Three senior students hope to make an impact with their artwork this month before they graduate.
Three artists are part of the student showcase throughout the month in Gallery 114 of Kresge Art Center. Students are required to display their work as part of a senior seminar prior to graduation.
Peter Tracey dabbles in domestic-themed scenes and Leah Karchin and Tara Klein explore the 1950s. Karchin produces ceramics printed with 1950s cartoons and Klein focuses on retro pinup girls.
THE STATS
Name: Tara Klein
Her display: A modern approach to the pinup style art of the '40s and '50s
On display: March 27 through 31
Postgraduation plans: Develop her skills then go to graduate school. She wants to paint full time, and when she's not painting, she plans to travel to different retro car shows and set up a booth to get her name out.
Making art since: Elementary school
Favorite artist: Illustrative artist Gil Elvgren
Time to complete one piece: About a week
FINDING INSPIRATION
Klein first became interested in painting 1950s pinup models through her grandmother and dad. Her grandmother would talk about fun times and her dad took her to sales and shops. She has painted 1950s pinups ever since she picked up a deck of pinup cards at a yard sale.
SN: What is your art about?
TK: It's kind of a nostalgic look back at the times. If I could go back to the '50s, I would do so, but since I can't, I (paint about it). It's kind of liberating even though I just paint pretty girls. Most women now or at least most people now think it's objectified. I'm just trying to embrace the beauty that these women have. The girls I paint aren't exactly skinny because they weren't stick skinny back then.
THE STATS
Name: Peter Tracey
His display: Domestic life in oil paintings
On display: March 13 - 17
Postgraduation plans: Get a job, a master's degree and work as an artist
Making art since: Always, but became serious his sophomore year of high school
Favorite artist: Contemporary painter Erick Fischl
"He kind of deals with suburbia, too, in a different way, but it kind of got me working along the tracks that I'm on now," he said.
Time to complete one piece: Anywhere from eight to 20 hours depending on the painting's scale
DRAWING FROM LIFE
"A lot of it's drawn from my family, my experiences. They're drawn from family photos so there's a lot of domestic scenes," he said. Tracey said his oil paintings are about looking at families and their impact.
"(It's about) recognizing people not just as a mother or father, but as the people they are. It's been kind of a progressive experience. The older I've gotten, the more people have opened up to me about what's going on in my family," he said.
IN THIS FAMILY PORTRAIT
SN: What do you want people to take from your exhibit?
PT: I want them to examine their own lives and think about the different ways that their relationship with their family has influenced them and just the way the role of the family has kind of changed over our lifetimes. It's not necessarily as stable an environment as our parents had when they were growing up.
THE STATS
Name: Leah Karchin
Her display: "Holding onto Memories," a collection of functional art in the form of ceramic cups and vases with 1950s children's illustrations on the front
"The exhibit is about the life of an inner child and holding onto those moments," she said.
On display: March 20 - 24
Postgraduation plans: Interning as a part of her art education program and eventually applying to graduate school to get a master's degree to teach and make art
Making art since: She was young, but started taking it seriously her senior year of high school
Favorite artist: Bill Jacklin and her professors
Time to complete one piece: Three hours if she's on the wheel from start to finish
"I think there's a great adventure in the struggle," she said.
TAKING TIME
"I really want people to be able to walk into the exhibit and have sort of a slower moment because life is so busy," said Karchin.
She said the exhibit is also a comment on commercialism. Her pieces are all stamped with MIA, missing in action or made in America.
"Everything that our life revolves around is no longer made here. I've tried to take that lack of personality out of my pieces and put it back in so people can kind of relate to it," she said.
Karchin put all the images on herself as a contradiction to the idea of mass production.
SN: What is something unique about you and how does that play into the art?
LK: I'm really ambitious and that ambition has definitely stemmed from my career growing up as a figure skater. It really taught me how to follow through with something.
When I set out to do something, I take it one step at a time and I make sure I follow through in the end.
Gallery 114 in the Kresge Art Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
