By Tikko Mercado/ reporter
Silent Communication, a student art exhibit, is open now through April 26 in College Hall (NCAB 1111) on NE Campus.
NE art associate professor Cindy Hurt will show the work of her Painting I and II students.
“We are celebrating the students’ beautiful collection of diverse work,” she said.
The exhibit has no specific theme. Students in Painting II had different criteria than did those in Painting I.
“At the beginning of the semester, they chose their own theme,” Hurt said. “They worked in developing that theme through the semester from one painting to another.”
Painting I had different objectives.
“Some may have landscapes in there,” Hurt said. “Some may have complex still lives in the show from Painting I.”
Students in Hurt’s class are not all art majors.
“Some of them just enjoy art,” she said. “They’re math majors. I have a chemistry major in the class, but they like art. They talk about minoring in art.”
Only selected works that meet Hurt’s criteria are displayed.
“They have to meet a certain aesthetic level or finished quality,” she said. “We talked about what it means to have a finished painting, and we discuss that during critiques.”
The presentation of an artwork in an exhibition is as crucial as every stroke of a paint brush on a canvas, Hurt said.
“The exhibition itself is real important. It has to do with seeing the work in a different environment,” she said. “It also takes them through a process where they’re learning to take a painting through a series of steps and with the final step having to do with presentation. Lighting affects the painting. Even the wall or the installation is almost like a huge painting.”
Along with consistency, rhythm and tweaking minor details like edges or smudges that shouldn’t be there are what makes a beautiful painting, Hurt said.
“Every stroke should have an intent,” she said. “Every mark has to be important. There’s an intention to every mark.”
Students whose paintings have been selected for the exhibit had their own description of their work.
Student Flora Bowley named her oil paintings of photographs of flowers after her sisters and a photograph of a tree after her mother.
“My sister wrote about a wild garden and how there are these flowers and they’re all different and they’re all unique and they’re all beautiful,” she said. “And when I had to name these paintings, I decided to do a series and paint one after each one of my sisters.”
Flora described her painting of a tree to be a representation of her mother.
“I call it ‘Mi Madre,’” she said. “This painting’s photograph originally had leaves on the left, but my father passed away, so I thought my mom is still going strong. The empty space is for my dad.”
Lynn Snyder described her painting “The Feet” to be full of colors.
“I had gotten a painting that was used, and I had painted over it,” she said. “After I painted over it, I saw that it looked like there were feet planted somewhere, so I just started painting.”
Student Nick Campo described his style of painting.
“If I had to pick, it’s like more of an expression style,” he said. “It’s pretty much all over the place.”
The opening reception is 5-7 p.m. April 19. NE music department chair Karen Parsons will be the pianist for the reception. Everyone is invited, and refreshments will be served.
