By Jessica Smidley
The “Living in Color” exhibition features 20 art students graduating from Valdosta State University with the idea of exploring the use of art as communication. The exhibition contains a wide variety of mediums and art styles supporting the individual talents of each graduate. The graduates are diverse in background and personality that signifies the uniqueness of Valdosta State University students. The introduction notes, “Our title ‘Living in Color” represents each one of us as individuals and unique artists, and although these colors are different, we still can find the allure in them” (Dedo Maranville). The “Living in Color” exhibition gives these artists an opportunity to show their favorite and most representative works to show the range and depth their artist have developed.
The exhibition is only available online due to the pandemic, and while this is a bit disappointing, the beautiful and navigable website makes it possible to see the show. Emphasizing individuality, each artist gets their own page where they have a biography, artist statement, and spread of work to fully demonstrate the artists to the public. With little opportunity to create an interesting in-person gallery, the website was all the more important, and the site’s design (including an eye-catchingly colorful grid of profiles taken by graduate Hannah Wyrn) draws one in to explore more. At an in-person exhibition, it tends to be easy to take the art in before learning about the artist, but the website puts the artist themselves in the forefront. Organizing in this matter makes sense when individual expression is one of the themes. This way it is like each artist has their own little exhibition because each page feels different and like a personal reflection of the artists. Looking at Sophia Dong’s page, there is a love of the ocean permeating each piece, and on Jennifer Delabra’s page a passion for symbolism and natural materials is evident.
One artist the Living in Color exhibition features is Isabelle Redenius. Redenius has been training as an artist for many years already, attending art magnet schools from a young age. In ninth grade, Redenius began working with silkscreen and focusing on printmaking. The work she makes combines many kinds of media including printmaking, collage, drawing, and painting to express herself fully. Her style is a mix of comfort and discomfort. She mixes the Pop Art, florals, and feminism she loves and uses them to challenge herself. Many artists, including myself, are deeply afraid of showing their sketches because they feel incomplete and too thoughtless, making them feel deeply personal, and Redenius takes this difficulty and turns it into a positive experience for her, where she can try to understand herself even more.
Blue, Mixed media, ink, oil paint, oil pastels, string, glue, paper, charcoal, etc., 24 x 18 inches, 2020 
Orange, Mixed media, ink, oil paint, oil pastels, string, glue, paper, charcoal, etc., 24 x 18 inches, 2020 
Pink, Mixed media, ink, oil paint, oil pastels, string, glue, paper, etc., 24 x 18 inches, 2021
What did I do that hurt so bad? takes Redenius’s need to express her most personal thoughts in her work and infuses it into a combination of “her love of bookmaking, collage, and printmaking” (Dedo Maranville). She made the book as a catharsis, to tell her feelings about “the past, present, and future” or her art. The book reads as a visual chaos of expression thrown together. A stamp print that reads “GET FUCKED” sits right next to a print of a heart that says, “ALL HEART, NO HYPE”. The contrast shows her humanity, how varied emotions can be. The mood eye was one of my favorite touches to the book. It demonstrates Redenius’s playfulness and her desire to conceptualize her work in tandem with an interesting aesthetic, while continuing the theme of showing her thoughts and feelings. On the very next page of the book, there is a horizontal 4×2 grid of polaroid photos with symbolic words like “artist” on a picture of herself and “escape” on a picture of books, seemingly telling a story about herself through visual representation.
Open Book Detail, Silkscreen and photo-silkscreen, tape, push pins, etc., 2018 – 2020 
Open Book Detail, Silkscreen and photo-silkscreen, tape, push pins, etc., 2018 – 2020
Another work on display by Redenius is Open Book. The installation combines drawings, prints, diary entries, and more as a display of her intimate thoughts. The work feels like a hodgepodge of thoughts, almost like a working mind, which seems to be her intention. She says that having ADD is one reason collage works well for her. “My brain is wired to be chaotic and unfocused so multiple stimuli and stimulating environments are ever-present in my life. Collage is just one artistic avenue that allows me to take that inner chaos and create a calculated mess that visualizes how I think and what I find stimulating” (Dedo Maranville). The work somehow feels balanced and consistent throughout. The installation was captured in video of the process and zoomed in photos as if to get multiple compositions out of the chaos. The process shows just how important expression is to her. Since revealing herself is important to Redenius as an artist, she enlarged the sketches and ideas that she kept to herself for so long to overcome her worries of judgement, which all artists tend to struggle with. Redenius is one example of what makes the Living in Color exhibition unique. Artists as individuals are more significant than anything, and what they are wanting to express is prioritized.
Jessica Smidley is an upcoming senior at Valdosta State University. After graduation she plans on pursuing a career in graphic design.