Art students submitted their most authentic work in the Crossman Gallery as they made their way to the finish line. In total, 22 students presented their pieces for the BA and BSE Senior Show, these are stories of four of them.
Aliyah Noh, who has Native American, Mexican and Mayan heritage, reflects those backgrounds in their projects.
“I’ve always been an activist since I was younger, and in the coming years, my communities are being heavily targeted. Many are dying and being stripped of their rights which pushed me to make this an awareness show and not just what I want to do, but rather what I want to say and say it through art,” Aliyah Noh said.
Symbolism often transcends words, they added.
“When you listen to a podcast, you have the choice to mute it, but when you look at these pieces, you don’t have the choice to mute them.”
After undergoing medical tests, Noh says they may suffer from fibromyalgia, a chronic disorder that causes pain throughout the body. It’s been a major obstacle for them in school. They said just a few sentences of typing can trigger painful hand tremors, so they have to take frequent breaks. Their biggest motivation to continue through the pain is anger.
“I am full of so much anger with the current administration,” Noh said. “Instead of unleashing that anger in a way that hurts people, I want to unleash it in a way that builds my people.”
Despite these struggles, they said the faculty has been very accommodating. After taking two medical withdrawals, Noh said the staff reassured them that their health does not define them as an artist
Nick Robson is another featured student. He originally came into college with no artistic background as a business marketing major before switching to graphic design. His motivation to change paths came from his family. As a Christmas gift, they gave him an art piece, which inspired him to start creating art on the side. After a while, his passion changed and he decided art was a better path. Now, when other family members view his work, they’re amazed, something he appreciates, especially since he tends to criticize his own art.
His instructors have also played an important role in building his confidence through critiques.
Another motivation that’s kept Robson going is religion, being a non-denominational Christian.
“It has helped me become myself, who I am as an artist, rather than not knowing what direction to go with my piece,” he said.
His favorite piece is called “Emotions in Scripture.”
“It’s not just art; it’s also me expressing how that has helped me grow as an individual,” Robson said.
After college, he hopes to pursue a career in graphic design, whether that’s typography, poster design or logo design.
The third student, Reana Smith, has been drawing since she was 10. Most of her artwork focuses on the stereotypes and degradation faced by black women.the idea of, such as saying things like they’re unprofessional, dirty looking, or their hair is too big and messy. Despite those harmful remarks, she does not take it personally.
“They’re words people have told us, but we’re still going to wear our afros, braids, and we’re not going to change for anyone,” Smith said.
Reana’s father played a massive role in her life, not only as a parent but as the one who started her art career. She first started drawing Mickey Mouse characters, then her father was impressed and told her to continue drawing other characters and make it a challenge. Though her father passed in 2020, she uses the tragedy as fuel to continue drawing. He wanted her to be a tattoo artist, and she was at first hesitant, but now she does it in part because of his positive attitude towards art, which inspired her to continue.
Her favorite classes have been drawing and painting because they helped her strengthen the foundations of her work. Professor Greg Porcaro in particular helped her gain confidence in painting, since drawing was her specialty.
She also has an Instagram account dedicated to tattoo commissions called @inze.artisan, and she wants to carry on with these commissions after college. With a minor in digital marketing, she hopes to use that knowledge to grow her social media presence and expand her business.
The last student, Sophia Parisi, takes a more unconventional approach, opting for drawing with charcoal and sculpting out of clay. While charcoal is among her favorite mediums, the art piece featuring her face was the most time-consuming, as it took 15 hours for her to complete.
“It symbolizes how eyes can represent a lot of meaning,” Parisi said. “Your eyes hold your passions, feelings, sadness, happiness, so having it be a blank stare shows how I have no thought and I’m trying to figure out how to create.”
She also said working with charcoal is a unique challenge because, “When you’re working with charcoal and that deep of a tone, it’s a lot of layering. Once you put down the hardest layer of charcoal, you can’t erase it. You can only move it with your fingers. Having the darker layers and working with just your fingers to rub and push and pull where you want the deepest and darkest is the most difficult part.”
Another charcoal piece she created was titled “Saved.” Jesus is shown reaching out with his hands pierced by the nails he was crucified with. With Parisi being Catholic, she said faith is another passion she has and wanted to portray that.
Parisi’s inspiration to enter the art scene started in high school when her grandmother recommended she take an art class for fun. In that class, she fell in love with the craft. She’s always wanted to teach, but did not feel confident in traditional subjects like math, science or reading. Now, she knows art is her path.
What keeps her motivated is all the responses she gets and how it makes her happy to see other people’s happiness. She likes touching on the whimsical side of things to make people question her inspiration behind such projects, and in return expand their minds by answering those questions. One example is her mayonnaise sculpture, inspired simply because it’s her favorite condiment.
Parisi said her time at UW-Whitewater has helped her come out of her shell. She used to be very timid and scared to talk to people, but now she happily presents her artwork in front of peers and is more outgoing.
With her new confidence, she hopes to become a middle school art teacher. Her reason for this is that “middle school is a very big time for kids as they find out what they love and care for.” She hopes that bringing in positive energy and having a fun take on art will make the kids fall in love with it.
With all these students moving on to the next chapter of their lives, Crossman Gallery Director Ashley Dimmig said the goal behind this event was to celebrate their progress.
“We wanted to take a moment for everyone to look back at the work they’ve accomplished over the last four years and see how far they’ve come,” Dimmig said.
While they do these senior shows every semester, she describes it as a bittersweet moment seeing everything they’ve done, but also having to say goodbye.
