Southeast students' art will be exhibited

Members of three Southeast Missouri State University Department of Art student organizations will feature their art in an exhibition that will display work completed during students' courses and independent studies.

The three organizations -- Art Guild, American Institute of Graphic Art and Clay Club -- will show ceramics, digital art, sculptures and graphic design. This is the first time the organizations have exhibited their works together.

River Campus Gallery coordinator Kristin Powers-Nowlin said the event presents an opportunity for the students to have their work featured.

"I consider our space to be a professional gallery, and at least three times a year we exhibit a professional artist outside of campus, so the fact that students get to exhibit in that same space is pretty good for students," Powers-Nowlin said.

In past years, each of the organizations held its own exhibit. Though it is not expected to be as big as the spring student exhibit, Powers-Nowlin thinks students are excited about the show and the freedom of the art.

"I think the students get pretty excited about it because the one that happens in the spring is the big juried one that goes in the Crisp Museum, but this is the one where they can submit anything they want, so it's a little more open-ended for them," Powers-Nowlin said.

Southeast's illustration class, instructed by Louise Bodenheimer, will feature students' depictions of American writer William Faulkner's most famous quotes.

La'Promise Stanford, a senior, will present her a watercolor interpreting the quotation, "Some people can look at mud puddles and see an ocean with ships."

Stanford feels this is a great opportunity for students to feature their art and show their peers what the art department has to offer.

"I feel as if it is important to show what we do as students at Southeast Missouri State," Stanford said. "No one would know what we're doing because we do it in the privacy of a classroom, so it's nice to have people from the outside see what we're actually doing."

Stanford said she feels students will learn by seeing how students interpret different things.

The exhibit, which is free to the public, will be displayed from 1 to 5 p.m. through Thursday with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. today in the River Campus Art Gallery.