How would you spend $10,000? What about $25,000? That's the question that two talented artists have to answer after last Friday night's Hamblet awards.
The Hamblet awards celebrate the best exhibits in the art department's senior showcase. What does this mean exactly? Senior studio art majors and minors have to do a senior show in order to graduate. They can choose for their exhibit pieces to be judged by a non-Vanderbilt jury for the chance to win $10,000 or $25,000.
The newest winner, Noah Walcutt, has quite a year ahead of him. The Hamblet grants him the opportunity to travel and make art for a year. Set to travel across the world to countries like India and South Africa, Walcutt will return to Vanderbilt next year to exhibit his work in the Fine Arts Gallery. So what's worth $25,000? Try an innovative look at musical therapy. Walcutt's multimedia piece entitled "Prototype for Sound Therapy" made quite a noise in the gallery. Literally. Walcutt's piece requires more than mere viewing. Interaction with what can best be described as a dome is necessary to fully experience the art. Ducking into the dome contraption, viewers become artists as they create music and words. I'll leave it at that. Go see it and experience it for yourself.
Walcutt won the grand prize. But the art doesn't stop there. Second place winner Brittany Merrion created colorful screen prints surrounding the idea of germs and the unknown. Titles like "It Won't Go Away" and "An Emerging Fear" with images of overflowing toilets and floating clouds of germs probably paint a fairly vivid picture of the series of screen prints.
There was such an array of work and talent on display. Winners or not, all of the collections are worth seeing. Works delve into themes such as identity, the simple life and the environment.
John Hunter embarked on a journey in black, white and shades of gray with his large black and white photos. The self-portraits were designed with a soft focus and sense of development. All of the pieces, including "Departure" and "Unearthed," seem to explore the state of being and identity.
Viewers can enter a world of light, color and movement through Alexa Gambal's paintings. The oil on canvas collection embraces the simple pleasures found in life with moments of French sunlight, a glass of wine and good friends.
Walking through the gallery, viewers cried tears of blue, green and purple. Well not really, but almost. Laura Tabor's installation piece, "The Crying Machine," takes the private act of crying and makes it public. Gallery-goers take a slip of paper, write a reason why they cry and use an attached straight pin to poke a hole in one of the hanging bags of ink; thus allowing the bag to drip tears of the identified pain for all to see.
Do we ever truly stop to reflect in our chaotic schedules? It is so easy to become chained to the fast pace, the vibrant colors and brashness of the daily routine. Leighton Lancastor slows down with her series of oil on paper "Reflections." The watered-down oil on paper portraits capture a simple beauty.
Sometimes I miss flying into the clouds on a sunny day from a seat of the swing-set in my old playground. But perhaps it is that I miss the innocence and simplicity found in childhood. Perhaps we are playing in shadows of what was, in the memories of what seemed so wonderful. You can enter the playground of your memories through Jennifer Bennett's screen-print series.
Uprooted. Aligned. Erected. Marked. Not just verbs, these words hold deeper meaning in Aimee Casey's oil on canvas series in combination with interesting colors and construction-based imagery.
The idea of going green is prevalent in our society. But still we sometimes lose touch with our natural environment. Cassie Edwards discovers the natural in her stoneware pieces "Impassioned Serenity," "Nature's Essence Bound" and "Confinement of Spirit."
Lost love. Brokenhearted. Alone. These are the adjectives characteristic of breaking up. Sarah Dennis says goodbye to these painful emotions through her cathartic series of self-portraits entitled "Relinquish, Lament, Atone" where the dark and colorful mingle.
Portraiture is a classic subject in art. Timeless and full of life and meaning. Lindsay Rogers displays a series of oil on canvas portraits with titles such as "Gladys 2008" and "Bobby 2006."
Our lives are made of so many elements. Small things like nail polish, the grass outside, the quick copies at Kinkos. Though small, everything comes together to create our web of life. McCoughan Morrison presents this type of idea though a mixed media web life that pushes viewers to identify their own puzzle pieces to life.
To sum it all up, there is great art that you should see in the second floor Studio Art gallery located behind Branscomb. I wanted to give you an idea of what you'll see, but now you actually need to go and experience it for yourself.