Carly Hopkins ’24 showcased her ABBA inspired painting.
Eleanor DeHoog ’24 used a mix of mediums from clay to paint.
Textiles, ceramics, paintings, and collages lined the walls of Gelb Gallery as artists discussed their work with attendees and instructors. During the Friday exhibition, three former Art 600 students showcased their independent projects from the fall and winter terms. The numerous works encompassed a wide array of media, yet followed a consistent theme: family.
According to Solar Lu ’24, one of the artists, the theme of the show — “Family Ties” — organically emerged from the artist’s pieces. Lu highlighted how this relieved the stress of having to adhere to a certain message throughout the creation process, but finding a throughline ultimately tied the work together.
“I already had the pieces that I created, and a show seemed like the appropriate thing to do with all the pieces that I had and Carly [Hopkins ’24] had and Nor [DeHoog ’24] had and are coincidentally connecting themes… [The creative process] has been really guided by my passion for doing this and exploring myself and exploring these societal themes that connect to my work rather than completing it for the show,” said Lu.
Attendee Quin Langham ’26 highlighted the challenges of communicating through art, especially with themes that can be so personal.
“When we think about family, we think about the people that it’s associated with. But through art, we have to symbolize that tangible thing. And so you have to think about what’s important to you and your family and how you can portray that in an impactful way to other people,” said Langham.
Langham noted that this experience was not only a way for artists to share their hard work, but to gain experience presenting and receiving public feedback, not just from instructors. In addition, students had a chance to connect personally with their audience at the event.
“[The show] is very good for a general critique. They do have open critiques during the independent project, but through the showcasing they get a chance to as well because being an artist is their chosen career. Training for that [critique] opens them up to what people think [and] how people perceive the artwork. It also creates more community between people. Art is very connected,” said Langham.
One of Lu’s pieces of work was a quilt made for her grandmother who lives overseas. She intended the piece to be akin to gift giving and showing love without saying it and tied elements of family into the artwork as well.
“This was for my grandmother on my dad’s side because she’s been recently struggling with her mental and physical health. A lot of it is the result of not feeling like she has support… especially with us overseas. So, I was thinking about ‘How do I show my love within this context of a Chinese family?’ Within our culture, it’s very uncommon to say, ‘I love you’ and to hear ‘I love you,’ so that’s not something I feel is really authentic for me to express to her. So instead, what I did was make this quilt out of my dad’s, my mom’s, and my old clothes as a form of gift giving,” said Lu.
According to Lu, their Art 600 experience and the process of completing an independent project has had a lasting impact on their artistic process, and the way they explore art. Lu noted that the course allowed them to experiment with their work, including mediums, skills, and themes.
“I did a lot of exploring with different mediums. I dabbled in photography, and film photography. I did mainly charcoal, and then starting Winter Term, to the end of Spring Term, I picked back up oil painting… I started bleeding more empty space or negative space in my piece, and being more expressive… I’ve had a lot of changes within my artistic process and a lot of revelations, both within the process of creating art and just who I am as a person throughout this process,” said Lu.
