Erinn Finley
Staff Writer
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Murray State’s Clara M. Eagle Gallery is displaying an exhibit from April 15 to April 21 with work by senior students pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.

Reception held on April 15 celebrated the opening day of the exhibit where students had the opportunity to discuss their art with attendees.

Senior BFA students begin preparing for these exhibits at the start of their senior year. Then the semester of graduation, students take the BFA class and work at creating their pieces, developing an artist statement and mounting their pieces in the gallery.

Amanda Cohoon, a graduating BFA senior with an emphasis in painting and printmaking, titled her exhibit “Roots to Ridges.”

“The idea behind this is kind of about the roots we put down when we pick our forever home and also the roots we put down for agriculture,” Cohoon said. “And then the ridges refer to the ridges that are livestock grown and that we also explore.”

Cohoon said she was inspired to make this collection of art because of her appreciation for her home state, Kentucky. She said she wanted to make the viewer aware because she feels that people get distracted because of the bustling nature of society now.

River Skipworth is a graduating BFA senior with an emphasis in painting and ceramics, and he titled his exhibit “Out From Amongst the Brood.”

“My work focuses on worth and value and how we all sort of assign those things and how individual that is,” Skipworth said.

Keleigh Mabry, a graduating BFA senior with an emphasis in printmaking, called her exhibit “Sonder.” In her talk at the reception, Mabry refers to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, which defines sonder as the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

Mabry’s collection of screen prints depicted people doing daily tasks, but all of them had objects instead of heads.

“I thought it could be something really special to replace it with an object that kind of tells you about their state and about their situation a little bit more,” Mabry said. “I also think it’s really impactful to kind of be able to tell where they’re at psychologically without being able to read it on their facial expressions.”

Cassandra Caroll is a graduating BFA senior with an emphasis in woodworking and sculpture and her exhibit is called “Efflorescence.” Caroll said “efflorescence” refers to the beginning of the growth of a flower, but also a type of growth that happens on top of concrete and slowly breaks it down.

“The majority of my show is based around growth and decay,” Caroll said. “So, a lot of my works, whenever it gets down to it, are talking about those cycles between growth and decay and how they work together.”

A graduating BFA senior with an emphasis in graphic design, Shann Riley said her exhibit, “Richmond Apparitions,” was inspired by her life as an athlete.

(Editor’s Note: Shann Riley is graphic designer for TheNews.)

“Meshing my love for graphic design and hockey, I created my BFA exhibition, ‘Richmond Apparitions,’” Riley said. “Creating my own hockey team was very fascinating, learning what goes into making an eye-catching logo, team branding and overall personality proved to be a lot of hard work.”

This is just the first round of exhibits by seniors, according to the Gallery’s Facebook page. They will transition to a new round of senior exhibits on April 22.

Moving forward, students are responsible for taking their work down before the next group of BFA students set up their exhibits. Seniors also will receive feedback from professors about their exhibits.

For latest updates on the exhibits, check the Gallery’s Facebook page at The Clara M. Eagle Gallery. https://www.facebook.com/EagleGallery.