Behind the Scenes of “Prisms”
Featuring Loyola Maryland Seniors: Randi Little | Laura Yacoubi | Siobhan McGeever | Brooke Scotti | Evan Casas | Maddie Chelak | Sadie Applegate | Lia O’Riordan | Greyson Pearce
Loyola University Maryland’s seniors majoring or minoring in art have their artwork displayed in our Julio Fine Arts Gallery in our current exhibition, Prisms. The exhibition emerges from the visual art capstone course Professional Practices. The course allows the student to create a body of artwork with a driving narrative. These narratives cater to the artists’ individual and visual interests, allowing each body of work to be personalized based on a particular source of inspiration. The artwork ranges from clay sculpture, digital painting, collage, photography, and much more.
The course and exhibition allows students to improve on their technical skills, while learning how to use new techniques, and mediums to capture a central focus. The students in the exhibition have a variety of different majors and minors. The artwork seen derives from a number of different interdisciplinary practices and studies. An example of this is Brooke Scotti’s work. Scotti was inspired by her studies as a biology major and by her internship working at a laboratory. Her artwork captures both the interdisciplinary studies of science and visual art to create something meaningful that she can share with the world.
The overarching aim of the course is to provide students with the professional skills needed to create and maintain a productive career in the visual arts. Assignments that focused on this professional development include the creation of a portfolio consisting of the work displayed in the exhibition, the formation of a website, artist statements and biographies, and resume-building. The cessation of the course is accomplished by the installation of the exhibition. This gives students a taste as to what it is like to be a professional artist outside of an academic environment.
As an interdisciplinary major in art history and studio art, taking the professional practices course gave me the opportunity to combine my two studies. My work is a series of collages that consist of two mixed media pieces, one print, and one sculpture. My inspiration for my work comes from the culmination of experiences which derive from the urban space. I began thinking about the ways our experiences in diverse spaces can cater to individuality, allowing us to learn about ourselves, our interests, and the different ways we can learn and grow. I realized how different each space is and how these differences contain multitudes of identity. I was inspired by collage artist Romare Bearden, for his unique ability to capture the feeling of urban spaces through the fragmentation and assemblage of images. The reworking, remixing, and assembling of ideas and images, and magazine cut-outs allows me to recontextualize the modern world through the lens of my interpersonal experiences throughout the course of my life. Through collage and assemblage, I strive to capture and emphasize the essence of the city, intricate spaces, and the culmination of experiences to create artwork that expresses the importance of human connection and individuality.
Every piece of artwork in Prisms is unique and expressive. As a student enrolled in the course and undergoing the experience of creating a narrative, producing artwork, and installing into the gallery space, I know that this exhibition comes from a place of hard work, perseverance, and creativity. This class has pushed me to improve as a visual artist and thinker, which has helped me grow and learn as an individual, and I know my classmates would say the same about their journeys.
Come see the wonderful artwork created by your hardworking peers and learn where their inspiration stems from!
The exhibition will run from Thursday, December 1st through Sunday, December 17th.
To learn more about the Gallery’s programs, current and past exhibitions visit julioartgallery.com or call 410-617-2799. Follow us on social media @JulioArtGallery for updates!
Brooke Scotti, Slice of Being Total Thyroid Lobectomy. Removal of one of two thyroid lobes, leaving the other intact. This surgery may be performed if there are nodules that cause symptoms or could be cancerous. Also used to treat excessive hormone production Watercolor Paper and Gouache, 2022
Sadie Applegate, Living with an Orchid (Leaves), Digital Painting, 2022
Laura Yacoubi, Spaces and Places #2 Charm City Catch, Mixed Media Collage, 2022