Nature and Character in Art

Sandra Elien

From April 12th to April 16th, two fine arts seniors, Trevor Ray and Francis Maguire, showcased their work in an exhibit at the Hillwood Student Art League. On Wednesday, April 13th, an opening reception took place from five to eight p.m., at which these students’ artworks were formally acknowledged. A handful of guests attended the event, which included friends, relatives, colleagues, faculty members as well as a brief visit from Provost, Dr. Forestell. Although the philosophies present in the exhibits differed in content, they both had an underlying theme involving a person’s nature and character.

Ray’s art exhibit which was entitled “You Can’t Run From Your Problems” was based on the combination of video, and graphic design to elucidate the importance of confronting life’s difficult challenges. Ray said, “in my Senior Art Show, I created a video comic book, telling a story of humanism vs. conscience to show how important it is to deal with parts of life that you would sometimes rather not.”

The video comic book, which lasted for about five minutes, was a compilation of his graphic designs in action. Those who attended the event were caught in awe in the number of Ray’s flips and the way he performed these high jumps that were illustrated in the video.

Travis Ray, a physical education major, said, “It was awesome because he has a good video that portrays his artwork.” Furthermore, Ray added that the art movement known as Parkour inspired his senior art show Ray went on to say, “the reason I chose to use Parkour is, even though you can’t run from your problems, Parkour disciplines one’s mind to take the right path in life.” This progressive development of ideas in Parkour’s art movement entails “clearing your mind and processing your thoughts to overcome fears, discomforts, or any other problem that is holding you back from achieving what you desire.”

Maguire’s senior exhibit, “Importunate Individuality,” was about the ways individualism is not highly emphasized in today’s society. “The individual fails to recognize importance to the ‘whole,’ because [he or she] is too concerned with [himself or herself] and [his or her] personal advancement,” Maguire said.

This logic is conveyed through a series of monotypes, which are printed from pictures painted in oil color and printing ink. These images convey the concept of the “group” and the “whole.” Maguire said that each monotype or image “is made to represent the individual and their contribution to the overall image (the group).”

Students at the reception found this concept very intriguing. Particularly, Ojay Burgess, an electronic media major, said, “the artist is unique and inspired by something crazy in his mind. No matter who you are you can relate to something [in his art exhibit].”