By Elizabeth Langford
What is the meaning of “Home”? Is it the house where we grew up in, the family we were born into, or perhaps the people we choose to surround ourselves with? These are questions Laney Havard, a Fine Arts major and senior at Valdosta State University, asks herself as she reflects on what the word means to her. She expresses these mixed emotions and feelings towards the idea of home through her artworks displayed in the 2023 Senior Exhibition. Havard’s multimedia pieces in the Dedo Maranville Gallery highlight her talents in multiple different mediums, and urges the viewer to ask themselves the question “What does home mean to me?”
Growing up in a military family, Havard was faced with the challenge of moving to a different area and changing schools regularly in her adolescent years: “I was constantly going every two or three years moving to like a whole new state and everything.” The exposure to these various locations and the way in which they shaped Havard’s personality as an artist are apparent in her piece titled, Unsettled. This mixed media installation combines digital art and cyanotypes to create 7 miniature houses. These houses are created with a thick paper-like material that features unique prints that are representative of Havard’s personality. Each house has its own print that was drawn digitally, with some houses displaying subject matter such as baking utensils or flowers to highlight some of the artist’s interest. Other prints only use line and shape to portray a vintage, yet modern aesthetic. These small houses are equipped with an interactive door piece, that allows the viewer to pier inside and become interactive with the art. Inside the houses are differing cyanotypes, which blue color further adds to the vintage feel of the piece. The houses represent different areas in which Havard lived, while the cyanotypes inside display what she looked like at the time of living in these areas. These cyanotypes of her younger self also have an overlay of the different areas in which she lived, such as San Antonio and Fort Drum on a map. This artwork gives the viewer an insight into Laney Havard’s childhood, while also giving the viewer insight into her interest and her personality created by living in these areas.
As a multimedia artist, Harvard says she draws inspiration from the people around her. With her father helping her develop a love for photography at an early age, and support from her fellow artistic and creative friends and peers in college Havard says, “The people around me inspire me to make art, especially being in this building there’s a lot of great creative people especially the staff like Evelyn Davis Walker and Mark Errol. They’re so great and they are always really encouraging as well as the students, we have a really good community here and we all support each other and having that supporting community really makes you thrive.” This feeling of community and support from fellow peers is apparent in Havard’s photography series titled, “Dinner Table.” The photographs hang in the corner of the gallery in front of an army green dining table, accompanied by a table, chair, candlestick, and eating utensils. The scene set forth by the artist is yet again immersive as if she is inviting you to experience what home is to her. The photographs depict baked goods and Havard’s friends in various poses sitting at a dinner table. This subject further invites the viewer to learn about Havard’s passion for baking and her peers. These passions are indictive of the interest of Havard and display what creates a sense of home for her.
Havard’s final piece in the exhibition titled, Shaping my Home’ furthers the viewer’s insight into Havard’s struggle to form her own meaning for the word Home. This multimedia piece uses vinyl, wood, and wallpaper, to create the imagery of a two-dimensional house. The audience is then allowed to immerse themselves in this artwork by adding ceramic spoons created by Havard herself onto the house. The ceramic spoons feature naturalistic muted colors, with the occasional vibrant yellow or green that further the safe, nurturing, and vintage feel found in all of Havard’s exhibition pieces. Havard describes the theme for this piece as “about trying to discover what home means to me and how other people influence my idea of home. The spoons will be a symbol of people coming up and adding to my idea of home with all their uniqueness and everything. So, it is really about connections, family, and building that idea for myself of what I want to make my home like in the future.” In this artwork, Havard shows how her idea of home is not influenced by location but by the support and actions of others. The audience’s addition of the spoons to the artwork represents how the artist wants to connect with the viewer, whether that be with the shared interest of baking, or the idea of encouraging others to pursue their passions.
Through this exhibition Laney Havard is able to represent her inner turmoil regarding home and the loved ones who create that for us. This exhibition, in my eyes, explores the views of someone, specifically a woman in the 21st century, and the struggle she faces as she grows out of the meaning of home that loved ones have created for her and begins to explore her interest and passions to find her own definition of this word. “Home” seems like such a simple word with an even simpler definition, yet Laney Havard uses her skill in multiple mediums to challenge the viewer’s idea of home and simultaneously her own.
Published by Elizabeth Langford, a Fine Arts major and sophomore at Valdosta State University.