Kennesaw State seniors in the College of the Arts showcased their work in the Fine Arts Gallery during the first week of November.
Located in the Stillwell Theatre on the Kennesaw campus, the Fine Arts Gallery held the capstone exhibit where both art and graphic design majors displayed their work made in their collegiate years.
“The purpose of students’ capstone exhibitions being a public showcase of their art is for them to practice the professional experience” Education and Outreach Coordinator of the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art Elizabeth Thomas said.
In order for artists to sell their work, the students had to utilize some form of marketing and make the work available in the marketplace. The marketplace is full of diverse opportunities for artists to make a living. The capstone exhibition is a step into that arena.
There was not an overall theme to the exhibit — instead, artists could use their own unique sense of expression for each piece.
“When it comes to the entire senior show, I would say no there is no overarching theme, and that’s what makes it great,” senior art major Savannah Cavender said. “We were lucky to have so many different types of artists displayed together from different backgrounds and mindsets and that’s what made our show so strong.”
Cavender displayed a watercolor piece with pastel colors and a face as the main focus.
“As far as my personal work is concerned, it is all about my own expression. Painting to me is an outlet to express myself openly,” Cavender said. “I love getting to make the lines of my own coloring book and then break them at the same time. Though I work in both oils and watercolor, I do love how free watercolors are. Where other paints tend to be easier to manipulate, watercolors have a mind of their own.”
Senior art major Olivia Satterfield was another artist in the exhibit and said her pieces do not really have a concrete takeaway meaning to her.
“They are more of a study and exploration of my fascination with the human body and its structure,” Satterfield said. “To me, they show the way we can contort our bodies to be representative of something else, like the phenomenon of shadow puppets for example.”
Senior art major Giovanni Pertillo was another artist in the gallery. He said the theme for his capstone was German expressionism.
“The theme for my paintings were individuals who held positions of power and knowingly abused their power,” Pertillo said. “These individuals consisted of dictators, emperors, generals, captains and even soldiers. Most times this abuse of power led to the deaths of hundreds to thousands of people.”
Pertillo said there is not an overarching theme in the gallery because each student is different from the next as they used different media, materials and subject matter for their art.
For more information about the senior capstone gallery, visit the Kennesaw campus or the website.
