Senior Thesis Exhibitions, Part 2 of 5, Open April 8

Watkins College of Art, Design & Film is pleased to invite the public to the second of five Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Thesis Exhibitions celebrating the work of students graduating this May. The second show will feature Lydia Henderson and Katy Fischer on-campus and Breanna King and Sheena Hixson off-campus. The on-campus opening reception will take place on April 8 from 6-9pm, with the exhibition running through April 13. The off-campus opening reception will take place on April 8 from 7:30-9pm at Springhouse Gallery, located on 14119 Old Nashville Highway in Smyrna. That show runs through June 1. Both events are free and open to the public.

Lydia Henderson, a Photography degree candidate, will present 1 in 3, which represents the statistic that 1 in 3 women worldwide will experience some form of abuse during their lifetime. This statistic, and the fact that she knew many survivors of violent or abusive situations, is what inspired her to create the work. Henderson’s exhibit includes fifteen portraits total, presented as triptychs, of women of various ages and walks of life. Paired with the images are phrases the artist gathered, from women she knew personally, expressing feelings and thoughts about their experiences of violence or abuse. Henderson notes that “I just want people, especially women, to realize that it doesn't matter how young or old you are, your economic status, or what color your skin is. With a statistic like '1 in 3,' it really can happen to any woman.” Henderson grew up in Knoxville and attended the Vine Middle Performing Arts and Sciences Magnet School. She graduated from White Station High School in Memphis, TN, where she was an active participant in the arts as well as the GLBT youth organization MAGY (Memphis Area Gay Youth). Her work, conceptually driven, tends to gravitate towards GLBT and women's issues as well as body image and identity.

Katy Fischer, a Fine Art major, will present Subversive Habits.In this exhibition, viewers are offered the chance to take a look inside the process of the art and compare for themselves which is more aesthetically and emotionally pleasing to them - the ‘art’ or the ‘mess’. Fischer’s exhibit will feature a multitude of work, some nearly‐finished and some sketches taken from her studio, which will be placed directly in the gallery, bringing the aura of the process into the space. The work will be brought together by a series of large collages. Fischer, a native of Indiana, grew up in Evansville. She graduated from Reitz Memorial High School where she took classes in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, ceramics, and metals, all with emphasis on art history. She started her college studies at Savannah College of Art and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh before transferring to Watkins. Since moving to Nashville, she has been active with the Untitled Artists and Cadillac Tramp Design groups.

Nashville native and Fine Art major Breanna King will present a series of drawings entitled In Light Of. In this series, she uses process and manipulation of surface, image and figure to inform metaphor. By veiling, masking, blurring, cropping and painting out graphite renderings with white acrylic paint, clear matte medium and ink, she transforms the figure by the presence or the absence of light. She states “In either lightness or darkness, the figure is pushed toward abstraction, unrecognizability, or obliteration. However, concealment by lightness still leaves faint signs of the figure suggesting a dissolving of self into a greater energy, while in darkness the figure is completely lost.” King was home-schooled throughout her secondary education and studied under her professional artist grandfather, Ken White. She is a Commissioner’s Scholar at Watkins.

Sheena Hixson is a senior studying Fine Art. Raised in Dunlap, TN, she will present Filling the Void as her senior thesis exhibition. Filling the Void consists of a series of sculptural circular forms in which she investigates creation ideologies in relation to the human condition. Hixson is inspired both by theories of science and evidences of God’s existence. According to Hixson, “As this work not only describes his creation of the earth but also conveys the ideas of God fulfilling his own void, the need to be loved, the work not only stems from my investigations into creationism but also deals with our own needs. My intention of this show is to depict a common trait we all share and to further illustrate God’s relationship to man.”

For more information about these or other senior thesis exhibitions at Watkins, visit www.watkins.edu or call Christy Bell at 277-7403.