Ouachita seniors to present art exhibits starting Tuesday
ARKADELPHIA — The Ouachita Baptist University Department of Visual Arts will host senior art exhibits by Valeria Torres, a graphic design and psychology double major from Arkadelphia, and Jan Whytock, a studio art major from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, on Tuesday through May 3 in the Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery in Moses-Provine Hall. The exhibits are free and open to the public. A reception will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the gallery.
Torres’ exhibit is titled Simplified because she said she wanted to focus on simple aspects of visual art. Her exhibit will primarily feature graphic-design work produced for class projects and friends. Torres’ work emphasizes detailed and intricate work, rather than larger, more ostentatious pieces.
“I want viewers to pay attention to the intricate part of my work,” she said. “Design comes with really big do’s and don’t’s that come together to help create good works of art. I want them to know that even the simplest piece of work can have creative components to them. Some of the most simple designs are also some of the best works out there.”
Torres began developing her more modest style in one of her art classes after struggling to design something she liked. She compared her work to her classmates’ projects and decided hers was too simple. She thought if art is going to be good, it should be more elaborate.
“I had a professor tell me that my work was simple,” Torres said. “And then he continued to say that it was better because of its simplicity.
Simplified will be on exhibit in the second floor of the Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery in Moses-Provine Hall.
Whytock’s exhibit, Home, will show artworks of different sizes, and media from detailed watercolors to large charcoal drawings. Each of these allowed Whytock to provide a better explanation of what home is to her.
“The art is connected by the idea of place and its impact upon me as an artist, but also how the viewer responds to place in their life,” Whytock said. “I was inspired by places I have lived or visited, people I love who live there and exploring further the impact of home in my art.”
Whytock said her exhibit seeks to answer the question, “Where are you from?” She began by reflecting on herself and her own home; then she expanded this to audiences at large, no matter where they are from. Whytock’s artwork features natural landscapes, architecture and artifacts.
“Home must be examined, contemplated, appreciated and understood,” Whytock said. “They are more than just exercises in memory; they are expressions of a created being’s truest self amid the particularities of the creation in which God has placed them.”
Home will be shown in the firstfloor Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery in Moses-Provine Hall.
Both exhibits are free and open to the public and can be viewed during regular Adams Gallery hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, contact OBU’s School of Fine Arts at (870) 245-5129.