The University of Maine at Presque Isle Fine Art Program faculty members are pleased to announce the BFA Student Mini-Show, an event developed through the 2014 Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition course. The Mini-Show exhibition will be hosted in the Pullen Art Gallery from Dec. 5, 2014, through Jan. 20, 2015. An opening reception will be held during the First Friday Art Walk on Dec. 5 from 6-8 p.m. Artists will conduct a short gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend this free event.
The Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition, a six credit, academic-year-long course, is a capstone to UMPI’s BFA program. The rigorous course of study is unique to most statewide BFA programs. The Senior Show allows enrolled students to have an experience similar to a graduate school environment. Students are required to prepare a body of work for the solo exhibition and defend it, orally and in writing, in order to graduate. The Mini-Show is meant to provide a sneak peek for the public as to what they will see during the Spring Exhibition season, as well as provide students with exhibition experience that will help them prepare for their Senior Shows.
The students featured this year are Jessalyn Levesque, Dylan Markie, Renee Moore, and Chelsea Searles.
Jessalyn Levesque is a mixed media artist who works in multiple mediums, but is currently studying the relationship between plaster gauze and silk. The main focus of her work is development of identity, loss of identity, and reconstruction of identity through the investigation of loss and attachment in the familial unit.
Dylan Markie is a Christian artist who prefers working with scrap materials that he finds. He considers himself to be a combination of both a fine and folk artist. In this body of work, he is focusing on the spiritual peace that God can provide using his struggles with stress and his journey to find peace as a personal testimony.
Renee Moore is a painter. Her chosen medium is acrylic paint. Her highly colorful body of work explores the hopefulness that daydreams and memories can bring to an individual.
Chelsea Searles is an artist who enjoys working with mixed media. Her show encompasses the beauty between life and death through the juxtaposition of skull and flower imagery. She also utilizes pattern to illustrate the cycle of life in her work.
Members of the campus and community are invited to view the exhibition that will be on display in the Pullen Art Gallery in December and January. The Dec. 5 reception is free and light refreshments will be served. For additional information, please contact Heather Sincavage, UMPI Assistant Professor of Fine Art, at heather.sincavage@maine.edu.