In an effort to build necessary skills and advance their careers in art, art and design students enrolled in ART 399 Professional Practices have participated in an experiential art exhibit.

The Professional Blend XIII exhibit is part of a series of exhibits hosted every semester by students in ART 399. Students enrolled in the course learn how to prepare artist statements, resumes, biographies, press releases and cover letters.

The goal of this exhibit was to connect what students have learned in assignments to the real world, according to Gallery Director T. Micheal Martin’s statement.

“The course orients students around the skillsets they have acquired through their studies,” Martin wrote in the gallery statement. “Presenting this exhibition of their works amplifies the learning experiences in the course and directly connects those assignments to their studio practice.”

In addition to giving students a chance to have their artwork exhibited, the Professional Blend exhibit also taught students how to arrange and install artwork.

Senior graphic design major Skyler Pointer says the exhibit provides unique learning experiences.

“Whenever my work gets exhibited, I always learn something new, like mounting new things or taking care of vinyl,” Pointer said. “I also got to learn a little bit behind the scenes when it comes to having your work featured in the gallery or any gallery, and that is really important to learn as an artist.”

The exhibit featured artwork across several different artistic mediums including drawing, printmaking, painting and ceramics. Seven students contributed to the exhibit including Pointer, Christine Cox, Rebecca Curtis, CJ Nance, Molly Ramsey, Winter Smith and Kay Yount.

Some of the notable pieces in the exhibit include a pair of charcoal drawings by Cox depicting a dark fishing spider and a tarantula hawk wasp. Both drawings are lifelike depictions of the two bugs.

Another piece titled “Latency” by Curtis is composed of two different depictions of children on pastel and colored paper. The child on the left of the piece is covered in a pastel red color, and the child on the right is covered with a blue pastel color.

The figures of the children are connected to one another by a yellow string telephone with a cup on each end. Each child is holding one of the telephone’s cups to their own ear. Curtis’ watercolor titled “Presence” and wooden sculpture titled “Playthings” are also featured in the exhibit.

Yount, who is a senior graphic design major, contributed three different works to the exhibit. Yount contributed an animation titled “Puppet,” an untitled digital painting and a charcoal drawing titled “Headlights.”

The subject of Yount’s piece “Headlights” is a deer. The deer is depicted with fine, white lines, which provide a stark contrast to the black background. Yount’s untitled piece depicts a skeleton that appears to be taking a drag of a cigarette, leaving behind a thick cloud of smoke.

One of Pointer’s pieces in the exhibit is titled “This Dude is on Fire.” The piece is a simple depiction of a man, using only a few lines, standing within a flame. Above the man is the text, “This dude is on fire,” with “fire” being the only word in bold.

Pointer, who has mostly worked on animation projects in the last year, explained his typographical choice in “This Dude is on Fire” was intentional.

“Some of my work outside of animation tends to lean toward using typography to express feelings or a certain attitude,’’ Pointer said. “One of my pieces…was created to get the viewer to put themselves in others’ shoes. Things might seem great but are really not, and that is kind of the basic idea of my work.”

Pointer also contributed another piece exploring typography titled “Hey, What Are You Doing.”

The Professional Blend exhibit was displayed in the Mary Ed Mecoy Hall Gallery on the sixth floor of the New Fine Arts Building from Oct. 26 through Tuesday, Nov. 8.

To stay up to date with the Department of Art and Design, follow the department’s Instagram page @murraystateart.