University of Idaho Art and Design graduate students exhibited their artworks with a hint of light on campus this month in Ridenbaugh Hall.
“Light Show” featured 10 different artists who created art with light through the exploration of materials or artworks they’ve been working on.
Professor Michael Sonnichsen, who teaches first and second year Master of Fine Arts students in Art 507, helped students in the light show.
“Logan Brashar and another grad student, Ashley Vaughn, offered a theme for the show. They were able to steer a project or two into this light theme,” Sonnichsen said.
Lindsay Trombley | Argonaut
Logan Brashar’s “On the Brighter Side (State of Affairs)”
Brashar said she and Vaughn wanted to use light on artworks as a physical form to enhance their work.
“We left it ambiguous so that artists could interpret and bring their own thoughts to the show on how they interpret light,” Brashar said.
MFA graduate students at UI have their own gallery space, have the opportunity to teach art and architecture to undergraduate students on campus and can explore their own art skills. Showing their work in galleries gives them an advantage when they finish school.
“This is part of what we are training them to do, is to be able to place their work in a gallery setting and have it look its very best. It’s a part of their education,” Sonnichsen said.
Besides being a part of the education process, Brashar said the students had fun participating in this experience as well.
“We are like a family, the grad students, and we all participated in the installation and painting,” Brashar said.
Brashar, who has been an artist for 11 years, displayed her piece “On the Brighter Side (State of Affairs)” in the show. She said her preferred mediums are ceramics, encaustic wax and printmaking. She said she decided to combine encaustic wax with her ceramic skills to provide impact on her work.
“I went to the Women’s March this year and it really inspired me to create this piece and talk about the woman’s form. The symbol of fertility and life and with regards to the honeybee situation happening in the United States right now,” Brashar said.
She said she’s inspired by situations that are happening in the U.S. right now and wants to bring attention to these issues. In her “Light Show” piece she used directional movement to shed light on the situation.
“I played with light in my work to think about the brighter side of the situation. The piece itself, it goes from like death to kind of life, almost, with the colors and the directional movement. Because it’s going in an upward directional movement we are expected to end on a happy note,” Brashar said.
She said she thinks the best part of being a part of the gallery exhibition was seeing students across the university show up on opening night to see their work.
“There was one guy, he’s not a student. He comes every other year or so and he said that it was the best show he’s seen the past eight years,” Brashar said.
Art has always been an important part of her life and continues to be every day, she said. She said art gives her a sense of purpose and she wanted to share it with students through her work. Brashar said she wants to be a college art professor someday as well as a working artist.
“Especially teaching art foundation classes it’s great to see students come in that have little to no art experience and see them grow tremendously doing sketchbook assignments, pushing themselves, taking risks, getting out of their comfort zone, learning more about themselves by having fun too,” Brashar said.
Brashar said aspiring artists at the university should not give up their passions.
“Don’t give up and keep making. It’s going to be hard sometimes,” Brashar said. “A lot of my professors have told me art is hard, and it’s true. But don’t give up especially if your passionate about it. You’ll find your narrative, you’ll find what medium speaks to you. You’ll find it. You just gotta keep making.”
Lindsay Trombly can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @lindsay_trombly