By: Natalie Marshall
“Farrago”, presented by the senior class of the Valdosta State University Department of Art & Design program takes place in the Dedo Maranville Gallery. In this exhibit, 14 seniors put together an exhibit that expressed who they were or something they felt passionate about. It allows the audience to see an assortment of different types of media varying from photography, to sculpture, printmaking, and more.
The exhibit is inside a brightly lit room with different exhibits displayed around the room. The room is perfectly lit so that it highlights each section of the room. The walls are filled and separated with each of the seniors’ exhibits and they are all presented in so many unique ways. Starting to the left of the room is Laney Havard’s mixed media of digital art and cyanotype piece called Unsettled. There is an outline of a house on the wall with clay spoons hanging inside of the outline and a chair sitting to the left of it. The piece is interactive where there is a table to the right of the house with more spoons where people can choose one and hang it themselves or switch one out. The spoons are to represent the act of nurturing. She explains how when you “share food with someone you fill each other up, not only with food but with each other’s love and appreciation.” (Havard) Cameron Lyons’ It’s a Beautiful Life digital media is what comes next. There is one large print hanging above a table with two copies of a book filled with “One Page Narratives” the artist created as well. The print that hangs on the wall is a mixture of cartoons and some outline as well in the background. Lyons states he wants to “uplift others through exciting, thought-provoking, humorous, and positive narratives,” (Lyons) and with that, he has captured these moments wonderfully through his work. A Perfect Fit by Paxton Payne is a screenprint media. All of the images displayed in her work give the audience a feeling of uneasiness and slight horror. A large two-canvas piece displayed amongst Payne’s work looks to be guts or organs. Another section of her work is presented down a hallway nearby the exhibit room. This is a series of close-up photographs of people with what looks like blood dripping down their hands or faces and moments frozen in time. Next is Javian Williams It’s All in Your Mind mixed media piece. These pieces looked like chaos in a frame. Different pieces with marker, paint, pencil scribbles, and more were cut out into smaller pieces and rearranged onto the paper. One piece clearly showed the pieces of blue painter tape taping the pieces together as the other pieces did not show any. It created a wild collage with an assortment of themed colors in each. According to William’s artist statement, his art career started with a bright creative mindset, but as he matured, more challenges were thrown at him and reality started to get clearer and clearer. He started to incorporate more of his emotions and thoughts “not just the negative ones, but the positive ones as well.” (Williams)
Taylor McCormick displays a scarf collection with two different patterns called Monstera and Citrus. It is full of vibrant colors of screen prints on silk scarves as well as on canvas hanging on the wall. The prints also have added glitter and diamonds to add more texture and intrigue as there is an added physical chain to a purse print. Her statement explains how these colors and chosen citrus images are inspired by her hometown of Florida. Her art is also influenced by pop art and fashion as her exhibit displays a touch of cleanliness and neat results. As you make your way around the room, you are met with Shivani Patel’s works that take over one of the entire corners of the room called Mosiac Arch. There is bright-colored cloth hanging from the ceiling, connecting to the walls, and two flat pillars on either side of the display. Displayed is a mix of ceramic pots and plates and also some prints she made. A paper version of a mosaic archway is placed in the center of her piece. It is inspired by her Indian heritage as her parents are immigrants. She felt like a foreigner and an outsider to South Georgia, but through this piece, she can still hang onto her culture. Riley Davis’s After Ecstasy is an oil on canvas piece. This piece was an 8’ x 12’ that took up an entire wall. This piece was inspired by the Renaissance and Baroque periods but gives it a more modernized and contemporary look and paints himself as the subject. This painting was beautifully captured, even adding the original piece inspired by that style hanging in the background of the painting. Davis states that “no one can be too Masculine and Feminine” (Davis) and that is the ideal message for this piece. Next is The Discomforts of Home by Ari Saucier whose display filled another corner of the exhibit. This entire part of the show had a lot going on around the corner and many different types of media were all displayed within Saucier’s show. According to her statement, her show was themed on plastic pollution and the impacts it has on the environment. I think she did a great job incorporating plastics or recycled material within a lot of her works. Hayden Cochran’s Harper June intrigued me with it being the only cinematic media in the show and it also came with a book as well. On the stand was a computer where the viewer could watch it in action and behind the computer were all the sketches and storylines planned out before the scenes got onto the screen, all hung onto the wall behind it. I thought this part of the show was pretty straightforward and I enjoyed seeing the process behind the finished product. Next, I came upon Maria Carbonell’s series of photographs called Rediscovering Myself. These photographs had human and plant subjects. The human subjects are all nude in different poses, but relaxed poses. Carbonell did an excellent job capturing the models and the perfect lighting. Below the series of photographs on the wall was a table with a still life on it. This consisted of a vase of some live and dead flowers, a cutting board with freshly cut fruit, a few glasses standing, and some tipped over. The entire display gave me a feeling of peace and it was as if time was just a word and living in the moment was a quote to live by.
As I neared the end of the exhibit, the last two artists were displayed on canvases. Olivia Parsons’ media was oil on canvas with two pieces with her first being called August 17th: Hope for Tomorrow and her second one, July 3rd: I’m Only Good as Being Young. This exhibit of six canvases hung on the wall, all varying in a different size. One is a painting of the clouds capturing the moment when the sun is setting and almost shining through the clouds from behind it and one is some young kids lying on a blanket in a grassy meadow talking and enjoying life. There is one canvas of water ripple waves just moving together and layered in front of that canvas is a girl sleeping what looks to be past noon, as if she has no motivation to get up. The last two canvases are one of greenery from what looks like a beach or some exotic place. And the other canvas is of very young children maybe around the age of five or six gathered around one boy whos blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. All of these paintings seem to capture everyday moments of life and time. Kat Cunningham’s Foraging for Mushrooms is what looks to be a love for mushrooms by the artist. The colors of the fungi are so vibrant and the way she captured them onto the canvas looks like the artist is studying the variety of different plants and mushrooms out there. Lakota Franklin’s exhibit was in a separate room near the larger room. Once I walked into this room, it felt like the entire mood became eerie and dark. To the left, there was a cross with flowers on it and around it that looked like the usual memorial marker for a deadly car crash by the side of the road. As my eyes made it up the wall and around the corner, there was red paint all over the walls with no real pattern of where it was being placed. It looked chaotically placed and slashed onto the wall. On the ground, there is a coffin with flowers and a teddy bear as if whoever was inside it had visitors from loved ones who brought gifts already. Right above the coffin were a black canvas and a black-gloved hand reaching out towards me off the canvas. There was a black string was wrapped around the hand and through the fingers wildly. According to Franklin’s statement, she wants to show the reality of mental health. She expresses how the world today has sugar-coated it to the point where many will fake being mentally ill because it is trendy. Through her display here, she has shown the audience that “it’s not fair that people will just pick and choose what illness they want to wear for the day without the trauma behind it” (Franklin) and she did an amazing job portraying what having bad mental health is truly like.
All the seniors did an excellent job exhibiting what speaks to them through their own artwork. Some messages were deeper than others, but each of the displays was so different and complex. There was not a single one that was similar in any way and that is what made “Farrago” so enjoyable. Each of these seniors comes from different backgrounds, experiences, and lives, but art is what brought them together to share this room and display all their exhibits together in the show. Each senior did a great job expressing their messages through their art whether it be through paint on a canvas or through animation. All of these pieces were truly extraordinary.
Natalie Marshall is a Junior majoring in Art Education. After graduating, she plans on becoming an art teacher with any grade between Elementary through Highschool.