Review: BFA Painting and Drawing Exit Show

By Linda Dimond

The University of Georgia’s Art Education BFA Painting and Drawing Exit Show was like one of those sleepless nights. We’ve all had them. You lie awake staring at shadows for hours. You restlessly roll out of bed and rummage, in search of something, but you don’t exactly know what. Suddenly, amid a torrent of old Christmas cards and bank statements, you come across a box of old love letters. The colorful stationery, the i’s dotted with hearts, the words carefully confessing love with each gallant stroke of purple ink – they all seem so far away but familiar. The artwork displayed at the exit show gives you this rush of familiar feelings, minus the insomnia.

The graduating students’ paintings, drawings and prints were on display at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. The narrow, cluttered hall lined with artwork seemed like an intimate place for a viewing, where not only finished products were displayed, but students scurried around working on other art projects as well. Maybe it was the lack of classy cocktails and hushed “oohs” and “ahhs” that come to mind when you think of an art gallery, but the corridor had a friendly familiarity like the halls of your old elementary school, lined with macaroni wreaths and little hand cutouts made to look like turkeys. The lack of an exquisite venue by no means took away from the show, it only made the dazzling artwork stand out more, and maybe that’s the point.

Like the one love letter from yesteryear that stands out in the pile, that makes your heart race at just the sight of the envelope because you know exactly what it says inside, Jen Ottenweller’s acrylic painting “Morning Yearning” stood out. The painting illustrates a morning sun over rolling hills with muted colors – pastel greens, blues and yellows contrasting against a dark brown patch of dirt in the foreground. The movement in this piece is truly incredible. Sweeping strokes and spiral shaped texture in the sun and ground create a swaying movement that’s almost dizzying. For some unknown reason, this dreamscape-like painting evokes buried feelings of neediness and wanting, taking you back to reminisce on the time when you were so naïve and selfish about love.

One piece made use of a unique medium. Danielle Grimes created a tapestry bearing the likeness of herself in her self portrait. Like the honest letter that your former fling poured their soul into, the self portrait is a declaration of self identity. On a brown and tan background, a black and white Danielle Grimes looks up to the sky with a dreamy expression on her face. The small tapestry is well tailored, with interesting textures of thick bumpy threads woven in contrast to finer, flat ones.

Another noteworthy piece is Whitney Barton’s abstract acrylic painting with rich colors of gold and red. The untitled piece uses organic shapes that bring back fond memories of finding shapes in the clouds with your lover. It almost looks like a girl kissing a dog. Or it could be rolling hills with trees on the horizon. But what’s that blue splotch, maybe it’s a map to a lake? Either way, it’s beautiful, with bold, thick brushstrokes contrasting with thin intricate branchlike patterns. Its lack of title and lack of concrete subject matter make it more appealing, as your imagination can shape it to be what you want.

Jessica Bennett’s untitled charcoal, conte crayon and gesso piece evokes a feeling of romanticism. This black and white drawing of dancers positioned with expressions of passion on their faces makes great use of blending. With only black and white on her palette, Bennett does a terrific job of creating different values to illustrate stark shadows cast by the spotlight on the dancers. The two main dancers are gazing out to the audience with amorous eyes. This is a representation of old-fashioned passion, excitement and emotion. This is what those letters are to you, an ideal – somebody committed to words that they loved you and they meant it.

The BFA Exit Show showcased about 50 pieces in a variety media including oil, acrylic, graphite, and photography. Painter Jackson Pollack once said “it doesn't make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said.” With outstanding artistic talent, these graduating students grasped relatable feelings of love, loss, politics, fun and relationships with parents, children and friends. But that’s my experience, take a trip to the Lamar Dodd School of Art and open your own shoebox full of old feelings.