From renowned faculty to graduating seniors to first time freshmen, the Dixie State University Art Showcase is a platform to display all the diversity and creativity of DSU.
The Dixie State University Art Showcase will be open until May 2 in the Sears Art Museum in the Eccles Fine Arts Center.
DSU students submitted hundreds of pieces, and about half were accepted.
“There’s art for everyone,” said McGarren Flack, art lecturer and adviser. “It doesn’t matter your type of taste. It’s a really good diverse show. Anyone could go in and actually enjoy it.”
The pieces fall into three main categories: faculty work, graduating seniors’ work and the juried student show.
The faculty work shows people what the faculty is producing.
The senior show is the senior project of the first ever graduating class with a bachelor’s of art degree.
Anna Oakden, a senior art major from St. George, combined her mutual passions of photography and ceramics to fit the structure of her theme: resonance.
“It comes down to a sound,” Oakden said. “A vibration, a feeling like when you meet someone there’s something about them that’s familiar, an idea you relate to, just anything that you connect with and not necessarily a cognitive way, but there’s something about it that just feels right to you.”
Oakden described her years at DSU as meaningful: Her experience at DSU has helped her to be more versatile. This is due to the uncertainty about the art degree’s requirements. Because of this she was exposed to a lot of media and professors she wouldn’t have been normally.
The student show is work submitted to be judged by five faculty members.
Students submitted a variety of artwork: paintings (acrylic, oil, watercolor), photography and sculpture (mostly ceramics).
Hayden Grossman, a freshman art major from St. George, submitted a photograph of the Udvar-Hazy School of Business Building titled “Magazine” that he took during spring break.
“It looks like an architecture shot that would be printed in a ‘70s magazine with high contrast and exaggerated colors,” Grossman said. “It is a corner of the Hazy with a heavy shadow on the wall behind it.”
The artwork was judged on the compositional elements and colors. A final element was judged as well: the execution of whatever the artists were trying to imply.
There are a range of awards: first, second and third place for three-dimensional, two-dimensional and photography, honorable mentions, jurors award and best in show.
Marjorie Ann Eno, a junior art major from St. George, created a painting of an octopus, a cuttlefish and a squid having a Victorian tea party titled “Cephalopod Society of Propriety” that won best in show.
The inspiration stemmed from her love of cephalopods, octopi especially, “Alice in Wonderland,” and a graffiti class project.
“It was a really fun experiment for me,” Eno said. “I was just happy I made it in. I wasn’t expecting [the best in show award]. It really was an honor because there is a ton of amazing art. It was a really good pick-me-up, like ‘Look, I can actually be an artist.’”
Grossman encourages fellow students to take a chance.
“This is the first time something I’ve done has been recognized on this scale,” Grossman said. “I wasn’t really expecting much, but I was extremely excited when one of my pieces made it.”
The Sears Art Museum is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
All the artwork is available for sale unless otherwise marked and can be purchased through the museum or by contacting the artist after the show.
“My hopes are that things will go really well with it,” Flack said. “We’re hoping to get more students to want to be a part of the art program here at DSU. We’re hoping that it will bring more students to apply next year and enter the student show.”
