Senior illustration students from “Illustration Studio III” unveiled their exhibition “Reminiscence,” as they look forward to graduation.
The student-spearheaded exhibition was held on the fourth floor of the Student Center on Thursday, Dec. 7 with music by the college’s DJ Club. The exhibit runs through the end of the semester.
Assistant Professor Cheri Charlton, who taught the class, said the students mainly organized the exhibit, choosing the theme, color palette, brochure and social media content.
“It’s like an exercise in them practicing being a freelancer and reinforcing professional practices,” Charlton said.
Senior illustration major Frances Sherry-Savage’s art piece, “A Colorful Past and an Adult Present,” was inspired by the comfort and impact SpongeBob had on her as a child.
“I wanted to contrast that with the way I feel now because with everything going on things aren’t feeling too good right now,” Sherry-Savage said. “I validated a lot of my emotions and worked them through this piece. It was very therapeutic, and I created a final piece that I’m going to leave this school with.”
“Eve’s Cool Drawing” featured a Littlest Pet Shop character with a third eye, combining the past with the current horror art style they work with. It was designed by Eve Senderhauf, a senior illustration major.
Senderhauf said the artwork started out as a rough draft on a sketchbook before being refined and completed through “ProCreate,” a digital illustration app.
Senderhauf said one of the best things about the class was the community it cultivated. The class had 18 students this semester.
“It’s full of people that I’ve had classes with for the past three years because the illustration major in general is kind of a tight knit community,” Senderhauf said. “So, it’s always kind of a good vibe.”
Senior illustration major Abbigail Stevenson’s work, “A Whole Galaxy Awaits,” was inspired from growing up playing the Super Mario Galaxy video games with elements such as the planet Luma and other Super Mario franchise locations like Rainbow Road.
“I was introduced to video games from my family, and we would play them as a family before I started playing on my own,” Stevenson said. “I just wanted to do something that I knew that the younger me would have loved to see.”
Thinking about post-graduation plans, senior illustration major Samiyyah Carter said she will look into freelance work.
“I still have other interests like language and video editing, but not anything too specific,” Carter said.
Stevenson said the best part about this experience was being taught by Charlton.
“I’ve had Cheri for three years, and she has seen my growth over a long period of time because she has just been a huge part of my college journey,” Stevenson said.
Charlton said she was most proud of all the class did to make the exhibition happen along with seeing them being proud of their artwork.
“They have been through a lot the last couple years as students and with everything going on this semester, too, I just think it’s a positive sort of end of the semester for them for sure,” Charlton said.
