Adrianna Rochester – General Assignment Reporter
The art department continues to make connections across campus to show everyone the skills and talents the art students have and to encourage non-art majors to explore Earl Hall.
In the studio art rooms, Mia Brownell, a painting professor, teaches her students the step-by-step process of painting. She emphasizes the importance of getting the basic shapes down and then building on them by layering colors. Since color is very relative to painting, she said, one must be patient.
“Painting anything takes times and requires you to keep pace with the evolution of your imagination rather than trying to rush to the finished product,” Brownell said.
She said in order to be truly good at what you do, creativity is key. Especially when one is creating art. The artist has to train their eyes to see every detail, observe and understand the overall picture at once. This is a tool, Brownell said is not easy to master but once it is mastered, anyone can carry it with them into any profession.
“It’s hard to train your mind and eyes to do all of this, but people don’t realize that artists create an actual manifestation of that,” Brownell said.
Lindsey Maillet, an art education major, said she takes the painting course because it is a part of her major, but also because she finds the class to be very relaxing. She said everything in art has a process, but she likes to see how her work comes alive as she develops it.
“I want to be an art teacher at an elementary school, so along with taking education classes with art classes, I’ve learned how to incorporate the two,” Maillet said.
She said many children show a creative side from a young age so for her it is important to get kids into using art as a way to express themselves and grow on their abilities.
Jeremy Chandler, a professor of photography, said photography is unique because it allows people to document their lives in a way one cannot do with painting or drawing.
“Photography has a foot in the real world and has a certain believability that you can’t find in other art forms,” Chandler said.
Photography has a lot of practical uses other than just being an art form, he said, as today, people are using their phones more to photograph what they see which has created a way for individuals to communicate visually with one another.
“Now is a really exciting time to be a photographer,” Chandler said.
The students and faculty are just one link that holds the art department together.
Art events, such as the upcoming Post It show on Oct. 23, where students use sticky note with quotes written on them to create artwork on the walls and the three galleries in Buley Library exclusively for the senior art majors and two located on each floor of Earl Hall where underclassmen get to showcase their work.
Photo Credit: Palmer Piana – Photo Editor
