With last Wednesday mark­ing the fourth Annual Honors Art Show, sopho­more Megan Luk looked at the works and their cre­ators with the chance of a very promis­ing future.

“I think it’s really impor­tant that we read about great artists. Who knows? Maybe the next one’s com­ing from Ferris,” said Luk.

The show con­tained some extremely unique and impres­sive pieces, with over 20 artists entering.

Junior Elizabeth Troost has attended the show in the past, and agreed the turnout and vari­ety have con­tin­ued to grow.

“We’ve pretty much out­grown the room. There’s a big­ger vari­ety of work as well. It used to be a lot of paint­ings, but this year we have a Beatles cab­i­net, recy­cled art­work, and a lot of other pieces that are really cre­ative,” said Troost.

Creator of the Beatles cab­i­net, junior Kimberly Johnson, spent over two weeks work­ing on her project.

“I am absolutely in love with the Beatles and I always thought it would be awe­some to make fur­ni­ture of some­thing I’m in love with. Art’s a fun thing to do and it shows another side of your­self and peo­ple,” said Johnson.

For many of the con­tes­tants and observers, art is exactly that: a chance to escape from their majors and express them­selves or find them­selves through appre­ci­a­tion of oth­ers’ creations.

“I think it’s a great out­let and a dif­fer­ent use of the brain since Ferris is heavy in sci­ence majors. It’s an oppor­tu­nity to move out of those areas. It gives stu­dents a break from monot­ony,” said Honors Program Coordinator Maude Bigford.

“Art really allows stu­dents to use their cre­ative out­let. It lets them use a dif­fer­ent part of their brain and be more than sci­en­tists,” said fresh­man Audrey Nichoson.

Sophomore Andrew Grix agreed that one of the great fea­tures of a uni­ver­sity such as Ferris is the oppor­tu­nity to move edu­ca­tion and growth out­side the classroom.

“It’s more than just about learn­ing. It’s about bet­ter­ing your­self and becom­ing enriched,” said Grix.

Rankin Art Gallery Director Carrie Weis also empha­sized that art is not only to be appre­ci­ated, but is also to be under­stood, inter­preted, and communicated.

“Art is a really crit­i­cal part of being human. We are inun­dated with images every sin­gle day, through cell phones, TV, the Internet, and a vari­ety of sources. I think it’s impor­tant that we under­stand what we are see­ing and how it affects us. And one of the best ways is to get into it and attempt it our­selves,” said Weis.

For exam­ple, one par­tic­u­lar piece caught sopho­more Erika Derylo’s eye, in which a hand of mul­ti­ple shades of brown was depicted with a rain­bow of col­ors com­ing from it, seem­ingly a sym­bol of eth­nic accep­tance and unity.

“I really like the mes­sage some of these works show. It really shows diver­sity at Ferris,” said Derylo.

The night ended with two win­ners, one a judge’s favorite win­ning a $100 gift card, and the other a crowd favorite, win­ning a $50 gift card.

Judge’s favorite was fresh­man Ethan Wagner, who cre­ated a paint­ing using flo­res­cent paint, then illu­mi­nated it by a black light. Wagner him­self could eas­ily be matched to his paint­ing, as he too painted him­self in the bright col­ors found in his work.

“It was very sur­pris­ing to be picked by the judge, but I’m glad she picked up on the style of art I was going for and the ele­ments and sub­tleties. My favorite field of art is pop sur­re­al­ism,” said Wagner.

Wagner did at least a month of research on his field of art before begin­ning, though it took him only about a week to paint.

“It’s a per­sonal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of an emo­tional out­burst. I tend to bot­tle things up and this is what I wanted it to be,” said Wagner.

Crowd favorite win­ner sopho­more Stefanie Edington also said her work car­ried a lot of emo­tion behind it, as warm reds, oranges, and yel­lows took up the can­vas in the for­ma­tion of flames. The piece took her only a cou­ple of hours.

“I was really angry with some­one in my life and this piece was very cathar­tic. A lot of emo­tional bag­gage came out in it. I really like in-the-moment splat­ter art,” said Edington.

Edington was an advanced art stu­dent in high school, par­tic­i­pat­ing in var­i­ous com­pe­ti­tions and took on her own projects. One of her favorite things about art shows is admir­ing the works of her friends and fel­low students.

“I love com­ing to the art gallery, and this was great because I know half the peo­ple that entered. It’s great to sup­port them and see what they’ve done. It’s so nice to have art appre­ci­ated here,” said Edington. n