On-campus art exhibits mark the year’s end

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The Bachelor of Fine Arts shows are the culmination of senior projects for most student artists. The exhibits will be on display in the UVU Library through April.

On the 3rd floor we have Susan Purdy’s Rise display paired with Tammy Ballard’s Visual Voice, exhibiting sculptures and paintings synchronized in similar colors through May 2.

Role Play, by Laura Trinnamen and Revelation Revolution by Bradley Trinnamen will be paired with Johanthan Hussey’s artwork, on display until April 22.

“The Rise exhibit,” Purdy remarks, “consists of paintings on black backgrounds with minimal paint and an accent color of yellow orchre. The paintings are inspired by artists Barnett Newman and Franz Kiline for making beauty out of the simple.”

“Rising above heartaches and struggles that you encounter in your life,” Purdy said, explaining the exhibit’s message. “Rising above others who bring you down, and most importantly, rising above yourself.”

Purdy tells her story in her paintings about how in life people fail and disappoint you, but in the end one has to rise above it all.

Laura Trinnamen’s genesis of Role Play goes back to a hobby of fashion and clothing design as a young girl. She also explained that her exhibit is inspired by playing dress up.

Her art professor says Laura Trinnamen highlights the paradoxes of the varied roles we play in our own lives through her art.

“They remind us of our own dual natures, paradoxes, and even hypocrisies,” the professor, who would like to remain anonymous, said. “What we see in her images might even be a reflection of what we perceive in our own lives-illusions and fantasy, equality and independence, capability and competence.”

Brad Trinnamen’s Revelation Revolution covers themes from the Christian art world hidden in the book of Revelations. According to his bibliography he was inspired by his youth in the Bible Belt in South Carolina.

“Brad has combined his love for the visual purity of Byzantine art and the rich iconographic tradition from that period with modern graphic design techniques and printmaking,” his bibliography states.

Visual Voice consists of unusual sculptures made from chips of aluminum, fragments of barbed wire, medical tools, uniform buttons, and scraps of metal.

“We live in a beautiful world, but we also live in a dangerous time,” Ballard said.

In the commons in the student center one can find Andrea Christensen’s art depicting reality through graffiti.

According to Christensen, the art work is self-revealing of his teenage years growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

“I am exploring what ‘real’ means. I went to look further, past the appearance of objects. What is real is more than just how objects appear . visual descriptions of what I collectively experience with my body, mind, and sprit,” Christensen said.

He invites the viewers to look beyond the visual presentation to see a fusion unfold of all experiences and go closer to what is real.