Ferris students competing in this year’s Honors Art Show will display the capabilities of the right side of their brains.
Honors students aim to win either Crowd Favorite, chosen by attendees, or Overall Winner, selected by Professor William Culpepper.
Stefanie Edington, FSU junior in pre-pharmacy and last year’s Crowd Favorite winner with a painting titled “Indestructible,” will be competing in the show again this year. Her love for art began early in life.
“I started drawing at a very young age, around the time I started learning how to speak,” Edington said. “When I was in elementary school, I used to even hand-sew clothes for my Barbie dolls. Since then, I’ve been drawing, painting, making jewelry, ornaments, cross-stitching; whatever I could do or had the materials for. I guess it just came naturally to me.”
Candita Cox, FSU junior in plastics engineering, will be competing in the art show for her third time.
For Cox, art is a great way to relax and relieve stress.
“I believe art, and creativity in general, is one of the best ways to express your emotions, and more deeply, yourself,” Cox said. “Sometimes I just draw or paint for hours, and it is not until I am finished with the piece that I realize how I was feeling and what I was thinking about. It really is a true freedom.”
While Edington and Cox have previously competed in the show, it’s Matt Agnone’s first time competing.
Agnone, FSU sophomore in pre-optometry, will be competing for the first time this year.
“I’ve actually never competed in any art show before, nor taken any sort of art classes besides the mandatory art classes in grade school,” Agnone said. “But when I do decide to let my imagination create something, I’ll usually draw.”
For this year’s show, Agnone is submitting a painting he completed during winter break.
“Art is interesting in a way that it can visually inspire; it’s like a counterpart to music,” Agnone said. “I think everyone can appreciate something beautifully created.”
Michelle Sahr, FSU sophomore in pre-pharmacy; Nolan McBride, FSU junior in pre-medicine; Caraline Visuri, FSU sophomore in graphic design; Mariah Shaltry, freshman in graphic design; and Aubree Berg, freshman in graphic design, are all competing in the Honors Art Show for the first time this year.
Each artist views art in a different way. For some, creating artwork is a hobby while for others it is an integral part of life.
“To me, art affects how I see things,” McBride said. “There are many times when I see a landscape or object and I think about how I would go about recreating it on the canvas.”
“Art is both a hobby and a stress reliever for me,” Visuri said. “When you’re busy thinking about how to make something visually appealing, how to capture a precious moment, or how to just make something look plain awesome, it takes your mind off of everything but what you’re doing at the moment.”
“Art is everything to me,” Shaltry said. “It’s both how I express myself and how I hope to earn a living someday (albeit in not such a ‘fine art’ fashion, but a more applicable and lucrative way). I am very excited to see both my work and my peers’ work in the show!”
“As a kid, I was always doing some sort of craft, usually making a huge mess in the process,” Berg said. “I love to be creative and make something no one else has. These days, my artwork is mostly related to graphic design, so it was nice to take the time to make something totally different.”
The Honors Art Show runs Jan. 25 – 27 at the Rankin Art Gallery. Refreshments and music will be provided. Juding will take place Jan. 25 from 6:30 to 7:15 and is open to the public. For more information, contact Tammy Babcock at ext. 2216.