wanted to capture different emotions while also expressing her own personal journey. “Packs a Punch” uses dark colors to symbolize anger, “Calm Before the Storm” uses a white contrast to convey calm emotions and “Glorious Day” uses bright colors to show happiness. Youngman plans to do interior design after graduation and sell her artwork on the side. 

The exhibit closed on Friday, March 29, but it will be available to view online on April 8.

The second senior art exhibit will be on April 6 at the Kauffman Gallery, with the opening reception taking place from 1 to 3 p.m., and students speaking about their work at 1:30 p.m.

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