Emerging Art at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery displays works from KSC artists
Mary beth Bjork
Equinox Staff
Inspirations from family, ecology, and mindfulness are portrayed from the artists’ mind to the viewer’s eye at the Student Art Show.
Meghan Howe, a Keene State College senior, said, “Abstract is something new to me.”
She was able to find inspiration from observing a commercial for grapes, she said.
Howe also said, “I use a lot of greens, green is the heart chakra. With my drawings I think of auras and the colors of auras.”
“I took pictures throughout the process. At the end it looked like a completely different drawing,” Howe said. She would often go back to pieces again and again.
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With her “mass amounts of artwork,” she said it is time to share her work with those who enjoy it, even if selling artwork may be difficult. She questions, “Why be selfish,” by keeping it for herself.
Howe also has alternative plans for the future. She plans on student teaching and hopes to get a teaching job in the future.
Rachel Messersmith, a KSC senior, said her inspiration came from “abandoned buildings and the wear and tear of architecture [and I take that and] turn it into abstract work.”
Messersmith said her inspiration comes from “a struggle in life, different changes you weren’t expecting.”
Senior Rosemary Urato said she wanted to work in a different way.
Urato said her stepmother, Patricia Hastings, passed away less than a month ago. Urato’s piece “Between Two Worlds: Dedicated to Patricia Hastings” was featured at the art show.
Urato said, “I never would have envisioned painting like this.”
She also said, “I didn’t want to look at death in a bleak way, I wanted to move in a more positive way. Using bright colors, I wanted to tell the story with colors.”
Bruce Hastings, Rosemary Urato’s father, while pointing to “Between Two Worlds: Dedicated to Patricia Hastings” said, “That was her thirty years ago. She was hippish. She didn’t want a funeral, she wanted a celebration, a big party, she was free-spirited.” Katie Houle a senior BFA major said, “I draw my inspiration out of construction. How things are made in our world we don’t pay much attention to.”
Her dad has his own construction company and she spent a lot of time working with him on the job sites. “It’s fascinating to see an old house being ripped,” Houle said.
She said it is important with “peeling back the layers and appreciating craftsmanship.”
Houle’s plans after graduation include moving to Arizona and she hopes to go to graduate school. Alice Raymond-Morse said her inspiration was from “vegtables textures and colors at farmers markets.” Morse also said, “It started as images from drawings and abstracted it, I didn’t plan it out that much, it was intuitive.”
Morse also said, “People don’t look at things carefully. Things are very beautiful and people don’t notice.”
She said her plans for after school include going to graduate school.
Another artist inspired by ecological purpose was Rachel Mangean.
She said her piece was based on “beautiful ecosystems dying slowly. Consume less, share often. Pay attention; we have to change. You say it might not matter, but it does.” Mangean plans on going to graduate school and wants to be a teacher. She said, “It’s exciting.”
Kathryn Levesque, a senior, said her inspiration comes from her family.
“My family has always been there for me,” Levesque said.
“[If] viewers look at my pieces and see how much family matters in their life and look back at that now as an adult, they may see what they took for granted as children,” Levesque said.
Senior Mike Corssen said he based his works off dreams but he also found inspiration in 1970s print and surrealism.
Corssen also based his work off his collection of things he has gathered over the years.
“[I] create from my own idea, [yet leave it] open to the viewer,” Corssen said.
When looking at his artwork, Corssen said he includes balloons in a lot of his works.
Inspiration also came to Corssen through his childhood and where he grew up. “Growing up by the city [living] life by the water [that’s] in the center [and] close to me,” he said.
Corssen’s plans after graduation include ideas of moving to South America, having an artist residency, and going to graduate school in Texas.
Shawn Bowes, a senior, said his inspiration comes from “life in general kind of. My work is reflecting on the idea that there’s a lot out there in the world and there’s different dimensions to reality that are all running parallel for all of us.”
Bowes also said, “my hope is that when people look at it they find something relatable. I’ve had a lot of people liking one or the other and I think that speaks about a person’s personality in a way that they’ll be drawn to life or get certain feelings from things they are attracted or repulsed to.”
Bowes said, “I’m a dual major art and graphic design. I’m considering grad school for design but hopefully art is something I’ll be doing for a lifelong capacity.”
Marybeth Bjork can be contacted at
MBjork@keene-equinox.com