Senior Thesis Exhibition, on display through May 25<\/a>, features seniors working in paint, mixed media, digital animation, and installation\/performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn moving just a few hundred feet from those studios into the museum\u2019s galleries, the artwork, has traveled into a new dimension. It’s now in community \u2014 alive and almost begging for conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSince they moved their work into the museum, we\u2019ve been talking about how everybody’s work is sort of bouncing off each other’s,\u201d says Droge, a visiting assistant professor of art and visual culture. \u201cThey saw that when they were working in the studios, but you can really see the conversation happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Droge pointed to a piece of driftwood on a pedestal, which accents a presentation of oil paintings by George Peck \u201924 of Philadelphia that recall a camping trip along the Down East coast. Nearby are oils by Amelia Hawkins \u201924 of Sun Valley, Idaho, that capture the phenomenon of forest fires in Idaho.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This presentation of oil paintings by Amelia Hawkins \u201924 of Sun Valley, Idaho, is nearly ready for the Senior Thesis Exhbition. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn some of Hawkins\u2019 oils, \u201cthe way the [tree branches] are painted and drawn relates to the driftwood,\u201d says Droge. \u201cThen you look at the driftwood and then look at Emma\u2019s work.\u201d That\u2019s Emma Upton \u201924 of Amherst, N.H., who used drawn self-portraits to create mixed-media abstractions. \u201cThere\u2019s all sorts of back and forth. And all of the work is transformative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Droge has supported this week\u2019s installation of the show in the museum. The students\u2019 advisors are Associate Professor of Art and Visual Culture Carolina Gonzalez Valencia (fall semester) and Senior Lecturer in Art and Visual Culture Elke Morris (winter semester).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Jay Burns<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nAmelia Hawkins<\/h5>\n\n\n\n The oil paintings of Amelia Hawkins \u201924 of Sun Valley, Idaho, capture the phenomenon of forest fires in Idaho. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Thesis Exhibition artist Amelia Hawkins \u201924 of Sun Valley, Idaho, poses in her Olin Arts Center studio with her oil paintings on March 4, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFires have occurred for eons and can be part of a healthy forest ecosystem, but are now more frequent in the era of climate change. Hawkins recalls how in her childhood summer activities were canceled due to unhealthy air quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce August rolls around, smoke from forest fires rolls in,\u201d Hawkins says. \u201cI remember asking my mom, \u2018Where are all these ashes coming from?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now such memories provide subject matter for her artwork. \u201cI portray the various stages of forest fires. From the fiery inception to the tranquil regrowth, I\u2019m captivated by the juxtaposition of chaos and serenity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAmelia Hawkins’ oil paintings capture the cycle of forest fires and regrowth in Idaho. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nYuri Kim<\/h5>\n\n\n\n The senior thesis by Yuri Kim \u201924 of East Brunswick, N.J., drew from a daydream and parallels her research into the colonial origins of Easter that has roots both in Europe and Pennsylvania. It was made through digital animation and compositing.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Thesis Exhibition artist Yuri Kim \u201924 of East Brunswick, N.J., displays an image from her digital animation project in her Olin Arts Center studio on March 8, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cI found repeated violences in the colonization of pagan traditions, the colonization of children\u2019s innocence, and the colonization of the land. I hope you consider these parallels in the viewing of this work,\u201d Kim says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the work, Kim considers how children interpret events in fascinating ways. \u201cThese interpretations are often rebutted, degraded, and dismissed by those around them. Sometimes, this is because the way children interpret things is not seen as particularly appropriate for the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nYuri Kim’s animation thesis drew from a daydream and her research into the colonial origins of Easter. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nShe explores “silliness, weirdness, discomfort, and inconsistencies” in her artwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis work embraces these maligned apostles with its arms wide open. It sees the valuable things that lay inside children\u2019s daydreams \u2013 eggs, waiting to be hatched,\u201d Kim says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Avery Mathias<\/h5>\n\n\n\n Turning a common household object into art worth considering, Avery Mathias \u201924 of Needham Heights, Mass., features the chicken egg in her recent oil paintings to illustrate how one can find \u201cintrigue and beauty in the mundane.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Thesis Exhibition artist Avery Mathias \u201924 of Needham Heights, Mass., poses in her Olin Arts Center studio with her oil paintings on March 19, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd as one who has fond childhood memories of making breakfast with her father on the weekends, Mathias wants to celebrate in her art how \u201ca shared meal brings people together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Food and people\u2019s relationships can inspire a range of emotions, Mathias points out. A single fried egg can evoke thoughts about health, life, routine, cooking, science, and sexuality, she says. Through the simplicity of her subject, Mathias endeavors to encourage viewers to bring their own associations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a biology major, she further wants to emulate the scientific perspective. So the eggs are painted larger than life to present the perspective of looking through a microscope. \u201cTo look at an object from a drastically different point of view made it infinitely more intriguing,\u201d Mathias says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOil paintings by Avery Mathias feature the chicken egg, turning a common household object into art worth considering. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMiguel \u00c1ngel Pacheco<\/h5>\n\n\n\n Using mixed media that includes wood, cardboard, sticks, and a suitcase, Miguel \u00c1ngel Pacheco \u201924 of Caracas, Venezuela, says he consciously and subconsciously changed, rearranged, and transgressed these materials to create a work that serves as a way to summarize his years at Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Thesis Exhibition artist Miguel \u00c1ngel Pacheco \u201924 of Caracas, Venezuela, poses in his Olin Arts Center studio amidst elements of his installation on March 14, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cI stand in the missing place in between. In the place of forgetting an expression in my mother tongue, or thinking twice about how my accent sounds nowadays. Or the doorway of my grandma\u2019s house in Los Teques, the positioning of the door, or the plant next to it. The crossroad between where I am, what I remember and what I\u2019m trying not to forget,\u201d Pacheco says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The body of Pacheco\u2019s work combines gestures and found materials in the act of \u201capproaching memory as an active verb\u2026 like the skeleton of a house, without walls, see through.