{"id":152921,"date":"2023-04-14T10:59:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T14:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=152921"},"modified":"2024-04-09T14:46:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T18:46:36","slug":"meet-the-senior-artists-and-see-their-artwork-presenting-at-the-2023-bates-college-annual-senior-thesis-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/14\/meet-the-senior-artists-and-see-their-artwork-presenting-at-the-2023-bates-college-annual-senior-thesis-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the senior artists, and see the artwork, of the 2023 Annual Senior Thesis Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spring at Bates is when seniors get proximate to their future professional selves. They might present thesis research at off-campus academic conferences, or, in the case of studio art majors, present artwork here on campus at the Annual Senior Thesis Exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s exhibition opens today, April 14, in the highly professional setting of the Bates College Museum of Art and runs through May 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Learn More <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read or listen to each artist’s statement and see the artwork at this year’s Annual Senior Thesis Exhibition<\/a> at the Bates College Museum of Art.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Approaching their primetime moment in the Bates museum, \u201cour students are acting on that professional level\u201d \u2014 meeting hard deadlines and taking guidance from experts \u2014 \u201cjust as they would out in the world,\u201d says Elke Morris, a senior lecturer in art and visual culture who advised the studio art majors during their year-long thesis efforts, along with Penelope Jones, a lecturer in art and visual culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Installation
Frieda Kickliter \u201923 (right) of Mobile, Ala., works with Michel Droge, a painter and printmaker who is a Bates lecturer in art and visual culture, as she installs her senior thesis artwork in the Bates College of Museum of Art on April 11, 2023. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With expert support from faculty and museum staff, who help with the installation, lighting, and other elements, the end result \u201clooks really great \u2014 a nice finish,\u201d Morris says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three studio art majors present distinctive works in this year\u2019s exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a selection of drawn and painted portraits, Jordan Wilson \u201923 of Medfield, Mass., focuses on capturing moments in time and all the minute details within them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frieda Kickliter \u201923 of Mobile, Ala., is presenting large-scale colorful and geometric abstract paintings referencing architecture and nature, exploring the relationship between the tangible and the obscured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collection of ceramic dishes by Tricia Ballard \u201923 of Larchmont, N.Y., highlights the functionality expected of everyday tableware, and brings to mind the small joys of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Installation
Installed on a wall in the Bates College Museum of Art, a portrait by Jordan Wilson \u201923 of Medfield, Mass., awaits its exhibition label. For now, it’s simply “Mom.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree different personalities, and of course different bodies of work,\u201d Morris says. \u201cEach has real strength in particular areas, and they have been able to develop those, and push that forward. They listen to advice, take the work seriously, and put the effort in. And that\u2019s what you ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jordan Wilson <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In her artist\u2019s statement, Wilson says her thesis is a reflection on moments in time \u201cthat came and went in passing, described by the impermanent details that made them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Jordan Wilson \u201923 of Medfield, Mass., a double major in art history and studio art, paints portraits of people she knows, working from digital photos from her phone\u2019s camera roll for references. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Using photos from her phone\u2019s camera roll as references, Wilson used graphite, colored pencils, and oil paints to create portraits of the people around her, \u201ccasual pictures that are not meant to be metaphorical, symbolic, or allegorical,\u201d she explains, but that capture that impermanence and uniqueness of a single moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like how pens and pencils feel as they glide across paper and how thick oil paint coats my metal knife when I drag it across glass to mix pigments until they\u2019re just right,\u201d says Wilson. \u201cI like returning to the same image over and over again. In this way, my thesis is also the material byproduct of my time spent looking and thinking about these passing moments and what made them what they were.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Jordan Wilson \u201923 creates portraits with small details that convey a stillness that is simultaneously unsettling and comforting. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By focusing on the small details, like the fold of a sleeve, or the curve of an eyebrow, she found a sort of \u201cstillness\u201d that is simultaneously unsettling and comforting. That moment will never come again, but \u201cwithout impermanence, time and space and life wouldn\u2019t exist in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frieda Kickliter <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Kickliter uses ink and oil paint to create large-scale abstract pictures. She references architecture, landscapes, and plants for her work \u201cto signal a sense of familiarity with the tangible world,\u201d she says in her statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Frieda Kickliter \u201923 of Mobile, Ala., is creating large abstract paintings inspired by architecture and landscape. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For her, the ink and oil lends an obscuring quality to the images; she paints lines over lines, never erasing anything, but layering the forms and perspectives, keeping \u201csome areas more representational, thinking about the relationship between perceived, representational, and physical spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, the paintings are similar to obscured memories,\u201d she says. \u201cThey capture the fragmented recollections of multiple points in time and space.\u201d It\u2019s also a practice in expression, as she focuses on rhythm, movement, and \u201coverlapping, isometric, linear, and irrational representations of space and form.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
\u201cTo me, the paintings are similar to obscured memories,\u201d says Frieda Kickliter \u201923. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By blending organic and architectural shapes, she creates an \u201cabstraction of a familiar world,\u201d leading her to \u201creconsider and think critically about my unique relationship and understanding of the surrounding environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tricia Ballard<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Ballard\u2019s thesis presentation is a collection of ceramic dishes, focusing on the functionality expected of everyday tableware, using white and brown stoneware fired in a reduction kiln.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Tricia Ballard \u201923 of Larchmont, N.Y., is a ceramicist who loves simplicity. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the \u201cgenerous handles, untrimmed feet, and thickly rimmed pots\u201d in work by potter Clary Illian, Ballard wants her work to \u201cappear refined, but I also enjoy leaving evidence of its handmade quality through a thumbprint at each handle\u2019s attachment,\u201d she says in her statement. \u201cOn some pots, I have drawn with slip or stain on their rounded surfaces. For others, a single glaze works best to highlight the underlying beauty of the throwing process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Bates, she worked mostly with watercolors and drawings, and she has enjoyed the tactile experience of working with ceramics, and gained an appreciation for the \u201csubtle delights that exist within a daily routine and am inspired by homes filled with personal art. I hope the utilitarian nature of my art invites others to appreciate the connection between pottery, food, and small joys hidden in the everyday.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Installation
Tricia Ballard \u201923 carries some of her ceramics while installing her show at the Bates Museum of Art on April 11, 2023. She wants her work to \u201cappear refined, but I also enjoy leaving evidence of its handmade quality.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Approaching their primetime moment in the Bates College Museum of Art \u2014 the Annual Senior Thesis Exhibition \u2014 this year’s studio art majors “are acting on that professional level,” says their faculty adviser, Elke Morris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":152982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010,11012],"tags":[11341],"class_list":["post-152921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-student-life","tag-senior-thesis-exhibition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152921"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161897,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152921\/revisions\/161897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}