SXU Senior Art & Design students unveil year-long projects

Throughout each academic year, students prepare and execute assignments based on various deadlines within each semester. However, for Saint Xavier University (SXU) Senior Art & Design students, their “deadline” has spanned across the entire year. The SXU Gallery will host two “Baker’s Dozen” Senior Thesis Exhibitions located on SXU’s Chicago campus, 3700 West 103rd Street, which will unveil their year-long projects. The first exhibit runs April 11 – 22, with a reception on Saturday, April 11 from 3 to 5 p.m. The second exhibit runs April 25 – May 6, with a reception on Saturday, April 25.

Each SXU Senior Art & Design student was assigned the task of creating a body of visual work focusing upon a theme of their choice and in a media of their choice. The projects represent a wide-variety of media, including: animation, painting, watercolor, sculpture, pen and ink, graphite drawing, digital photography, and graphic design. Exhibition planning and installation in the SXU Gallery provides seniors with a true-to-life professional career experience, while culminating their academic Art & Design Studies at SXU.

The following are students’ work that will be on display during the first exhibit:

• Myia Brown, Matteson resident, aims to bring awareness to our dependence on technology and the effect it has on our social interactions through her 18X13.75 inch sharpie marker drawing entitled, “Alone.”
• Dana Long, Worth resident, tells a personal story from her childhood and the abuse she suffered from her father through a 9X12 feet acrylic painting and video installation.
• Amanda Podkulski, Tinley Park resident, showcases the journey of losing a close friend and the coping process in her 16X20 inch oil on canvas painting.
• Frederick Vaineo, Chicago resident, takes viewers through his unique imagination in his mechanical pencil drawing.
• Roksanna Wasiunec, Palatine resident, looks at the relationship of humans and nature in her photography and Photoshop manipulation of portraits.
• Kenneth Zochowski, Chicago resident, utilizing his Adobe Illustrator skills to create illustrated posters for movies.

The following are students’ work that will be on display during the second exhibit:

• Marie Hackert, Evansville resident, explores how music permits a person to express his or her innermost thoughts, feelings and memories; and the ability for it to assist in a positive or safe expression, through her mixed media piece combining oil paint, oil pastel and photographs.
• Brittany Hewing, Evergreen Park resident, examines the consequences of humanity’s choices and its effect on the animal kingdom in her watercolor painting.
• Eva Kowalczyk, Oak Lawn resident, allows viewers to try and make sense of the bizarre visuals of her dreams through various paintings.
• Elizabeth Simon, Evergreen Park resident, aims to bring awareness to verbal bullying and the influence it can have on people through her 12X16 inch watercolor and ink on watercolor paper drawing.
• Haley Simone, Lemont resident, takes viewers on a meditative journey through the cosmos and exhibits the human form through her painting and animation display.
• Kelli Shaffer, Heyworth resident, addresses the fact that outward symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) contradict the damage that is going on inside one’s body. Through her typographic prints, she challenges the viewer to search for deeper meanings and make connections that are less obvious.