By Rachael Flora, Arts and Entertainment Editor
“Chronic Hyperreality” closed out a successful series of senior shows on April 18. The six participating seniors presented an extensive collection of pieces of various themes and mediums.
Lydia Craddock, Megan Stucky, Allen Love, Lisa Co, Fiona Johné and Kayla Van Sice are all art seniors graduating in less than a month, and this show served as their capstone requirement.
“Chronic Hyperreality is the fusion of fiction and reality,” Craddock said.
Craddock, who Co named as the leader of the show, presented several different pottery pieces from stoneware to sculpture. Her work reflected her love of Japanese culture.
“I’m influenced by Japanese culture because I grew up with anime and other cultures, and I really learned to love them,” Craddock said.
Several years ago, Stucky, a swimmer, was in a car accident that left her unable to swim competitively.
“After being known as an athlete my entire life, I felt kind of lost,” Stucky said.
She channeled those feelings into a theme of self-identity, which she used in her self-portraits. One of her most interesting pieces was a rotating hand sculpture with two small bees attached to it. In her artist talk, Stucky informed the crowd that the bees were real.
Love goes by the name Pando as a reference to his childhood nickname. He focuses on graphic design and photography, which are the two types of piece he brought.
“I want to turn this all into a brand,” Love said, “and Pando is my symbol.”
Many of his pieces, which include bold colors, are childlike in theme. One painting depicts a childhood memory in which Love was stuck in the woods in New York for hours. After graduation, Love will return to his home of California.
Co presented woodblock prints on Japanese paper. Her pieces had a theme of human interaction with nature, as each print featured a person with an animal. In her words, it was her “romanticized connection with nature.”
“I like to concentrate on my overall idea, which is partly that I really enjoy drawing woodland animals and partly that I feel like there’s a very mysterious connection between people and nature,” Co said.
A transfer from Middle Georgia College, Johné focuses on textile design and aspires to work in the fashion industry. Her pieces reflected her love of patterns, and she also included some fashion sketches.
“I really like patterns, and that’s what my art represents, patterns and designs,” Johné said. “Most of the artwork is doing pattern and design with fashion. I want to go into textile design on fabric, or the carpet type, like for hotels.”
Van Sice stuck closely to a biological theme, displaying works from space to colorized HPV cells.
“I’m mostly a watercolor and acrylic painter, even though I technically define myself as a sort of do-it-all artist,” Van Sice said. “My show is all about nature and taking a step and appreciating nature at all levels, from the sort of molecular-disease level to space itself.”
Like the shows before it, “Chronic Hyperreality” highlighted the extensive talent of the Armstrong art students. It will remain at Ashmore Gallery until April 25.
