B.A. Art Capstone Exhibition
October 27-November 10, 2022
Reception: October 28, 6-8 p.m.
Featuring: Sarah Reynolds, Melanie Scrudder, Justin “Zeke” Hagan, and Kailey Thompson
The A.D. Gallery is pleased to present B.A. Art students Sarah Reynolds, Melanie Scrudder, Justin “Zeke” Hagan, and Kailey Thompson in their Senior Capstone Exhibition, Relate. Using various mediums, these artists express the many different relations people have to themselves, to others, and to society.
Sarah Reynolds holds a focus on bold use of color and organic lines to create art that speaks to her experiences and the emotional turmoil that surrounds it. In recent works, she has been exploring the use of abstraction and botanicals to create expressive paintings. Her inspirations can be sourced from artists such as Rebecca Kate and Marinka Plovanic. The series prepared for the exhibition is titled Growth Amongst Chaos, in reference to the growth she is experiencing as an artist and as a person amongst the chaos of being a full-time student, daughter, friend, and partner.
Melanie Scrudder’s paintings and drawings are deeply related to emotional ties with family members and friends with an acknowledgement of her past experiences and circumstances. Overarching themes connected to memory, place, abuse, women's issues, positivity, and self-reliance are important within her work. Her own experience of loneliness when not feeling part of a secure family and the deep trauma of abusive familial relationships, has attuned her to social and emotional cues within human interactions. This has influenced her body of work in terms of her figurative subject matter with a focus on projected emotions. With the pieces prepared for her B.A. Capstone, Melanie’s goal is to speak to the audiences’ subconscious and encourage strength and healing in the face of misfortune.
Justin “Zeke” Hagan creates art with the intention of doing more than merely promoting the visual stimulation of the viewer. Art, for Hagan, is not just deeply personal, but also serves as the window to his soul. There lies the residence of the thousands of words he could never manage to speak. Schizophrenia is a prominent issue he addresses in his work, as well as in the pieces prepared for this exhibition. He emphasizes how a positive relationship with yourself can combat these mental disorders. To him, art may be one of the purest forms of expression, a method in which one can truly be free.
Kailey Thompson uses art as an expression of inner turmoil and the prolonged trauma that comes with being a woman. It is through art, through her expressive linework and haphazardly placed texture, that she can take ahold of her grievances. As a common attribute of pieces throughout portfolio, as well as those for her B.A. Capstone, Anthropomorphism serves as a symbol of the abstraction that the artist holds towards her own mind and body as a byproduct of these grievances. With the assumption that viewers may hold similar experiences, she creates art with the intention of unifying the inner self of her own, of viewers, and any others with such regrettable experiences.