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese are different scenes that I set for myself to remember or forget. Where actions occurred, materials and memories were boxed, carried and moved. They\u2019re about movement, actions that I propose to myself, trying to understand the distance between here and there. The still remaining distance\u2026 deshilachandola,\u201d Pacheco adds, using the Spanish word for \u201cunraveled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThrough performance and mixed media that includes wood, cardboard, sticks, and a suitcase, Miguel \u00c1ngel Pacheco created a work that conveys the experience of his years at Bates. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nGeorge Peck<\/h5>\n\n\n\n The oil paintings by George Peck \u201824 of Philadelphia are based on his memories of a camping trip last fall to the Cutler Coast Public Land along the Maine Down East coast. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStudio art major George Peck \u201924 of Philadelphia, poses in his Olin Arts Center studio on March 6, 2024, with a piece of driftwood, a complementary element to his oil paintings. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHe took no photographs during the trip. \u201cI am just building this world from the way that I remember it,\u201d he says, using themes of driftwood and fire as metaphors for how the vivid moments that we experience become memories that shift, change, and sometimes fade away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter you\u2019ve lived a moment and have a memory in your head, it\u2019s subject to change. It\u2019s impermanent \u2014 kind of loose and vague.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peck began collecting natural objects to create sculptures last fall. Driftwood becomes a focus for its beauty and the myriad of metaphors within it, such as the growth rings in a tree, which mark time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He says the driftwood and dead weathered trees symbolize how a moment in space and time \u201cdies\u201d when the moment has passed. But, like a tree, an experience doesn\u2019t ever truly disappear, \u201cbut rather lives on as its own subject.\u201d Both memory and driftwood, Peck says, change shape over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOil paintings by George Peck are based on his memories of a camping trip last fall on the Down East coast. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOlivia Rabin<\/h5>\n\n\n\n Olivia Rabin \u201924 of Montclair, N.J., wants to explore the emotions and sensations of the world around her and the experience of \u201cbeing captivated by nature and the fantastical,\u201d as illustrated in her mixed-media work using watercolor, wax, and graphite. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Thesis Exhibition artist Olivia Rabin \u201924 of Montclair, N.J., poses in her Olin Arts Center studio on March 21, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nShe is interested in illustrative and abstract work \u201crooted in reality while distorting it or finding new meanings.\u201d She recalls watching the documentary series Blue Planet<\/em>, narrated by David Attenborough, as a child. This and other works by people who are inspired by nature provide material for her art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWhile I am interested in many different things, I am always working to visualize them to help me understand how I connect them internally. In my work, I am trying to synthesize my own process into something tangible and observable. I am exploring the connections between my headspace, the act of expression, and the physical world,\u201d Rabin says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOlivia Rabin’s art explores the experience of \u201cbeing captivated by nature and the fantastical.” Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nJoseph Vineyard<\/h5>\n\n\n\n Joseph Vineyard \u201924 of Danville, Vt., created a digitally drawn animation sequence that seeks to convey the overwhelming physical and emotional intensity of a panic attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Thesis Exhibition artist Joseph Vineyard \u201924 of Danville, Vt., poses in the Olin Arts Center photography darkroom illuminated by an infrared safe light on March 21, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhile it’s not possible to convey the universal experience of a panic attack, Vineyard hopes to help those who have never experienced one get a sense of what it is like and to offer affirmation for those who have experienced one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vineyard explains it can make one feel as if \u201ctheir bodies feel suffocated and out of control as if something else has taken over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cArt to me is a gateway into an alternate world, a place for the viewer to get lost in and find an experience that reflects or is unlike their own,\u201d Vineyard says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJoseph Vineyard created an animation sequence that seeks to convey the overwhelming physical and emotional intensity of a panic attack. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nEmma Upton<\/h5>\n\n\n\n Emma Upton \u201924 of Amherst, N.H. processed emotions from the Oct. 25 shootings in Lewiston through her mixed-media artwork to express \u201cthe sorrow, fear, and mourning\u201d she witnessed in her community following the tragedy. It also is a personal expression of her experience during the lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Thesis Exhibition artist Emma Upton \u201924 of Amherst, N.H., holds self-portrait drawings in her Olin Arts Center studio on March 5, 2024. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cIn the days that followed, I found myself in a state of numb disbelief within the surreal limbo of lockdown. In an attempt to process my emotions, I turned to art. I created a series of 50 continuous line self-portraits that seek to illustrate my internal state of sorrow and uncertainty. These portraits became the foundation of my work which involved abstracting the original self-portraits using a variety of techniques and mediums,\u201d Upton says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She found abstract forms within the interconnected lines of her self portraits to create a series of new abstract portraits that she then layered with pages from magazines that she later trimmed to reveal areas of light. Stained glass that is also used in the work, she says, creates a \u201ctransparent effect and enables the use of lighting that is a uniting element within this series,\u201d while the use of mirrors incorporate the viewers into the artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEmma Upton uses mixed-media artwork to express \u201cthe sorrow, fear, and mourning\u201d after the Oct. 25, 2023, shootings in Lewiston. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe material is fundamentally connected to the initial experience during the lockdown, because it incorporates the same fractured mirrors that I looked into while creating the 50 original self-portraits,\u201d Upton said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Photographs and text about the eight seniors who have moved their artwork from studios into the Bates Museum of Art for the 2024 Senior Thesis Exhibition \u2014 a “moment that validates what is possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":162103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"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":[4,11010,224,11012],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-society-culture","category-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161977","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\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161977"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162146,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161977\/revisions\/162146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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