The College of Architecture, Visual Arts and Design held the opening reception of its senior show, “Eunoia: Beautiful Thinking,” Dec. 4 at the California Baptist University Art Gallery.
Six graphic design students and three visual arts students displayed their senior theses, ranging from small paintings and photos to 3-D creations.
“One of my bigger pieces I started working on last fall, actually,” said Katelyn Ward, senior visual arts major. “I did a class project and 50 pieces of art had to be made. And I translated it with 50 paper cranes and then I did a small-scale tree and hung the cranes.”
Ward expanded the project into a larger, 8-foot-tall tree made of Quik-Tube, paper mache, tree branches and origami paper. With the help of friends and family, she created nearly 1,000 paper cranes to hang from the tree.
Cranes are a symbol of hope in Japanese culture, and Ward said she wanted to create a conversation about positive and negative relationships.
“It stemmed from this idea of relationships and that they can be either a good thing or they can be detrimental,” Ward said. “And depending on how healthy or unhealthy a relationship is, it can be a hopeful thing or it can be something that destroys you.”
Christopher Tolliver, senior visual arts major, also created a 3-D art piece. He left his piece to the viewer’s interpretation.
“I have created domes or spheres that I will attach to the photos that will create a three-dimensional approach,” Tolliver said.
The spheres are covered with printed material that have the same pattern as the photos, allowing the different mediums to appear seamlessly one.
Tolliver said he went through several concepts before deciding on the multimedia project.
“It’s kind of like a journey where you know where you’re going but you don’t know how exactly you’re going to get there,” Tolliver said.
The students will have their art on display until Dec. 12, and the art gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
