From now until May 6, the University of Maine’s Lord Hall Gallery, located in Lord Hall on the school’s campus, will be hosting “From the Studio/2016 Annual Juried Student Exhibition,” an art exhibition that is designed to give local students a chance to display their creative work.
Students of all majors displayed their finest pieces of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art. Many of the pieces were painted or drawn on acrylic canvas and had a variety of different themes. The 3-D art included laser-etched wood pieces, ceramic sculptures and figurines and wire structures.
“The intent was to challenge myself but I underestimated the difficulty maintaining a high level of craftsmanship on such a large piece,” second-year mechanical engineering student Mason Chant said. Chant, who is also minoring in studio art, built a functioning clock out of wood and aluminum called “Curving Through Time.”
“In the past I had always done more traditional woodworking so I was looking for a challenge,” Chant said. “My friend Chris Emery suggested a small desk clock so I scaled up his idea and decided on a curved design to test my woodworking skills.”
Shannon Scarlett, a fifth-year psychology and studio art student, and Mckenzie Thibeault, a fourth-year studio art student, who were featured earlier in 2016 in the senior art exhibition “Ghosts of Carnegie Hall,” also had pieces on display.
“The process of jurying the works isn’t something we get to see directly,” third-year mathematics student Samantha Bullard, said, “But that didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking.” According to Bullard, judges selected 60 of the best pieces from about 300 submissions. “I had to bring my artwork properly framed into the gallery, fill out a form for it and then leave it there for a few nights while the jurors looked over all the pieces. For two days all of us had to wait anxiously for our fates to be determined, and then after the selections had been made, they blocked off all the chosen works and left the other part of the gallery open for the rejected works to be placed for pick up.”
Bullard’s selected piece, drawn using India ink on a piece of Bristol board, is titled “Falling on Strings,” and it depicts a woman falling from the sky with strings attached to her limbs.
“It really is a great feeling seeing all the pieces in this year’s exhibition,” Chant said. “I know that … the judges were more selective this year than they have been in years past so I am very honored to have my work included.”
Although the exhibition was open to students of all majors, the UMaine Department of Art had many student entrants from their program. The department offers a bachelor of arts in History of Art, Art Education and Studio Art and a bachelor of fine arts in Studio Art. The department also offers minors in Graphic Design, Studio Art and Art History and is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Arts and Design.
