Opening Reception, Senior Thesis Exhibition Part II, featuring Michael Jones and Justin Patterson

Watkins College of Art, Design & Film is pleased to invite the public to the opening reception for the second BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition of the season. This exhibition will feature Michael Jones – Photography and Justin Patterson – Fine Art. The opening reception will be held Friday, April 10 from 6-8pm. This show closes April 22.

Jones, a Nashville native, combines his love of talking with people and helping them achieve their dreams and destiny with his love of photography for his thesis exhibition Fond Remembrance. According to Jones, he has always loved having a camera in his hand, taking pictures of everything under the sun, especially nature. At 24, he made the decision to pursue photography as a career.

Recently, he has been documenting musicians as they create their music, helping them take their art to the next level. Through his efforts with both still photography and video, he provides them with quality promotional images and live concert video footage to use in whatever way they need. View more of Jones’ work at NashVisual.com, a new site he developed that offers a behind-the-scenes view of art and music in Nashville.

Patterson, who has lived in Nashville for 16 years, states that growing up, he was always drawing on paper or himself. After an initial focus on drawing, Patterson shifted his studies to clay, and recently has focused his work on looking at the interaction of two or more objects and the common struggle each one shares. He plans on attending graduate school in the coming year.

His exhibition deals with the struggle of a being or thing trying to deal with its strengths and weaknesses in relation to its surrounding. The forms representing this idea are intended to slump over on their own weight while trying to remain upright. Their flaws tell a story of interaction and expression that can only be felt by another being made up of its own story. Driving his work is a quote by Desmond Tutu – “A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.”

For more information about these exhibits, please contact Christy Stone at 615-277-7403 or visit www.watkins.edu. Gallery hours are M-F 9am-8pm, Sat 10am-4pm and Sun 2-4pm.