2020 Studio Art BFA Graduates Gallery
Kansas State University Department of Art presents the Spring 2020 BFA in Studio Art graduating seniors: MiKayla Bond, Ryan Carter, Abigail Compton, Joey Dunlap, Rachel Halcumb, Anastasia Hoover, Amanda Jones, Stephanie Kluitenberg, Nicole Peters, Kailey Prior, Kellen Reever, Jacob Satterlee, Sarah Stewart, Nahshon Thomas, and Brooke Tuma.
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MiKayla Bond is a painter from the Gardner, KS area who creates bright abstract paintings using acrylic paint, layering, and mark-making. Her work focuses on repetition and the reasons why artists have a compulsion to make art. She says, "My paintings are representative of the internal monologue I have about art-making and why artists have this constant obsession to make art at all." Her paintings aim to talk about creativity in art-making but also in everyday life. She wants the viewer to think creatively when viewing her pieces.
Drawing artist Abigail Compton of Randolph, Kansas makes daily artwork in a planner featuring occasional poetry. Her detail-focused artwork explores social isolation, media, and poetry that gives the viewer a personal reflection of daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compton's artist statement reflects, "during a time of crisis, a personal reflection can give a unique voice in history." Compton's drawings search for accuracy and honesty and are driven by process and interest in reflection and daily routine in her work.
Painter and metalsmith Joey Dunlap from La Harpe, Kansas, makes colorful paintings that combine abstraction and realism based on music. He also makes jewelry that takes organic forms and fuses them with more man-made forms to create a work of fantasy. He says, "My work combines the dynamic and almost living shapes of the organic and the sharp and precise structure of the man-made, as well the vibrancy of colors both can have." His paintings show a dynamic flow of music and emotion that influence each, and his jewelry shows the investigation into fusing organic flow with precise man-made structure into one.
Photographer Rachel Halcumb from Manhattan, Kansas makes colored digitals prints documenting her father's brain disease. Rachel uses scans of her father's old images to show what his life was like before the disease, and she takes new photographs to show what his life is like now. She says, "My goal with this project is to help spread awareness of how bad this disease is, and what it can do to a person." Her photographs show how much her father's life has changed since the disease has started.
Anastasia Hoover is a digital media artist.
Photographer Amanda Jones of Salina, Kansas, makes black and white photos. Her images share her fear of spiders with the audience. "I wanted to show what it feels like to be afraid of spiders!" She executes this by creating a mysterious realistic scene using blur and hiding the spider.
Stephanie Kluitenberg is a digital media artist from Wheaton, KS who creates interactive spaces to encourage people to interact with each other. She focuses mainly on relationships and the interaction people make with each other in them. Unity Snake is a modified classic game for multiple people to collaboratively work together in feeding the snake to stay alive. When people are on the website they are able to only control one direction the snake can turn. The more people on the webpage playing the game, the greater chance the snake will survive. Stephanie says, "Hopefully people will learn from this game how everyone has valuable strengths that are beneficial."
Nicole Peters focuses on drawing and painting and hails from Manhattan, KS, making artworks that come from the dark recesses of her subconscious. Her large pieces draw you into the visceral emotional responses that inspired each creature. "Each piece is my way of dealing with very specific trauma while providing an avenue for others to draw similar strengths as I have from my monsters." Nicole uses each piece to give life and form to demons formed through trauma in the effort to change the narrative away from villainizing these aspects of human nature to championing them to fully develop who we are.
Artist Kailey Prior, an Oklahoma native who grew up in Kansas, makes colorful, macabre art that challenges the viewer to be introspective about who they are. Her exaggerated work with figures invokes questions of self-worth. "My current work is a method to process my changing feelings towards myself." Her prints show evidence of content beyond general aesthetic worth.
Kellen Reever, a printmaker from Manhattan, Kansas, makes a variety of relief and intaglio works that seek to explore the narrative elements inherent through the print medium. His work is a mixture of escapism, self-examination, and observations of the world around us formed into fantastical imagery that serves as the vehicle to present the ideas being grappled with. He says, "Whether it's a copper plate or a woodblock there is an inherent voice in the medium, not unlike a narrator for a book on tape, and the use of this voice can alter and enhance the way the image is perceived."
Photographer Jacob Satterlee of Hoisington, Kansas, makes black and white portraits. Using a 4x5 film camera and studio lighting he is able to capture those that have had an impact on his life. He says, "Each click of the camera allows me to capture a moment in time that will forever hold a memory in my heart." His photographs not only show the images but also all details that emerge from an oversized close up of a face, where every wrinkle and pore is visible.
Artist Sarah Stewart of Manhattan, Kansas, draws vibrant colored figures with pastels and toned paper. She poses the figure in dramatic and drastic poses as though telling a story of emotion. She first determines what emotion she wants to portray and then works with live models to create and design the dramatic piece.
Nahshon Thomas is a painter and printmaker from Kansas City, Kansas who makes sci-fantasy work informed by his gay and black identities. His hieroglyphic, stylized woodcuts depict caged abstract figures on distressed gold leaf. His prints explore the interaction of visual trickery on the eye while paying homage to the animal kingdom.
Brooke Tuma is a photographic artist who works with alternative photographic processes. With the development of digital photography, we have more access than ever to photographs and our focus is on the image content rather than the photograph as an object. She says, "In my work, I use appropriated images of 1950's fashion photography at a time when sexual connotations and objectification of women became the focal point." Through the use of 19th-century photographic process wet plate collodion, she embraces the unconventional results and mistakes that would draw the view away from woman as object to instead be on the photograph as object.
The Kansas State University Department of Art would like to congratulate our Studio Art Seniors for all their hard work as they finish up their last semester as K-State students and begin their careers as K-State Alum.
Congratulations, Ryan Carter, Abigail Compton, Joey Dunlap, Rachel Halcumb, Anatasia Hoover, Amanda Jones, Nahshon Joshua, Stephanie Kluitenberg, Nicole Peters, Kailey Prior, Kellen Reever, Jacob Satterlee, Sarah Stewart, and Brooke Tuma. You will do great things and inspire many as you grow and develop your creative skills. Go Cats!!