MFA students exhibit final works

After three years of continuous creative work, candidates in the School of Fine Arts master of fine arts program will display their final works.

“It’s really weird that three years went by so fast,” IU master of fine arts student Danielle Head said. “I often feel like I’m in a time warp.”

Starting Tuesday, works from MFA students will be on display in the SoFA gallery and the IU Art Museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery.

Each venue will have an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday where artists will also give gallery talks about their works.

The shows will be offered in a series, the first of which will be on display until April 9. Artists exhibiting with this group embody a variety of mediums, with several showing paintings and others exhibiting sculpture, metals and even digital art.

Head, a photographer, will be displaying a series of color photographs titled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Lester Kannon.” The group of self-portraits is a progression from a previous series called “Mantasies,” but it focuses on a single character.  

Head said before creating works, she researches content, shops for clothes and props and finally starts constructing the scene. Each of these plays a role in maintaining her
passion for the medium.

“What keeps me coming back to photography is the pleasure I get from constructing scenes and objects to be photographed, creating characters and performing for the camera,” Head said. “I think that seeing something that once only existed inside your head and now to see it in front of you as a thing that other people can see is the most exciting aspect for me.”

Another displaying artist, Stephanie Flores, will be showing her graphic design works in the IU Art Museum. Her posters deal with a dialogue between what she calls the ultimate form of communication, rock ’n’ roll music and religion.  

Flores first started exploring the medium of graphic design in high school and said she initially made the choice to pursue it in college for practical reasons.

“I knew I could make a living doing it, and I wasn’t much for the competitiveness required of a painter or professional illustrator,” Flores said.

After working continually with the screen printing and design processes, this practicality transitioned into something more.

“Why do I keep coming back? I am a designer and I am a screen printer. It is who I am,” she said.

Apart from offering students the chance to display their hard work, the show also serves as the beginning of the artists’ professional careers.

Flores said that besides the emotions of excitement and relief, the show also offers her feelings of accomplishment.

“I feel like this is my true introduction, the real beginning, to the design world, and that is an absolutely amazing feeling,” Flores said.